[bmcneely0]

This year I was up for a new Blackberry. I tried a couple of Storm 2 units but they both had varying problems. On my third trip to the store I was told that most of my problems would go away if I went with a non-touch screen unit so I took a Curve 2 (8530). For a couple of months it did OK most of the time but it suffered from frequent call drops as well as dropped calls when tethered to my laptop. When I was at a customer site in down town Atlanta with colleagues who had Blackberry units on different carriers we found that each of us had the same call drop problem. The signal, while sitting still, would go from 4 bars to no bars and then back to 4 bars. I did some Googling and found a lot of people reporting that. Given that my colleagues were on different carriers and with different phones, as I observed in my research, the only theories I could come up with were that one of the following must be the case:
1. There is a design flaw in all of the newer Blackberry units
2. There is a software defect in BB OS 5

I had kept my 8330 and decided to take it back into the store and have them reactivate it. The tech support guy did offer to replace it but when I pressed him on how confident he was that a new unit would fix the signal fluctuation problem he admitted that he replaced 5-6 units a day for just that reason so he wasn't very confident. After using the 8330 again after using the 8530 I found the following to be the case (for me):
Pros
1. I like the keyboard on the 8330 way better. The keyboard on the 8530 felt like it had smaller keys and they were harder to press.
2. The 8330 has better media card support. Whenever I would put a mp3 or mp4 file on the media card in the 8530 I'd have to do a hard or soft reset to force the phone to rescan the media card. On the 8330 it just found the new files without any problem.
3. mp4 files took a little work on the 8330. I had to play with the resolution when creating mp4 files to get them to work on the 8330. I guess the 8530 would automatically adjust. But again, some Googling yielded the necessary information and I'm happy.

Neutral (for me)
1. No wi fi support on the 8330. This really wasn't a problem for me, but for some it might be so I'm putting it as a neutral point.

Overall, I'm much happier on the older 8330. I sorta feel like maybe there were some bugs in BB OS 5. I'm hoping that BB OS 6 fixes the media card and signal fluctuation problems. But I'm going to let other people find out first. For now I'm content with what I've got.

[silverfang77]

I've read multiple posts like yours that say the 8530 really isn't much of an upgrade and seems more like a downgrade. It seems like in its day, the 8330 was a high end device, so supported some nicer features such as the camera flash and instant media card updating. Nowadays, the 8530 is more of a middling device and lacks some of the nicer features (although wifi would be a huge plus).

I've also read that it feels like a cheap plastic toy that could fall apart just from normal handling. Again, I can't say anything, as I've never had one, but from what I've read, I'll stick with my 8330 for the time being.

[May561]

I had the pink 8330 and wanted the new curve. The SA talked me into the Tour instead, he said the older curve is superior to the new one. I like everything about the tour except for the keys, I don't like the angled feel to them. I really really miss my older 8330, just wish it didn't freeze so much, or that dang hourglass sitting there until I did a battery pull. Any suggestions. Would love to go back to my cute pink curve.

[Jremy313]

thats why im sticking with my 8330

[qfadder]

If I had to upgrade my 8330, I think the 9650 is the only "upgrade" right now. Everything else looks to have some sort of trade off / compromise.

But, I am very biased. I really like my 8330.