Launched in 2010, Blackberry 9300 Curve 3g is a mid-end smartphone of Canadian tech-magnet RIM. It's the improved version of BlackBerry Curve 8520 with 3G network support and upgradeability to BlackBerry 6 OS.

Design:

When it comes to design, the Blackberry 9300 Curve bears a striking resemblance to BlackBerry Curve 8900 with its compact yet solid body. Even though it's smaller than Bold 9000, but can't surpass the Bold 9700 in size.
It's an excellent messaging phone with physical QWERTY keyboard like other phones of this series.
It has better Automatic text correction in contrast to that of iPhone. Its long and well-spaced keys outsmart the flat keys of Samsung Genio Slide and Motorola Milestone, but can't match with the sharply angled keys of Bold 9700.

Although, optical track pad provides easier navigation in comparison to a D-pad, it's too much unresponsive as in Bold 8520 and irritated us several times.

User Interface:

At the time of release, 9300 Curve 3g was running on BlackBerry OS v5.0, but it's upgradable to BlackBerry 6 OS, which has first rolled out on Torch 9800. this new OS makes it more customer-centric with customizable homescreen icons and easily organizable menu. The interface takes cue from the Windows desktop PC software, but you've to pass through the webs of text-based menus for navigation via apps.

Internet Browser:

We were not much impressed with the internet browsing on BlackBerry OS 5. it runs very slowly and we faced lagging and jitter on various occasions like while opening the web pages with images. Further, it provides only single tab at a time. But, for seeing smaller pics or reading text, you can use zoom functions.

Network and Connectivity:

The handset obviously supports better connectivity capabilities compared to Curve 8520, which lacked 3G but offered Wi-Fi being a budget handset. BlackBerry Curve 3G provides Wi-Fi, Bluetooth A2DP, GPS connectivity as well as 3G network, as its name itself suggests.

Applications:

No doubt, BlackBerry App World can't take on the plentiful Android Market and Apple's App Store, it lets you access to large numbers of downloadable apps, but unfortunately after paying the pounds in contrast to best and free apps available on other platform. Some of the on-board apps include calendar, notebook, clock, calculator, as well as slew of office-based apps like Word To Go, Sheet To Go, Slide To Go etc.

It also contains Facebook and Twitter apps for social butterflies. But, pre-loaded Google Map are far better than the confusing and slow BlackBerry maps.

Camera:

The 2-megapixel camera lacks the flash and autofocus of Bold 9700, hence it renders poor pics in low-light. But, it's enriched with host of other specs such as white balance, color effects, change of picture size and quality etc. these specs assist the camera in providing fairly good pics considering the capacity.

Video:

While recording the video, you can make the most of a few basic customizations. You can resize the shots in normal or MMS dimension or add some color effects. But, we found the video emailing really fine, but more than 30s video shots require USB for transferring.

Multimedia:

The handset contains the dedicated media keys, which were first introduced with Curve 8500 Series. These keys coverts the device into a media player similar to iPhone and Sony Ericsson W395.The 3.5mm headphone jack lets you use the headphones of your choice. The device displays track information and album artwork and you can avail the benefit of changing songs just shuffling. You can also create your own playlists. But disappointingly, here is no FM radio.

We found the sound quality average, although the audio as well as video players can be controlled using the top buttons.

Calling and messaging:

Making and taking calls on BlackBerry Curve 3G is indeed a cinch with dedicated call and end buttons.
We also found the voice reasonably good with utmost clarity and easy audibility. We think, that the reason of this quality lies in excellent reception.

You can also enjoy free chat with other BlackBerry users via BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging service. You can also set up ten email accounts along with push email support. The handset also integrates all the SMS and MMS messages into a universal inbox as in Bold 9700, but you may sometimes get annoyed if unable to find, from which account, you have received messages.

Battery life:

The Curve 3G is feather like light-weighted with its tiny size battery. This battery lasted during our review for 3 days after a single charge and light use with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. The spec sheet of RIM also states that battery renders talk time of 4.5 hours, standby time of 19 days and music playback time of 29 hours.

Specifications:

•    Dimensions 109 x 60 x 13.9 mm
•    Weight 104 g
•    Colors Black, Red
•    Display 2.46 inches TFT touchscreen with 65K colors
•    Resolution- 320 x 240 pixels,
•    Touch-sensitive optical trackpad
•    Camera 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels with Video
•    Sound Alert types Vibration; Polyphonic(32), MP3 ringtones
•    Loudspeaker, 3.5mm jack, Dedicated music keys
•    Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
•    Call records Yes
•    Internal Memory- 256 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM
•    Card slot microSD, up to 32GB
•    2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
•    3G Network HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 and HSDPA 900 / 1700 / 2100
•    GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
•    EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
•    WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, UMA
•    Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
•    microUSB v2.0
•    Standard battery, Li-Ion 1150 mAh
•    Stand-by Up to 456 h (2G) / Up to 348 h (3G)
•    Talk time Up to 4 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 5 h 30 min (3G)
•    Music play Up to 29 h
•    BlackBerry OS v5.0, upgradable to v6.0
•    Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
•    Browser HTML
•    Games Yes + downloadable
•    GPS with A-GPS support and BlackBerry Maps
•    Java Yes
•    MP3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV/FLAC player
•    MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
•    Organizer
•    Voice memo/dial
•    Predictive text input

Pros:

•    Excellent connectivity
•    Dedicated music keys
•    Upgradability to BlackBerry 6 OS
•    Long battery life
•    Great email support

Cons:

•    Not responsive optical trackpad
•    Inadequate and costly apps
•    Low resolution screen
•    Slow browser


The bottom line:

At the first, we were a bit irritated with the 2-megapixel camera, Low resolution screen, unresponsive optical trackpad and slow browser of iBlackBerry Curve 3G. But, what captured our attention include its dedicated music keys, QWERTY keyboard and BlackBerry email and messaging tools. On the whole, if you're in quest of a mid-range handset for frequent messaging but occasional web browsing with excellent multimedia, then Blackberry 9300 Curve 3g will provide your true value for your money.