T-Mobile's RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 review
RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)T-Mobile teased us at CES 2009 by introducing the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 but denying us any details on its availability date and pricing. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait too long as the carrier released the final details on Tuesday night.
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is available now to business customers and will be available to everyone else on February 11 with a price tag of $199 with a two-year contract. It replaces the BlackBerry Curve 8300 series, and brings several notable improvements, including a sleeker design, a faster processor, a full HTML Web browser, and a 3.2-megapixel camera. However, it's missing one major ingredient: 3G support. However, is that a complete deal breaker?
Find out in our full review of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and also check out our hands-on photo gallery of the sleek device.
Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones and GPS. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California. E-mail Bonnie. 
And you know what? That's exactly what's happened, and that's what continues to happen.
People out there need to develop a product without hyping about how much better it is than the iPhone. Fact is, the iPhone and the iPod Touch already dominate their markets. None of us need be reminded of this.
Just do your job. Hire good people whom you trust. Develop a good product. And don't tell us how much better it will be compared to the iPhone. If you don't do this, what you're actually doing is setting yourself up for failure.
I mean, look at Microsoft's Zune. That was going to be the iPod killer. Coming from a multinational corporation with virtually unlimited resources, why wouldn't it be? But the Zune -- regardless of the fact that many Zune owners love what they have -- is a dying product.
Tech companies need to get back to doing what they do best, and not doing what other companies do best.
Other than that I'm overly impressed with my ROGERS 8900 coming from a BELL 8330.
I wish we would get more Canadian stuff on CNET....
- by billdale August 16, 2009 9:57 AM PDT
- The BlackBerry 8900 is a NIGHTMARE. No matter how careful I am to clean my hands and to carry tissue to keep my fingers clean when using the trackball, I've only had my 8900 since June and I continue to have problems with the trackball getting stuck and now wanting to move-- the trackball needs to be able to move the cursor up, down, right and left, and if it stops being able to move in any direction, you lose your ability to access or enter some part of your data.
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(6 Comments)The BlackBerry I had before this-- the 8310, as I recall-- had a chromed ring around the trackball that could be popped out easily to clean or replace, and when it stopped working the first time and I brought it to the AT&T store, they made me order a refurbished phone via FedEx that I had significant problems transferring data to the new phone. They gave me X number of days to send the old phone back before they would have charged me $300. I was forced to transfer some of the data manually, so was feverishly backing up data before sending in the old phone... then a few months later, when the trackball went out again, I was fortunate to have someone tip me off to the fact that there are third-party repair facilities that would sell me the tiny trackball for $15. and show me how to replace it myself.
Neither BlackBerry nor AT&T cares enough about their customers to tell them how to avoid all this trouble by simply popping out the trackball, allowing us to continue using our phones and saving us days of unnecessary problems. Why? What did it gain them, unless they are sadists?
They knew the tendency for these trackballs to give trouble-- whenever I went to the third-party store for help, I saw others there that were having problems with BlackBerries, usually with the trackballs... yet, when they came out with the new 8900 model, rather than keep the same design that allowed easy, tool-free replacement of the trackball, they redesigned it in such a way that special Torx screwdrivers were needed to replace it, and if you did so, you were risking voiding the device warranty.
DON'T BUY A BLACKBERRY OR ANY OTHER DEVICE WITH A TRACKBALL WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING WITH THE SALESPERSON TO SEE IF YOU CAN CLEAN OR REPLACE A STUCK TRACKBALL YOURSELF!!!
AT&T knew of this problem, but rather than provide prompt service in-store, which would have been easy and appreciated, they make their customers jump through hoops. I have several phones on my contract, and pay hundreds of dollars per month for service, but as soon as my contract expires I will take my business elsewhere, and hope their entire business implodes just like Countrywide and others did recently.
Is there an attorney or attorneys out there that would be willing to bring a class-action lawsuit against BlackBerry and/or AT&T for breach of contract?