Alternative to BB curve 3G on o2?

Disco Boy · 7 Sep 2010 at 14:22

Hello there,

My dad's been offered a BB curve 3g to upgrade from his current phone. He doesn't want a new phone, so has offered it, or anything that o2 will give him for the same price (free) to me. He's on a business tariff with, I think, three phones if that makes a difference.

I currently have an n95 8gb, which is really slow, I find, at simple tasks, opening a text message seems to take ages. I use an o2 pay&go deal whereby I get unlimited texts and internet, I also use it often to browse when I have wifi connection.

My requirements from a phone are:
wifi
reasonable camera (Is the BB's pretty pants?)
3g preferably for web browsing
better browser than the n95 (I only really use forums and bbc news etc, the n95 is okay for it, but not brilliant)
e-mail would be good, I never managed to get the n95 working with it
not dog slow

So does the curve 3G fulfil those tasks? What else would o2 offer at the same price point? Quickly looking at their website, the HTC HD mini and the Sony E Xperia X10 mini pro seem to be both cheaper than the BB. What are they like? The HTC is windows mobile, is that good or bad? I see that the Sony E is android which is quite attractive due to the range of apps that are available (?)

Van Diemen · 7 Sep 2010 at 14:35

Going by your criteria I don't think the BB Curve 3G is for you.

The camera in the Curve 3G is pants as you put it
3G connectivity is great on a BB, but the browser is useless (then again, not that bad compared to a n95)
The BB does however excel when it come to e-mail. The best e-mail phone I have ever used.

The BB 9700 has a better camera, the same browser but that is all due to improve as the BB's will be getting a new OS soon that includes a webkit browser.

I think the HTC Desire, will be more suited to your needs

Disco Boy · 7 Sep 2010 at 14:49

Van Diemen said:
Going by your criteria I don't think the BB Curve 3G is for you.

The camera in the Curve 3G is pants as you put it
3G connectivity is great on a BB, but the browser is useless (then again, not that bad compared to a n95)
The BB does however excel when it come to e-mail. The best e-mail phone I have ever used.

The BB 9700 has a better camera, the same browser but that is all due to improve as the BB's will be getting a new OS soon that includes a webkit browser.

I think the HTC Desire, will be more suited to your needs

I was thinking that something touchscreen like the Desire would be exactly what I want. The question is if my dad can get one for free. How do the HTC HD mini and the Sony E Xperia X10 mini pro compare? I think that they fall into the same price bracket as the BB.

I am judging by the prices on the o2 website, the BB starts at £100 so that is the benchmark, but the Desire starts at £150 whereas the HD mini and X10pro start at £0 and £50 respectively. So I imagine that he could have an HD mini or an X10pro for free whereas a Desire would cost.

Ksanti · 7 Sep 2010 at 14:50

Desire's nowhere near his price point...

The 9700 has a higher resolution screen which is much more useful for web browsing and Opera Mini works for the 9700, i imagine the Curve 3G will have it soon as well.

You're not really going to find a great web browser at this price point, Disco Boy, 800*480 is really the minimum for a good web experience, do O2 still sell the original Motorola Milestone? That might be more your cup of tea, I've seen a few going pretty cheap nowadays, and though the processor may not be quite up to running the latest apps, it's no less powerful than the X10 mini, with a much better screen, better keyboard and a more recent version of android.

Disco Boy · 7 Sep 2010 at 14:58

o2 don't have any motorola phones listed on their website

As for resolution, the BB is 320x240 whereas my n95 is 240x320 and I find that okay(ish) for web browsing. The only issue with the web browsing on the n95 is that it's not a qwerty and that it only has basic directional buttons for moving the cursor, and the slowness! What's the trackpad like on a BB?

My other question, which I forgot to ask before, is: is BB messenger available for anyone with a BB handset? Or do you require a bolt-on/ subscription? Or does it work over the internet?

Also, how good is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini? It scores really highly in this and should be available for free, as it starts at free whereas the BB starts at £100.