The Blackberry 9320 is a stylish phone. It is a beautiful looking handset. Once you hold on to it, it feels so light and you may knock it off as an inferior device, far from it. When compared to the likes of the BlackBerry Bold family, it feels inferior. However, the look and functionality is stellar. I wrote a first impression and shared pictures of the phone is my first post.
The Blackberry 9320 is packed with the current OS from RIM; 7.1. It is EDGE and 3G capable. It also has the capacity to distribute Wi-Fi hotspot to five other wireless devices. While there’s nothing really revolutionary here, the device packs awesomeness that the average BlackBerry user will fall in love with, coupled with the fact that you don’t have to break the bank to have it.
Design
The physical QWERTY which is one of the edge of BlackBerry phones. I personally like the feedback of the keys, especially as I sometimes have sweaty palms. Even with my sweaty palms I am typing and texting away with ease, without fear of having blisters.
Call Quality
The call quality is stellar. I had to reduce the volume of the receiver. I also never got any complain from those I dialled. Easy to add numbers to the address book and put a call on hold or push it to speaker phone. The calling app is very simple to navigate. It is not entirely different from what I have seen on OS 6 and OS 7.
Address book
After adding your email, you will be asked if you will like to port your contact as saved in your address book to the phone. In my own case, I said yes. I use Gmail to manage and move my contacts around. With ease, I can add my email to any phone and use Google sync to update my contacts. In the address book, you can see the last update of your contact, the recent calls, text messages as well as emails you have exchanged. Going to your contact, you can do a lot with ease. This isn’t new, but the tradition is continued here.
Music and Video Pay back
I am not a music buff. I listen to music, especially when work gets very intense and I need to relax. In this case, I decided to download Spinlet—a music listening app that is similar to iTunes. The music plays excellently. I have a song in the media player that came along with the BlackBerry 9320. The quality of the sound produced is excellent. If you are someone who listens to music on the go, you will find the music player and the quality of sound coming on of it to be very capable.
The phone has a 3.55 mm audio jack. When you insert the headphone, you can enjoy playing your selection of songs. If you are the sort that loves listening to your music on loud speaker, be my guest. There is quality in the loudspeaker too and you will hardly believe that the music is coming from this tiny device.
The location of the speakers makes the audio very clear and not disturbed. Any how you place the phone; the sound will still burst out very clearly.
Video play back was equally awesome. The only disadvantage was the size of the screen; 2.44” TFT. Even at that, I found it capable. I went out and had to wait. I quickly brought the phone out and started playing a movie while waiting.
Surfing the net via native browser
The experience using the native browser isn’t too awesome. But the browser here is better than the one that ships with the BlackBerry Curve 8520. You can view multiple tabs and move from one tab to the other.
The only place you’re going to have problem is where some websites did not format their website properly for mobile viewing. In some cases, using the zoom features, may not even give you a pleasurable reading experience. I just wonder when browser makers and website designers are both going to agree on a standard and solve these disparity once and for all.
Apps
There are apps that were bundled long with the BlackBerry Curve 9320; the likes of Facebook, Twitter, social feeds, YouTube, BBM, Gtalk and the others. I had to download other apps that will enrich my experience on the phone. I downloaded apps like; Evernote, Dropbox, Whatsapp, Afrinolly, Spinlet and Vscreenshot.
I enjoyed using the apps. The browser is better than the one we have on the BlackBerry Curve 8520 that does not support multiple tabs. The browser on the 9320 supports multiple tabs. It just doesn’t make reading very pleasant. To have a variety of option, you can download Opera mini for BlackBerry. You can use it as your default browser.
Battery Life
This is one place where the Blackberry 9320 shines more that all the BlackBerrys I’ve used in the past. I have used BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Blackberry Curve 9360 in the past. Their battery life cannot stand that of this 9320. I get a full day use when I am on EDGE only. I use Twitter heavily, emails, Facebook, BBM and some browsing. When I used 3G and engaged in the same activity, the battery lasted me till 5pm in the evening before going out finally.
Other features of the Phone
The phone has Wi-Fi hotspot that allows one to tether the internet with other Wi-Fi enabled devices; like a laptop, an iPod, a tablet and other Wi-Fi enabled devices. I am currently connected to the internet on my Acer laptop using the internet connection on the BlackBerry Curve 9320. I personally love this feature, which means I can easily give life to my iPod by connecting it to the 9320.
There’s also FM radio on the phone. You can listen to your favourite local radio station even without a BIS connection.
Overall, based on the price point compared to other BlackBerry device, the OS that powers the phone and the general performance, I will give the BlackBerry Curve 9320 a pass mark
What I hate
When you are downloading an application, it will be almost impossible to use the phone. If you try to do some other thing while using the phone, you will get the little tiny annoying black clock that tells you to wait. That one bit is what I find pretty annoying with BlackBerrys and it is still present here.
During the past twelve days that I have been using it, the phone froze up on me once and I had to do a battery pull to get it to work again. The time it takes for the phone to come back on is enough for one to go save the world and return while the phone is still being initialised. I don’t know why BlackBerry phones take that long to start. They start as if you are booting up a computer.
Minus this little itch, the BlackBerry 9320 is a capable phone for the segment of the market it is aimed at; the socially connected individual that is always texting.
Image credit: flickr
