The folks out at Wirefly sent me a Blackberry Curve 8350i to review, and I have to admit, I really liked this one. And I had a lot of good reason to like it, too, so let’s check out the phone that got my attention in a thoroughly happy fashion.

The Blackberry Curve 8350i is a candy bar style smartphone with Sprint / Nextel that offers the standard Blackberry trackball, Bluetooth connectivity, mobile web, mobile email, a two megapixel camera with flash, video recording, self-portrait mirror, and 5x digital zoom. It also offers a headset jack, USB port, push-to-talk capability, built in WiFi and Nextel Group Connect to keep a group conversing. Further, it includes speakerphone, text messenging, onboard GPS, an attachment viewer for several different file types including most anything related to Microsoft Office, media player that covers a waterfront of choices including MP3, WMA and MPEG4, a hundred and twenty eight megs of onboard memory with microSD card capability, and a battery that offers four hours of talk time on a single charge.

I like this phone, like I said, and you’ve had a good look at part of why. The other part comes in the sheer control of it. I’m either getting used to that Blackberry trackball or it’s getting better at control, because I’m having a ball with this one. The controls are smooth, the sound is pretty nice (future reference, RIM–a preloaded song or two or music video to help evaluation would be terribly welcome) and the camera was terrific. The flash was especially exciting–almost like a brief shot of a full-on flashlight than a camera flash.

This is a great phone. Not as good as some, of course, but with plenty to enjoy. The Blackberry Curve 8350i is a worthwhile, welcome addition to the Blackberry roster.

The Good

Terrific camera

Plenty of options

Nice controls

The Bad

Moderately low battery life

Somewhat lacking in sample media

Score 7 / 10

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