PC Authority gets time with the Blackberry Curve 8310, using Vodafone’s Australian GPS mapping software.
RIM (Research in Motion) and Vodafone Australia have announced availability of the Blackberry Curve 8310, a new smartphone with in-built GPS hardware. Simultaneously, Vodafone Compass was launched, a new GPS mapping application, for the Blackberry Curve 8310.
The BlackBerry Curve 8310 is a device for business users, yet it blurs the boundaries slightly by including a covertly entertaining video and MP3 player by Roxio, as well as a two megapixel camera. However, it came as a shock to us in this age of advanced 3G access, that the BlackBerry Curve 8310 only supports GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), a so-called “2.5G” technology that offers significantly slower downstream performance than regular 3G service, or the newly available HSDPA. RIM and Vodafone representatives claimed that GPRS can offer more consistent “trickle download” responsiveness for mobile email than 3G does, postulating that 3G connections can have a relatively long “preamble” or “handshake” period of a number of seconds. Until we can verify this claim with an independent test, we’ll take that explanation with a grain of salt. A more likely explanation is that RIM (Research In Motion), a US company, are building smartphones primarily for their own domestic US market, which has limited 3G network infrastructure. A case in point is the Apple iPhone, which launched in the US with the equally sluggish EDGE mobile data technology. Still, in metro Sydney, we didn’t have any complaints with the performance of the Vodafone GPRS service on the Blackberry Curve 8310. . In regional areas, we expect the data performance would be quite a different story. Also, when web browsing, our older 3G-enabled BlackBerry 8707V loaded graphics-laden pages much faster.
PC Authority also had hands-on time with the Vodafone Compass service, operational now. The Vodafone Compass map view is fairly plain, a so-called “vector” display, that uses minimal graphical bells and whistles. Roads are indicated by coloured lines, and there are relatively few labels on streets and points of interest. Of course, you need to remember that all of this information is being fed live, down the throttled gullet of a fairly modest GPRS wireless connection, which would struggle with plain text web pages. Importantly, the Vodafone Compass data is free of download charges, after users pay the subscription fees ($79 per year, $8 per month or $2.50 for a 24-hour pass).
The map data for Vodafone Compass is provided by GIS heavyweight Mapinfo, and includes 7,000 Australian Points of Interest (POIs) such as restaurants, the nearest toilets, petrol and parking stations.
In a busy café environment, the audio level of the BlackBerry Curve 8310 running Vodafone Compass was near totally drowned out by the loud voices of thirty–odd people. We’d suggest that it probably won’t be quite loud enough to use in a noisy vehicle, certainly not with the windows down, music playing or passengers talking in an animated fashion. This is a complaint we’ve found with most phones and smaller mobile devices that provide audio GPS navigation instructions. You can attach headphones, and the device does support Bluetooth headset, which would mitigate that issue. Still, it’s not quite as good as an automobile solution that has a “booming” level of volume. The BlackBerry Curve 8310 also supports additional applications Google Maps and Handango InHand, which attract their own separate fees. Handango InHand is a service that allows access to online news, weather reports and downloads such as travel utilities and games.
The Blackberry Curve 8310 is exclusively available in Australia from Vodafone for the months of September and October 2007. On a $79 monthly plan, the unit is provided “free”.
Blackberry Curve 8310 specifications:
GPS onboard chip, QWERTY keyboard, mobile email application, Internet browser application, 2 Megapixel camera, MP3 player software, video player software, 1GB flash memory included, trackball “pearl” interface, stereo Bluetooth, GPRS compatibility.