Let’s face it current times are hard. The world economy is still unstable and more people are looking to make practical and sensible choices. They want value for money but at the same time something that’s not “cheap”.
I spent a few days with the Blackberry Curve 9220 and my impression was that it is indeed a stylish and practical phone.
I come from a touch-based phone. I’ve been using one for quite some time so it took a little getting used to going back to a qwerty phone. So naturally I had to relearn some things but once I spent some time with the 9220 it all came back to me.
Looks Good, Feels Good
The Blackberry Curve 9220 is a nice looking phone. It’s slim, light and easy to hold in your hand. The unit I tested was black, my favorite color but it also comes other color options. Weighing in at 102g it’s very light. To make phone light it’s housed in plastic casing. While it is mostly plastic the quality is not cheap. Don’t get me wrong it doesn’t say luxury but it’s not cheap quality plastic either.
The Curve 9220 will fit nicely in your jeans or shirt pocket.
Stay In Touch
I think this is the core strength of this phone. It’s a good and practical tool for staying in touch with friends and/or co-workers. The hallmark of a Blackberry is communication. With this you can get BBM and access to email-on-the go, not to mention social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. The phone comes installed with those apps.
One gripe I have though is that the 9220 is not 3G capable. That feature is only available to the slightly higher 9320 sibling. The 9220 has GPRS and is WiFi capable. As long as you’re in a WiFi hotspot then you’re good. However if it’s just sending out text-based messages such as BBM and tweets that you might be able to get by with GPRS. But honestly, it’s the 21st century a phone at this price point should be at least 3G capable.
Let Your Fingers Do The Talking
One thing I really like about this phone is the world famous Blackberry keyboard. As much as I am a touch-based kind of person I still miss the tactile feedback of a physical keyboard. There’s something about the clickety-clacking of a physical keyboard that soothes me. Blackberry makes one of the best qwerty keyboards around and the 9220 is no exception.
The 35 key, backlit keyboard of the 9220 is a joy to use. The phone also comes with several dedicated keys for functions and features such as send, end, menu, escape, camera, volume and BBM. All the keys of the phone feel quite sufficient and sturdy. Like I said above while it doesn’t scream premium quality it doesn’t feel cheap at all.
Heart of the Matter
The 9220 come with Blackberry 7.1 OS. The heart of every gadget is in the software. It’s what gives it life. The OS is touted as the smoothest and fastest blackberry experience to date.
On the 9220 it performs well. It’s responsive enough although I noticed some hiccups on some tasks. Overall it provides a good experience.
It comes pre-installed with some apps like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Window Display
The 9220 sport’s a 320×240 2.44 inch QVGA display. It has 164 ppi. It’s not quite as good as the screens on the higher model Blackberries but that’s expected. It is a low budget phone after all. Colors are also slightly washed out but not overly.
Say Cheese
Pictures do say a thousand words. The 9220 has a 2.0 megapixel camera with a 5x digital zoom. It also takes videos.
Camera quality isn’t anything to write home about but it will do for quick snaps to post on your social media accounts.
Long Lasting
Blackberry claims the 9220 has a 7 hour talk time and standby time of up to 18 days. Of course real world use will give you less than that. However from my brief usage it lasted ok.
At the end of the day
This phone is for the practical and budget conscious user who just wants a phone to communicate with people. It’s good for messaging, tweeting, updating your Facebook status or BBM’ing with your friends.
While it has other multimedia features such as a camera, ability to watch videos, play games and browse the web those aren’t its strengths. They’re adequate at best. If those are the important factors then you should consider another phone.
If you need a practical phone and messaging device then you should definitely consider the 9220. With an SRP of Php 9,990 it’s affordable. It’s not the cheapest but it gives you a good phone and the Blackberry name.
Philippine SRP: Php 9,990
Pros:
- Stylish
- Blackberry qwerty keyboard is one of the best
- Great size and fits well in your hand
Cons
- No 3G
- Screen could use some improvement
