but overall extremly impressive machine

Just a couple of things to note…

From a technical perspective, the Curve 8520 supports EDGE class 10 connection which allows up to 236.8 kbps data speed. This in my opinion is very decent for a mobile device – especially when most applications you intend to use on the BB are mostly text and graphics intensive – ie. Facebook, Twitter, Webpages…

Just to give you an idea, at maximum speed – a 3MB file would take approximately 1 1/2 – 2 minutes to download! – that’s the average size of 1 music file…

I believe my XPAX RM2.50/day BB Service was at 128kbps – sure it is no competition with a home / office broadband connection – but it’s certainly better than a 56kbps connection we used to have during the dial-up modem days.

As for the blackberry browser issue with Facebook & Twitter websites – personally, I haven’t tried and probably wouldn’t attempt to go on Facebook / Twitter using the browser due to the complexities on these sites – come on man, it’s a mobile browser – meant for just casual surfing I’d suggest downloading the Facebook app and tonnes of available Twitter apps such as UberTwitter which I mentioned in my post – these apps provide a VERY fluid user friendly interface that works superbly with the BlackBerry. I’ve never had any problems with these apps.

Oh and one more thing, something I noticed when using my BlackBerry – if you find that your browser loads sites a little too slowly, go into the browser’s settings and set the “Browser :” to “Internet Browser” when surfing using your mobile operator’s network – this makes things a whole lot snappier.

Ok fine, one LAST thing… do checkout this BlackBerry Internet Browser alternative – Bolt Browser – pretty neat!

Have fun!
Ben

This post was mentioned on Twitter by benjern: BlackBerry craze explained + a mini review BB Curve 8520 – http://bit.ly/1V3YrY...

Don’t be too overly excited about the BalckBerry Curve 8520 and their service provider Celcom! I got the Exec50 + Blackberry unlimited service postpaid package from Celcom. Here are some of the minus points that I must highlight, as I felt victimised by the lack of information given by the Celcom Dealers before I got this deal.

1) The entry BlackBerry service (RM38) only gives you 128kbps access speed (very slow and you will pull your hair out waiting for any form of network access). You can’t also opt for the Blackberry advance package (RM98) which is suppose to give you faster access, BECAUSE Blackberry Curve 8520 cannot support it!!! So if your get 8520 you are stuck with the slow access! (This was not told to me by the dealers, so I felt cheated!)

2) If you are a Facebook fan … be prepared…the V1.7 applet for facebook is not built to support the blackberry browser! It is volatile and unstable …you will keep getting login expired messages and data service unavailable from service provider! At times you will not be able to log in through the aplet at all. Even the Celcom/Blackberry technical experts does not have an answer to this!

3) The blackberry default browser does not support twitter as well, so similar log in problems you will experience.

Have fun using BB Curve 8520!