There are many ways to say “you need a new phone.”  The one I received was something like this: Whenever my phone’s battery is at a 20% state of charge and the phone rings (rumble pack, ringer, screen all come on), the voltage sags so much that the battery goes into protection mode (i.e. it shuts off completely).  Since I want a PDA phone from T-Mobile with the ability to make calls using the innovative HotSpot @ Home service, I effectively limited myself to a BlackBerry device, and thus begins my experience with the tried-and-true choice of enterprises worldwide…

Reactions From My Peanut Gallery
As soon as I told one of my friends that I have taken delivery of a BlackBerry, the “CrackBerry” jokes began.  One video that I would like to share with you is this one: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vmEErhy7AIc For the record, I can still type in proper grammar using that dinky thumbpad, I can still shut off all contact from my cell phone when I need my phone to be quiet, and I sign off when I go to sleep.

So why did I not get an iPhone?  Well, I did not get an iPhone out of personal philosophy and because I had a deal that I just could not refuse.  For starters, my parents pay only $ 10 for having me on their family plan (1,000-minute pool, unlimited nights/weekends/intra-network calling).  As you will see later, the deal gets even sweeter.  Secondly, I like my buttons.  Considering that LCD screens are not very good outdoors, it was hard for me to place a call using a pure touch screen.  Finally, I really like my freedom of being able to do whatever I want with something I purchase — I should not have to pay just put in a ringtone I snipped up myself, and I do not like to be tied to one program for transferring media.

Getting Started
In the first 48 hours of owning the BlackBerry Curve, I was able to:

• Associate my phone with the house’s wireless network and make calls from it
• Load various applications over the air: Facebook, GMail, Google Maps, and Google Sync
• Make it mine
• Have six real meals
• Take two showers
• Sleep for 18 hours

Initially, I was dismayed when I could not connect to IM services using my wifi network, but a five-minute call to T-Mobile fixed this.  Their solution was to add a free add-on called the “BlackBerry Feature Enabler” (more information: http://www.blackberryforums.com/wifi-hotzone/98569-blackberry-feature-enabler-uma.html).  To my surprise, I am also able to IM and send email using T-Mobile’s EDGE network.  I believe that this add-on shows two things: (1) Competition is good and (2) T-Mobile and RIM are feeling iPhone’s heat.  Either way, (enlightened) customers win.

Making Calls / Connectivity
Let’s not forget that the most important function of a phone is to make calls.  It appears that the BlackBerry Curve defaults to the EDGE network for everything, including voice.  Although call quality was good, the UMA to EDGE handoff is evident with a click and sometimes does not succeed when I moved in and out of the coverage areas.

After getting back on the UT campus, I wondered whether the BlackBerry will succeed where the iPhone 1.x tripped.  The task is to connect to the wireless network using 802.1x authentication.  After parroting the configuration on my laptop and hitting Connect, I was able to make calls using the wifi network.  Being fortunate enough to have access to a network spanning across several blocks, I will have to test how well this device can hand off as I travel from building to building in the middle of a call.  Update: Inter-access point handoff was disappointing.  When I moved out of range of an access point, the call hands off to the EDGE network instead of another access point.

Also impressive was the voice dialing feature.  Despite some disappointment with it in the first few attempts, it was able to handle nearly any name I was able to throw at it (e.g. Engelkemeir).  Although the text-to-speech engine is as good as any college dean trying to pronounce a hard name, it was easy to see that the voice recognition system is not one of those that matches samples, but rather a real speech-to-text system that you would find on an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system.

Entertainment
While entertainment is the last thing people think of when it comes to a business-oriented device such as the BlackBerry, I still managed to clock in at least an hour of listening to music after dragging-and-dropping music to its MicroSD card.  I did testing using the included headset and a pair of Altec Lansing iM616 headphones.  While listening using the included headset yielded good results, listening using my headphones was plagued by a high-pitched whining noise.  To its defense, the Altec Lansing iM616 headphones is capable of reproducing a significant amount of detail in the audio, and some of that detail is, unfortunately, interference inside the device that propagated into the digital-analog converter.  Update: I tested music playback via the internal speaker not long ago.  A benefit to owning a smartphone is that internal speaker for those times when you are simply too lazy to plug in a pair of headphones.  While sound quality is acceptable, beware of high frequencies at full blast.

As far as I can tell, the process of enjoying media on a BlackBerry is quite simple and user-friendly: With little configuration, the phone’s MicroSD card becomes just another USB drive that you drag-and-drop to, and the connector for the headphone fits nearly any headphone set you can pull off a shelf.  Indeed, by using standard connections and protocols, consumers have more choices and less frustration.

Conclusion
While the iPhone made me go “ooh” and “aah,” the BlackBerry Curve succeeded in blowing me away.  Just like any new gadget I receive, I enjoyed playing with it to find out how it works and see how well it works.  If Research In Motion is indeed trying to promote themselves as having the phones with brains and beauty (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC8N9t_8lHs), then they are on the right track.