BlackBerry Curve 8310 - Pink (Unlocked) Smartphone

Great smartphone, excellent for emails, texts, and internet.
It has a nice, big bright screen that is perfect for reading texts and viewing webpages on, and the trackball makes it a great internet experience and is also easy to use.
This phone has a full QWERTY keyboard which is great - compared to standard keyboards used on normal phones. I've found this is much more easier to use, and it also takes a couple of minutes to get used to as it is just the same as your laptop/computer keyboard!
It is also fully customisable, with applications and themes that you can download via USB or OTA (no WIFI on the 8310, so you will need a data plan from your service provider if you want to download via OTA).
I feel that this phone is very sturdy and reliable, the OS is great. This is why BlackBerries are so well known and higly rated. If there's a time where your BlackBerry is unresponsive, this can be fixed by a quick battery pull - this involves taking the battery out and just popping it back in the phone again, and it's fine.
The 8310 has a 2 megapixel camera. It's not great, but not incredibly bad either. A annoying thing is that everytime you take a photo there is a shutter noise, for security reasons which cannot be turned off. I think there is a downloadable application to bypass this though.
The battery life is outstanding. I went on my phone most of the day just texting, surfing the internet and using applications, and it only used 15% of the battery. Just a quick plug into your USB in your computer or your wall socket and it takes about half a hour to charge.
The phone will come with it's own BlackBerry leather case. I find this is vital for your blackberry, if your phone doesn't come with one of these, get one! It's sturdy and hardwearing, plus, if you don't have a case, you could risk damaging the trackball. Without this your BlackBerry is virtually unusable. With the holster, it also automatically puts your BlackBerry on standby mode whilst inside, this saves battery life too.
In conclusion, I would highly rate this phone. It is slim enough to fit into your pocket, but stable enough to organise events and communicate with others. The only downside is lack of Wifi. If this is a big problem for you, I suggest you get a 8320.

After owning a trail of different phones this year from the Orange SPV M600 to the Nokia 6300 and a few Sony Ericsson's I really can't praise this phone enough.

I chose to buy one second hand off ebay and get it unlocked for less than £4.

If you get one and try to register it with your blackberry email service and it says it's already registered the previous owner needs to ring their network and get the phone de associated with the network. The network can do it instantly. After I'd sorted this and got it unlocked everything else has been a breeze.

The blackberry's operating system is super smooth and fast. Email is instant. I have it set up with MSN Messenger, BB Messenger, Google Maps and Opera Mini...all of which are free to download (depending on your data tarif) and installation is easy.

From the very basic functions of being used as a mobile phone to the more specific features like gps, email and online browsing, I am yet to find a fault with this device.

The only thing that takes time is booting up, but by heck, its worth the wait.

If you get one get yourself on crackberry ....its an internet site dedicated to these Blackberry devices. If you can't find an answer on there, you're asking the wrong question :D

Awesome phone, brilliant battery life and I haven't put it down yet, actually fell asleep with it last night

If you're into your phones, like I am, and you want a phone that literally does everything, buy a blackberry! You won't be disappointed!

Awesome phone, top quality, five stars!!!!!

Buying a second hand BlackBerry is thwart with difficulty. The first problem is that these phones are designed for use with an exclusive BlackBerry subscription (aka BIS or BlackBerry Internet Service).

Note that this monthly subscription (or contract) always includes a free new BlackBerry.

So you buy the second hand BlackBerry on ebay, pay for a BlackBerry BIS subscription and then get a free replacement phone. What could have possessed you to buy the second hand one in the first place?

Currently, there is no BlackBerry subscription in the UK for second hand BlackBerry phones. For example, both Orange and O2 have pay-as-you-go BlackBerry subscriptions, but only when you buy a new BlackBerry phone from them! Trying to connect an alternative model simply won't work.

So lets assume that you do not want a BlackBerry subscription. Instead, you want to use a BlackBerry on the Internet with a cheap provider such as ASDA. This could be problematic and so ASDA have made it easy for you - by banning all BlackBerry phones from using their Internet gateway! (although it has been a few years since I checked)

If you hunt around for long enough, you will get a second hand BlackBerry onto the Internet. However, to use most of the bundled software requires the original BlackBerry subscriptions, which you will not have! Consequently, you will spend many hours installing (and sometimes uninstalling) new software.

For example, some of the Java applications that you find on other smartphones could work well. Note, however, that you will be unable to remove much of the original BlackBerry software and the built-in (not working) BlackBerry email will be a permanent reminder that you're missing out on something (BIS).

With enough effort it will work. To optimise the software, you will need to be comfortable working with command-line utilities. For example, you can remove the BlackBerry browser and overwrite the service book, replace the browser and it will work on most sites (not all: BlackBerry AppWorld won't work without BIS).

I put up with those troubles because I'm particularly fond of using an actual QUERTY keyboard - I have grown accustomed to plastic buttons. I also like BlackBerry screens because they are clear and sharp (sharper than a iPhone).

Software choice for a new BlackBerry is fairly good, and less good for a second hand BlackBerry because of the BIS issue! For example, the Facebook application intergrates with the BlackBerry email application - and the email application won't work because you won't have the exclusive BlackBerry subscriptions!

Some software will work fine - but not most of it.

What is excellent about this phone, its an email/internet phone. So if you get pay as u go internet, your communication via blackberry messanger/ windows live messanger and ur internet email comes stright onto ur phone instanty. No more logging onto computers! Its gr8 I'm only paying 5 pounds a month for my internet, so I don't text or ring anymore. There is no need to be paying loads of money!

Ooh and it syncronises with my works calendar and contacts etc. Really good feature to get u to mettings on time.

The thing that is not so good about this phone is the screen size, I whish it was bigger. All though being able to keep intouch on facebook is more important. You can download all the apps 4 free to access facebook, ebay, windows Iive messanger, blackberry messanger, yell! And much more. Blackberry App world gives u access to much much more.

Bought a used Blackberry to see if i liked the phone and if it was any better than previous Nokia's. In short, NO! The operating system is difficult to navigate. For basic calls and texts it worked ok but not brilliant.

If you don't want e-mail, you have to be careful as even without mail set up, if you have data service enabled it keeps connecting to RIM Blackberry servers. On my Nokia, i can set it to ask first.

There's no data log on the handset, so you can't keep an eye on the data use.

Battery life though was good at 3.5 - 4 days with normal use.

The phone would be OK if used for it's main purpose of constant internet connectivity, e-mail and calender and contact management. It didn't suit me...I'll be buying a Nokia or Samsung again..