Review: BlackBerry 8320

BlackBerry Curve 8320 Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: The BlackBerry 8320 incorporates push email, a full keypad, a camera, media player and expandable memory. With both Bluetooth wireless connectivity and a WLAN connection, the 8320 is the best connected of the Curve series too.

Review: March 2008.

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 incorporates virtually all of the features of the BlackBerry 8310, so read our review of the 8310 for an in-depth look at what this device can do. The one difference between the two is that the 8320 doesn't have GPS satellite navigation, but it does have WLAN connectivity. This means that you can access broadband internet speeds when within range of a WLAN-enabled computer (at work, at home, or in a WiFi zone such as Starbucks.) This could be handy for syncing data with your home or work PC, as well as fast downloading of emails or web browsing.

The BlackBerry Curve is now available from Dialaphone.

Features of the BlackBerry 8320 include:

• 2 megapixel camera with flash and digital zoom
• LCD display: 320 x 240 pixels, 65000 colours
• Media player
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, instant messaging, push email with attachment viewer
• Built-in speakerphone
• Voice dialling
• Voice memo recorder
• MP3 ringtones
• Personal organiser functions
• Vibration alert
• Internet: Web browser, GPRS, EDGE
• Connectivity: WLAN, Bluetooth 2.0, modem, 3.5mm stereo headset port
• Memory: 64 Mbytes plus microSD memory card slot
• Size: 107 x 60 x 15.5 mm
• Weight: 111g
• Quadband
• Talktime: 4 hours
• Battery standby: 400 hours

BlackBerry 8320 Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 25 reviews:

Reviewed by M Faisal Naeem from Karachi Pakistan on 25th Jun 2009
i m the user of Motorolla and big fan of It i just recently used my V8 that was wonderful cell phone with camera, MP3 playeer with touch screen.now i m using Blackberry 8320 Emerald Black its good its like a mini notebook in your hand that has every thing, but there is a problem with camera thing is its just snaped the photgraph not record the video.overall Blackberry is the complete phone.
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Reviewed by marsha from jamaica on 31st May 2009
i always hated blackberries because they were big & full of buttons, but this phone is great, it can be complicated at times but its a breeze when u get it right. the video camera, camera & music player are my favorite features. i love the fact that i can change themes like how i change my clothes & its a good value for $$$$$ if u have a hectic social life. its been a blast, kudos to blackberry!
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Reviewed by faisal majeed from pakistan on 24th May 2009
this mobile is just outstanding. this is not a mobile but a true friend for me.anything you want it has with it.
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Reviewed by Ian S from England on 13th Apr 2009
I'm a service engineer and got saddled with this thing by my company, in place of a perfectly adequate Nokia. Did I need camera, email or piddly keypad? No, but would they listen? Now half the time when I go to clients' premises the phone gets confiscated because of the camera, so any so-called advantages of the 'connectivity' are lost and I have to resort to fax machines to get information in the field. Can't use the keypad without my specs whereas on the Nokia I could text with my hands in pockets. Hands-free speaker was louder on the Nokia too. Hate the damn thing, the sooner I lose or break it the better. [Editor's comment: Ian, is this a review of the phone or of the company that you work for?]
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Reviewed by K-Man-4-Phones from U.K on 30th Mar 2009
I have had this phone for a month now... everyday i find something new!! it is amazing!
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Reviewed by Shahid Iqbal from Pakistan on 28th Feb 2009
Good phone but I have experienced abnormal hang-ups of few minutes duration during phone calls quite often. This puts one in embarassing situations as one cannot reconnect or call back to other person for quite sometime and the later may feel offended. I shared this with few of my colleagues who also use this model and they all had experienced such problem. Shahid Iqbal, Lahore, Pakistan
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Reviewed by Ali Arshad from Pakistan on 28th Jan 2009
Excellent Phone,
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Reviewed by Jonathan Godfrey from Northern Ireland on 22nd Jan 2009
I've had my BlackBerry 8320 Black Emerald since September 2008 and now I think it's about time that I posted my review of it. I owned an LG Prada beforehand and I absolutely loved it. It was the first really beautiful touchscreen phone and it did everything that I needed it to do for me. I took my BlackBerry 8320 Black Emerald on a 24-month Contract from Orange for £30.00 oer month for 600 minutes and unlimited texts and I only pay £2.50 extra a month on top of that for BlackBerry Talk and that gives me unlimited E-Mails and unlimited web-browsing. First imprerssions; it's nowhere near as bulky or as heavy as other BlackBerries such as the BlackBerry 9000 Bold and previous models in the 8800 range. It's pretty light too and it's attractive to the eye as I have mine in the relaunch colour of Black Emerald which is black to look at but emerald green when the light catches it in the right way. Functionality; having never owned a BlackBerry previously, it did take me a few weeks to learn everything that my BlackBerry can do (and I'm still learning). Things are a little complicated at first wuth needless menus and sub-menus but over time, these just become second nature and make the phone look a lot more professional. Having access to my E-Mails on my phone was never an issue for me before but now it is a necessity thanks to my BlackBerry and I don't know how I ever lived without it. The amount of applications that you can download from varioous websites such as www.blackberry.com is vast and one only bettered by iPhone's Apps Store in my opinion. You can well and truly personalise your BlackBerry and that means that your BlackBerry has it's own identidy and that it's unique. The media player is fantastic and the layout is just like an iPod. It's very simple and easy to use and makes accessing youre music very easy indeed. The camera isn't bad at 2 megapixels but of course this could improved as R.I.M. have done by adding a 3.2 megapixel camera to the BlackBerry 8900. The zoom is really easy to use, it's simply adjusted by rolling the trackball up or down and the flash is like a gattling gun! A video camera would have been nice but again, you can get one in newer models such as the BlackBerry 9000 Bold and the BlackBerry 8900. Connectivity; Bluetooth, 3G, 3G+ and WiFi...ticks all of the right boxes there then, doesn't it? when I'm at home, I connect mine to my BT Home Hub. Overall, this is quite simply the best phone that I've ever had and I know that my Upgrade will be a BlackBerry too, maybe the BlackBerry 9000 Bold or the BlackBerry 8900...it's just a pity that I have to wait until June 2010.
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Reviewed by Perry Clarke from United Kingdom on 18th Jan 2009
A truly superb phone/PDA/camera.... everything!! Its ease of use and funcionality make it a goliath compared to the Apple and nokia's in its class. It just happens to be the sexiest handheld I think I have ever come across. Well done Blackberry, I am a convert!!
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Reviewed by Kashan from Pakistan on 7th Jan 2009
Great Phone overall, it was just recently updated by local provider with new features like Video camera, Documents to go, voice recorder. Best phone in my openion when it comes to size and functionality in Blackberry series
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Reviewed by ali from UK on 23rd Dec 2008
I have had the 8320 for a few months now and unfortunately I have found it plagued with faults. I have had over 15 replacements in that time, as have many if my collegues, ranging from trackerball problems to software issues, the lates problem is if you use the media player on your standard headset, and stop the music with the headphone button, when you replay it, the music quality drops. And then when you remove the headset anf try to make a call, the handset micraphone stops working. Its sad because up until the 7th or 8th replacement, I was still trying to sing the praises of this phone.
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Reviewed by Emma Burton from UK on 28th Nov 2008
I am going to like this phone.
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Reviewed by Veesh from London, England on 3rd Oct 2008
What a spectacular phone, I say. I have never really been a big fan of BlackBerries but this one has won me over. Incorrigibly chic, very intelligent, and rather easy to use. I'm enjoying the phone thoroughly, although that tracker ball in the middle needs a way to keep a webpage rolling. Scrolling a long email is tedious because you cannot scroll and hold? Unless someone else in a review will have something that absolves me of the only misery. Spectacularly well-balanced.
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Reviewed by Les R from UK on 24th Aug 2008
The 8320, I've had mine for about a week now and I thought I'd share my initial impressions. I like it. I'd always been put off Blackberrys primarily because of their miniscule buttons but once you have the thing in your hands typing becomes second nature, albeit with my fingrnails. The scroll ball works well enough and although the option is there to use the desktop view (that is the traditional 'mouse' style of navigation) I would recommend against it. Surfing the web has proven efficient, the screen is comfortably large enough to convince yourself it's a mini PC, the WIFI connectivity is fine and yes it does pick up any hotspots no problem but so far all of the ones I've found have all required an access code for usage so not much use there then. One thing I can't complain about is the abundance of features, the music/video playback with or without supplied earphones is excellent but as with so many mobiles these days, no fast forward/rewind facility, will someone please a dd this simple extra, we don't want to start at the beginning of every movie should we choose to watch something else inbetween..!!! Point to note, the 3.5mm standard earphone socket is a Godsend. Onboard memory serves at a basic level but a decent sized Micro SD is all but essential for any real funtionality/storage. My contract is with Orange, I am hoping that it's their fault for the abysmal signal strength in my area, not the phones inability to grab and hold onto same. I must confess that I don't think I've discovered all of the 8320s' secrets yet and I look forward to doing so in the very near future but for the here and now with its immense connectivity, ability to read Office documents, long battery life and light weight, I am a very happy chappy. Oh, and the case that comes with and its ability to switch the phone on and off depending upon whether the phone is being drawn or put away, a stroke of genius. One of the previous reviwers did say that if you have an IQ of below 130 then don't bother with this phone, I'm not too sure about that but he does raise a good point though, this is so very far above 'Hoodie' intellectual level that at least it isn't likely to be the most popular target for theft which makes it worth getting for that fact alone.
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Reviewed by Umid from Uzbekistan on 11th Jul 2008
Great phone. Easy in use. Good quality
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Reviewed by tony from usa on 11th Jul 2008
Love this phone, but wish I had gps and steaming video
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Reviewed by Johnny Newell from U.S. A. on 5th Jul 2008
Tis a bitter/sweet relationship between my phone and I. I love the convience of a handheld web that is fully functional, but I hate the fact it doesn't record video. I love that I can use the note pad to write my articles on if away or on assignment and by using google docs I have endless storage capability. I find the camera difficult to deal with, the shutter speed is slow and it is a pain to upload the pics to my desktop. All in all it's a keeper.
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Reviewed by Mario from Indonesia on 17th Jun 2008
its fun playing with trackball
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Reviewed by Gail from England on 13th Jun 2008
I bought one like that. Fabulous
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Reviewed by Jason from England on 27th Apr 2008
Simply brilliant, and the battery, its amazing
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Reviewed by Wes from USA on 9th Apr 2008
This is an almost perfect phone, although some other wofo phones have better browsers. Don't let this set you back, this phone is awesome.
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Reviewed by Andrew Cyrus from USA on 22nd Mar 2008
they claim that the 8320 does not have satellite Navigation, but I have an 8320 with sat nav, how is that possible?
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Reviewed by Hamid from UK on 19th Mar 2008
not really a fan, i got one today it does its job but i'm afraid to say its a bit on the dull side. too dull for me.
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Reviewed by umair from pakistan on 7th Feb 2008
this is the great invention
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Reviewed by ajl from england on 3rd Feb 2008
this phone is amazing if you like all complicated and different feeatures but avoid if your IQ is below 130.
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