Ah, the joy of a BlackBerry Curve. One of our favorite smartphones ever, the Curve just works—and that goes for Alltel's model too. It's a great buy for anyone who wants a terrific phone with unparalleled messaging, excellent media features, and a bit of Web thrown into the mix. One complaint, though: Alltel could have done a little more to set its model apart from the pack.
The Alltel Curve, in sober gray, looks like a darker, handsomer version of Verizon's model. For a basic rundown of the Curve's design and features, check out PCMag's review of theVerizon or Sprint Curve.
On Alltel's network, the Curve sounds as beautiful as ever. Reception is excellent, and volume is pretty much perfect, with no distortion even at the top level. And the speakerphone is loud and clear. Curves are among the best voice phones we've tested, and this one is no exception. This Curve also got particularly stellar battery life, with over 6 hours of talk time.
Like other Curves, Alltel's has a 3.5mm headphone jack for phone or music headsets and works with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets. Oddly, I could trigger the VoiceSignal voice dialing with our mono Aliph Jawbone, but not our stereo Plantronics Pulsar 590 headset.
Alltel lets you use the Curve as a modem for your PC (but not for a Mac) on Alltel's EV-DO Rev 0 high-speed network. The carrier provides easy-to-use software that enables a one-click connection—it was a snap to set up. Speeds were slow for EV-DO, though, at around 400 kilobits per second down, but this seemed to be a problem with Alltel's network—our other smartphones ran even more slowly in modem mode.
So what does Alltel bring to the table? In terms of software, the carrier's model falls somewhere between Verizon's sparse offerings and Sprint's richer ones. You get Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger IM clients but no AIM. The free Google Maps for Mobile uses cell-tower triangulation to get a rough location fix, but there's no bona fide GPS (unless you pay for additional software). Buried under an odd icon marked "Axcess Shop" is an information app, which gives you news headlines, weather, stocks, and traffic information.
You can also buy software for the Curve, and this is where things get interesting. Alltel's MobiTV-based streaming Axcess TV ($9.99 per month) is available, along with Garmin Mobile ($9.99 a month) for true GPS capabilities and DynoPlex MasterDoc ($49.95), which provides enhanced attachment viewing. Shape's IM+ ($49.95) adds MSN, AIM, and MySpace IM to the Curve's list. There are also plenty of games to be had, among them Guitar Hero.
RIM's forthcoming BlackBerry OS 4.5 will include support for Microsoft Office document editing through DataViz's DocumentsToGo program, and Alltel will offer a free upgrade to Curve owners. That combined with the standard Curve features, such as the great camera, including video recording; the terrific BlackBerry messaging, including both SMS and MMS; and the new PC software, which helps transfer music and videos over from Windows XP and Vista PCs to the phone, makes Alltel's Curve 8330 as much a winner as its Verizon and Sprint cousins. We think it's the best balance of smartphone functionality for Alltel subscribers.
SPEC DATA :
Price as Tested: $229.99 - $519.99 List
Service Provider: Alltel
Screen Size: 2.5 inches
Screen Details: 320x240 65k color screen
Camera: Yes
Megapixels: 2 MP
802.11x: No
Bluetooth: Yes
Web Browser: Yes
Network: CDMA
Bands: 850, 1900
High-Speed Data: 1xRTT, EVDO
Processor Speed: 312 MHz
Special Features: Music
