Is Curve worth it without corporate mail?
 

I know everybody loves their BB's on here, but I'm in a unique situation. Two things:

1) My company has lots of BB support, but they require each team to pay for access to the BB Enterprise Server. My team doesn't need BB's, so there's no reason for my manager to pay for access since it's a 100% luxury. Therefore, no corporate email for me...
2)...even if I had one of the "approved devices", which for AT&T (who I want to switch to) is the Pearl/8100 and the 8800. Note: no Curve/8300 on that list.

I love the Curve as a device (my only complaint is that it doesn't do 3G and Wi-Fi, but I doubt I'll miss that). I lust for one. However, without corporate email support, am I just wasting my time? Is there another phone that would suit me better if corporate email is not a factor?

I've also looked at the Cingular 8525, but it's a brick, isn't cool-looking in the least, and I've read so-so reports in regards to its durability. However, it does have 3G and it does a ton of stuff.

In my perfect world, I'd have a Curve that would have 3G, Wi-Fi, and I'd be able to get my corporate mail with it. Oh yeah, and my boss would graciously pay for it. But that won't happen ;-)

-silks

The Curve is my first Blackberry. I was using the Treo 650 before this. Just in size alone the Curve wins. If all it did was make calls and text messages, I'd be just as happy with it.

I shopped around for a while, and it sounds like we made some of the same comparisons. I looked at the 8525 for a while. But I kept coming back to size of the Curve. I really didn't want anything weighing my pants down anymore.

Plus, it is just so nice looking.

I have NO work email connected to this thing. All personal. Also, I don"t live in a 3G market. So, that was a non issue.

I am surprised that I like this thing as much as my Treo. I am not turning back. I think that if you get one, you will be happy with it. But of course, that depends on what your expectations are and what you will be using it for.

My usage
 

My usage is email and web browsing. I'm not a big text messenger, so I'm not concerned with that. I'd like to have the ability to edit Word documents too, or maybe some other Microsoft Office stuff like spreadsheets. That's about it though.

i honestly do not see myself without corp email with my curve, otherwise I would just get a regular pda with bells and whistles in other departments.

Well...
 

It turns out that corporate email is an option for me, if I want to pay for it. Long story short, my boss has given me the OK to do it.

This makes things really interesting.

Of course, I find this out the very day AFTER the price of the Curve rises from 1 cent to $150 on Amazon.

You may not have to "pay" for it. If your email is accessed via pop or imap you do not need BES. You can simply use your data plan and get your email at no additional cost.

I have been doing this for 6 months and love it.

I do not use corporate mail with my Curve...but I have five different email addresses (2-personal, 2-private business, 1-blackberry) that I enjoy having almost instant, real-time sync with. That's not a have-to-have kind of thing with me...but it's a real convenience, and I enjoy it. I had a Treo 680, a Samsung Blackjack, and a Nokia E61i prior to my BB conversion and they could just not perform to the level in that area that BlackBerry can.

I also make LOTS and recieve LOTS of calls a day. The Curve is an exellent mobile phone as well as being a great data device. Earpiece volume is loud (a dealbreaker with me), the incoming call quality is excellent, and the ease of use is great as well. To me, no matter how good a technical device is at transfering data...if it sucks as a mobile phone, then I'm not interested.

I also really like the customization available to me with the BlackBerry. I have only a handful of apps loaded...but they are carefully selected, and do exactly what I need to have done. I have been able to load all of them OTA also which is a huge bonus to a non-techie like me.

Overall...I really like both my 8800 & 8300 even without BES. If all I really wanted was a mobile phone...there are lots of choices. But, the BB does what it does better than the rest.

Hmmm...
 

This is a total noob question, but with, say, a GMail account, will it actually let me know when there's a new email in my inbox? I always assumed that that was something that only worked with BES. If it does that, OMFG.

Now, my company has a web email client, but darned if I could ever get it to work (not saying it can't be done, but it's not as simple as the Exchange Webmail).

Darn you Curve, you sexy little devil.

Do you have an 8300 yet?

If not...FYI, your email icon on the home screen will display a little red * beside it letting you know that you have mail. Yeah...I like it a lot. I thought that was really cool too.

Yeah
 

A guy I worked with showed me the GPS functionality on the 8800. Now THAT is impressive. Any idea when that's coming to the Curve?

Not anytime soon. But yes, your gmail and yahoo accounts will instantly be "pushed" to your blackberry. you can set it to alert you with a vibration, led blink (repeating) or tone (or all of the above). Once you get used to email on a blackberry its hard to get used to anything else.

It's all over
 

You are now looking at the proud owner of a brand-new BlackBerry Curve! Once my boss gave me the go ahead for corporate access, getting any other sort of smartphone/PDA seemed like a complete waste of time. I found that it satisfied the majority of my criteria:

1) Allowed me to grab corporate mail (huge, a dealbreaker)
2) Decent web surfing capabilities (maybe not as good as 3G, but likely fine for whatever I need)
3) Thanks to this board, plenty of knowledge of and access to good aftermarket/freeware apps
4) A cool-looking device

#1 is still technically up in the air - my boss submitted my account request, and as far as we know we shouldn't have a hassle. We'll see next week though.

Even if, worst case, I can't do corporate mail, I still win because I have a feeling I'm going to love my :bb:!

-silks

I had an 8800 and just recently got an 8300. I bought the GlobalSat BT-359 GPS receiver at an at&t store, and have the identical GPS functionality with the Curve that I had with the 8800. It uses bluetooth to pair to the phone, and still lets me use the bluetooth headset or carkit. I can use the GPS with live traffic re-routing, take a call over bluetooth, and when I hang up, it reverts right back to the GPS screeen, etc. etc. Pretty slick.

I've heard that Nav4All is a good alternative...does anybody here have any experience with it?