Curve 9220 is for users who don’t need any
high requirements for technology. The machine has good practical performance
plus endurance.
BlackBerry Curve 9220 looks not much
different from 9320. RRP is $195, making this smartphone is the cheapest
brand-name model in the market. The device runs BlackBerry 7.1 OS plus
BlackBerry Setup, allowing users to link accounts from emails, SMS, social
networks, data protection, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), BlackBerry ID (used to
install apps)…
The device doesn’t feature 3G or GPS
connectivity hence maps in apps appears useless. Though, via Wi-Fi plus GPRS
connection, the brand’s browser could run fast, display better text than any
popular models integrated with web-browsing.
The
product looks compact and sturdy.
Technical specs include 2.44in display plus
320x240pixel resolution, 512MB of RAM, 512MB storage, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM
radio, micro-SD slot supporting 32GB capacity and rear 2MP camera. Especially,
the 1,450mAh battery provides the longest runtime among models in the Curve series.
This is an appropriate smartphone for students and users who don’t desire high
requirements.
Design
The model is designed elegant, compact and
modern. Corners are rounded to keep the device fixed in palm. The rubber lining
covers the body tightens the case and firmly keeps everything in places during
long use. Keys are separated to comfort users in texting maneuvers.
The back lid is made of glossy plastic,
along with the curve design that is commonly seen in Curve series hence user
must feel the phone sturdy in palm. Though, this glossy plastic coat easily
gets dirt and fingerprints, plus scratch as well.
Inside, the battery occupies most of the
space, SIM tray is situated on the left while memory card slot is placed on
top. The camera is designed to be separate thus removing or replacing battery
won’t affect the camera much. Lightweight as it is, the model is quite heavy
(102g).
In the left lies a shortcut key BBM, designed
for fast access to apps: BlackBerry Messenger, emails, Facebook, Twitter… This
feature is only available on Curve models.
In the right are volume keys and quick
camera. The advantage of BlackBerry keys is to enable users assign or change
their features. For instance, users can assign camera button to open web
browser or check emails.
Display
Although the screen features low resolution
and small size, thanks to the BlackBerry 7.1 OS whose power can change
interface as well as character size and icons, thus users can modify everything
at custom, without worrying that texts would be too small to read.
The
design incorporates easy-looking icons plus nice brightness and display.
From
tilt-viewing, colors aren’t changed much but in outdoor conditions, they are illegible.
The glass screen can stand against shock.
In tests, we used pens and fingers to tap onto the display directly but there
was no scratch or affect to the below screen. However, when fingers pressed the
display hard, the below TFT LCD would be slightly affected, icons looked melted
but this state could recover quickly.
The display delivered quite good brightness,
even in bright conditions. Though, from tilt-viewing, there was still glare
because of the protect glass, resulting in difficulty seeing either correct colors
or images.
Camera
The device uses a 2MP camera, without autofocus,
resulting in low image quality. Colors in low-lit are completely noised. There’s
no flash plus image quality depends a lot in the environment. There’re only
features such as frame options, night scene, texts… However, shooting ability
wasn’t considerably improved.
Despite that, recording with voice is quite
fine at 640x480pixel resolution, in full-lit lighting, with nice display plus
good sound. File format is MP4, easily read on many devices.
Additionally, stereo near the bottom,
delivers quite fine sound, enough for usage in office space.
Feature
The device’s web browser worked quite stably
when opening texts and images via Wi-Fi connection, with less lag. Especially,
social network apps have fast access because they were re-programmed to suit
the small screen and specified for BlackBerry.
Nonetheless, social network apps won’t work
once user turn Wi-Fi connection off. At then, the device turns to use GPRS,
able to browse webs or read news only.
There’s also an effective FM radio. Connected
with headphone, it was able to transfer sound to external outputs and detect several
channels.
FM
radio feature
There’s also YouTube feature allowing users
to view online clips. We tested with a 30-min video and found it run steadily with
any lag.
Remarkably, talk/call ability of this
device is much better than any Android phones. Voice sounded loud and clear;
there’s no one-beat latency while waiting for another to answer. This issue
often incurs in Android phones.
Battery and performance
Using 800MHz processor and 512MB of RAM,
the model’s performance is not an upside. When installing extra apps: Yahoo
Messenger, Opera Mini…, we had to wait a lot for the device to process.
Furthermore, the model’s start-up isn’t
fast at all, since turning the power until displaying the interface, taking 60
seconds totally. However, the browser appeared powerful when playing web-embedded
clips without any required installations of other plug-ins while for Android,
it may not be able to display some embedded clips naturally.
The battery’s capacity is 1.450mAh. In a
continuous usage featuring talking/calling, browsing webs via Wi-Fi connection
and receiving regular feeds from social networks, the total time allotted could
be up to 10h per charge. With the same usage above via GPRS connection, time
allotted would be 14h.
Overall, BlackBerry 9220 is an efficient
smartphone for those who don’t have many requirements for technology. This
model owns superior talk/call ability over Android models, which are in the
same price group and from Mexico or Canada, making BlackBerry 9220 a
considerably long-lasting and useful model.
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Technical
specs
·
General info
·
2G Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
·
Announced: 2012, April
·
Status: Available. Released 2012, May
Body
·
Dimensions: 109x60x12.7mm
·
Weight: 102g
·
Keyboard: QWERTY
Display
·
Type: TFT, 65K colors
·
Size: 320x240pixel, 2.44in (~164ppi pixel
density)
·
Feature: Touch-sensitive optical trackpad
Sound
·
Alert types: Vibration; Polyphonic(64), MP3
ringtones
·
Loudspeaker: Yes
·
3.5mm jack : Yes
Memory
·
Card slot: micro-SD, up to 32GB
·
Internal: 512MB ROM, 512MB RAM
Data
·
GPRS: Yes
·
EDGE: Yes
·
WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
·
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
·
USB: Yes, micro-USB v2.0
Camera
·
Primary: 2MP, 1600x1200pixels
·
Video: Yes
·
Secondary: No
Features
·
OS: BlackBerry OS 7.1
·
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity, compass
·
Messaging: SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email,
Push Email, IM
·
Browser: HTML
·
Radio: Stereo FM radio with RDS
·
GPS: No
·
Java: No
·
Colors: Black, Fuchsia Pink, Pure White, Teal
Blue
·
Other: P3/eAAC+/WMA/WAV/FLAC player; MP4/H.263/H.264
player; Organizer; Document viewer; Voice memo/dial; Predictive text input
Battery
·
Type: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1450 mAh (J-S1)
·
Stand-by: Up to 432h
·
Talk time: Up to 7h
·
Music play: Up to 28h
Misc.
·
SAR US: 1.31W/kg (head); 0.61W/kg (body)
·
SAR EU: 1.61 W/kg (head); 1.01W/kg (body)
·
Price group: Mid-segment
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