I am having trouble deciding what is the smarter choice.I live in New Brunswick,Canada. I have a 8700r from Rogers. I would really like to upgrade to a newer bb. My choices are an unlocked 8320 from t mobile or a 8310 from Rogers. Is there any difference in the two except one has wifi and one has gps? What is the smarter choice for overall satisfaction and useability? Thanks

Wifi is basically useless unless your carrier supports UMA. Sure you can try browsing with it, but in that tiny screen?

So are the phones the same except for the two differences?

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A lot depends on what is most useable to you. Gps or wifi! I'm not sure what services are supported by your carriers certain gps would be useable don't know about gps.

Pretty much, but remember, you can also get a bluetooth GPS puck for the 8320 and voila! Then you have GPS and WiFi.

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Yes they are almost exactly the same other than those 2 feature and the color of them

The way I see it, you can always add GPS via bluetooth, but you can't add Wifi.

Ugh thats not even the same thing. If nobody cared about having a separate puck device, nobody would be excited about an integrated device. I HATE HATE HATE carying a separate device on me. All I need is my phone, and I want to be able to pull that out, find a sushi place, and tell meeting members where it is so we can discuss things. All the while not having to think about if I have a charge on my puck, or if I remembered to bring it.

I REALLY agree with that statement

Pick the GPS. I always found wifi on a mobile phone to be useless. I had a BB before, and used the slow edge browser when I absolutely had to. I thought the world would be better when I had the iPhone with wifi. Even with the big screen, the better interface, I was always wishing I had a computer nearby. Its nice if you HAVE to get on the internet without a computer around. Thing is, when I have wifi, I have a computer around (most of the time). If Im at an airport with wifi, I have my PC. At home I have my PC, in the office I have my PC, why would I be on the damned phone surfing? Even though my car has GPS, I dont always have GPS. Rental cars, friends cars, etc. Its something nice to have. thats why I picked the 8310 over the 8820.

completely agree and for those exact reasons, i chose the 8310 as well.

GPS.

By the time WIFI is really widely used, you will have upgraded your blackberry anyway, every time i'm in a wifi area is at work, at home, or a starbucks or the like. Starbucks charges you, so I may aswell use the included data on my plan, and at home and work, I would rather browse on my PC!

I had a windows mobile device with wifi on, and never really used the wifi, The GPS on my 8310 however, is incredibly useful, just for the fact it has walking directions included, not just driving. If I go to a city I don't know I can find my way round successfully now!

And the silver is nicer on the 8310.

Love my 8320, I use the UMA all the time on it so it was a no brainer for me. And my freedom mini puck is pretty darn small and quite accurate. I like the fact that the GPS can work without network coverage and some applications will allow you to record hiking treks and such. I think the 8310's GPS does not work where there is no cellular coverage.

Thanks for the info. The only other thing is warranty. If I have the 8310 I can get warranty at the local store, with the 8320 I have to send it to Blackberry direct. Hopefully neither one will be a dud. Thanks very much.

The GPS does not rely on the cell network to determine position - it has a real gps chip built in. The application that is being used with the GPS on the other may have a dependency on the network - some do some don't.

for this reason alone, I would go with the 8310... i picked up one locally from at&t and it had a problem holding a signal since the day i bought it. i simply returned it and got it replaced with a brand new one. if that had been the case with an unlocked purchased on the internet, i would have had to either sent it back and dealt with the seller or sent it to rim and dealth with them.

another thing about wifi i have noticed in my experiences... most places charge to use it - airports, cruise ships, some hotels, etc... why would i pay for the faster speed when i can already use the data service i already pay for?

imo the 8310 is much more the wiser choice...

Love the UMA and Wifi. I seem to end up in places with lousy mobile coverage, but with Wifi. So it works for me. Our cards have GPS. Had the 8800 and rarely used the GPS. So for me, the Wifi is a killer application.

I may be wrong about this but usually with a BB you have a data package and at the current prices an unlimited data package is relatively unexpensive. My point being why use wifi if you have unlimited usage. I believe edge is edge so it will not be any faster with wifi. I am a gps user and absolutely love the convenience. My vote is for the 8310 and like you mentioned it is covered by warranty. You never know with electronics. Good luck which ever way you go.

edit

GPS for me.

After a trip with a friend that has an 8320, I found the wifi and UMA had too many variables to make it a standard reliable service. He had to find an open wifi network that was non-pay, and then only when cell signal warranted it (too low), even then he had some issues with the network/router/gateway config.

On the flip side, I have had zero issue with my 8310 GPS. I refresh when I get in the car, after being indoors, then off I go. Its very simple. And I agree with the posts above, I have no need to add another piece of hardware, thats why I went to an 83XX to begin with. Fewer extras to carry with me.

I seem to be in the minority in voting for wi-fi.

In my mind, where you live and what your carrier offers are the two major issues (in addition to the warranty, which is a serious consideration). I chose 8320 because I'm on T-Mobile (which has UMA--love the unlimited calling), I live in New York City (where free wi-fi is becoming more widespread daily, and there is a Starbucks on every other corner), and I don't have a car (so GPS is not as important). Is there lots of free wi-fi in New Brunswick? Are you driving around a lot for business (or pleasure)? Does Rogers offer UMA? Though it goes without saying, satisfaction and useability are specific to your needs and wants.

Now if I had built in GPS, I would definitely use it, even though I don't own a car, no doubt about it. Which is why I'm considering a GPS puck. Of course, what I really want, like everybody else, is to have GPS and wi-fi built in.

I love my wifi and UMA, its working flawlessly and wouldn't trade it for anything right now. I don't need GPS since I usually know where I am at (except when I been out drinking)

I agree, if you don't have tmobile then I suggest you get the 8310. UMA is what it's all about.

Does what GPS software are you using with your 8320? I need a software package that gives spoken warnings when turns are coming up.

Thanks

As stated above it depends on your carrier. If you are ATT - get the 8310.

If your carrier supports UMA (voip) you have a choice to make. I am very happy having wifi.

And the mapquest navigator "speaks"

EDIT: You are rogers and i don't know if rogers allows UMA calls.

If you're using a pearl as your profile states you need the 7100 series software which fits that screen correctly. Send this link to your BB:
http://mqnav.telmap.com/mqota/client.../7130e/mqn.jad

That will get you the OTA download for Mapquest Navigator on your pearl.

GPS for me. I didn't have one at all, prior to this BB, and I have been wanting GPS. I have one laptop with me at almost all times, sometimes two, both with wi-fi, so I wasn't really in need of yet another 802.11-equipped device. I was quite thrilled to get integrated GPS on my new smartphone.

Google maps can find you with 1700yds of a sushi place with out gps.

With Google’s My Location, Who Needs a GPS? - GigaOM

I use it all the time. It works swimmingly.

AFAIK Roger's, which covers NB, doesn't support UMA/GAN at this time.
I'm not sure who else you guys get.

This shouldn't be such a issue, both 8310 and 8320 should be available to consumers. Why should the service provider get the choice and the consumer doesn't? Both devices should be available both locked and branded under the provider subsidy, and also un-locked and un-branded for those which chose to go that route. I vote for WiFi, it's faster and cheaper than any 3G technology out there (which is one reason why the iPhone has it) I too have lots of free WiFi most places I roam, also many places indoors, deep below grade have little to no carrier signal which is were WiFi works it's magic. I agree with a unlimited BB data plan there is some overlap between what the carrier provides and what the built in WiFi can provide, but (for me) WiFi is more important than GPS.

Those with 8310's does the GPS work indoors? Think most GPS devices need a rather unobstructed view of the sky right?

The 8300 series has 3 key features; GPS, UMA, and camera. Each device can only have 2 of these 3 features.

8310 - GPS + camera
8320 - UMA + camera

I personally prefer the UMA as I use my BB at home and prefer the economics of UMA service.

With the addition of "my location" in Google Maps, I can figure out where I am and where I need to go.

That's my $.02.

I had this same question. Went with GPS and couldn't have been happier. There's hardly any places around here with free WiFi to begin with, and I realized I could get more use out of the GPS.

Well, they now have pucks that can be attached to your keys. You can't forget your keys right? lol. I would really like a BB that offers both GPS and WiFi and as a matter of fact, i have that (well, sort of), with "my location" from google. I love free unlimited minutes anytime with the UMA feature from T-Mobile.


P.S. Is what really suits the OP's needs.

I don't see a reason for the wifi unless you don't have unlimited data.

I regret waiting out for the 8320 when the 8310 was available earlier.
I think my carrier doesn't do UMA, and the 8320 is very picky about wifi AP's... (it likes my D-Link DGL-4300, but doesn't like Linksys WRT54GX) that it's not worth the trouble using wifi most of the time, esp with flat-rate GPRS/EDGE internet access. sigh.
GPS wld b fun to have.

IMO if you're talking full price purchase of a TMo 8320 vs a possibly discounted (or even full price) 8310 from your own carrier I'd go ith the 8310

I actually have both - an unlocked 8320 and an 8310, both on AT&T

The WIFI is Ok for browsing but IMO the primary purpose of WIFI on a Curve is UMA calls. And the main reason my 8320 is unlocked and in use on AT&T is the fact that the UMA calling is so sptty and unreliable as to make it all but useless. Plus, unless Rogers decides to offer UMA calling in the near future why bother?

The GPS capability, on the other hand, is a whole nother ballgame. The biggest thing I missed from Verizon was VZNavigator. Having a GPS capable handset again IMO isworth way more than wIFI

Bottom line: GPS you can use. WIFI will be limited by your carriers service. The 8310 will be supported by Rogers. AT&T has told me outright that tey will help where they can but if I have cinnectin issues while using the 8320 I may be SoL for support.

Gentlemen, I just purchased a new 8320 with the wifi. I have not received it to date but should have it shortly. My reason for purchasing this one as compared to the 8310 were the following. Presently I have a Nokia N95 with the gps working on it. Guess what. When I use it for travelling, it works fine as long as no one calls me. If i receive a call, then the gps needs to be restarted and this could take over 5 minutes. Id rather purchase a separate GPS system that is portable and much larger and dedicated solely for this purpose. Doe the blackberry do the same?

No, the GPS continues to track while you are on the phone. I ran across this scenario yesterday when I received a call while using GMM with GPS to navigate a route. The map was unable to update (you cannot receive data while on a voice call), but the GPS tracking worked perfectly, and continued to show my location on the maps available on my device prior to receiving the call.

Each user needs to determine their needs, and purchase devices accordingly. Some people will still want to carry around an mp3 player, dedicated GPS and phone to have the advanced capabilities of each device. Others are sick of keeping track of multiple devices (along with their power cords and accessories!), and are willing to sacrifice some advanced features to have a single device which has the basic capabilities.