Hi guys,

I'm thinking of jumping to the BB world with a curve. I have VZW now and am up for my every 2 $50 credit. But ATT is also offering some pretty good deals.

So the VZW doesn't offer the GPS without the service. And the ATT is not on 3G. How much of a difference does not having 3G make ? I don't really need the GPS but if the speed and features are pretty comparable otherwise, it may make sense to switch.

Anything other major differences between feature set and/or performance ? Not looking to get into a comparison or bashing of either carrier.

Thanks
Oz

I'm comming from using AT&T's curve for a few months to now using Verizons Curve for almost a week now. Two Differences I've noticed:

1. Verizons Curve has Flash. So I can finally watch YouTube Videos on it. I couldn't do that with AT&T's curve (but you soon will be able too with the next update.)

2. Verizons Curve also records video. Not that I use this feature a lot, but AT&T's curve does not currently do this. This will also be added in the next update from RIM, so if you go with AT&T you'll have all these features soon.

I really switched to Verizon because I needed a phone that'll work everywhere, including the train tunnels here in DC, otherwise I would have waited for the update to be released on AT&T. Hopefully someone else will chime in with other features that I haven't noticed yet.

Hope that was helpfull.

Yeah definitely useful.

Question about the availabilty of those features on ATT. If I went with the ATT curve now, would the upgrade later be applied to it or is it a matter of a newer curve ?

I get your point about the coverage though, my vzw phone works very well in my town, where some ATT and Sprint guys I know have some trouble with getting coverage.

Thanks

When RIM makes the OS available, you have to apply the upgrade, meaning download and install. I've never found the upgrades hard to do myself.

Good Luck.

Upgrading the OS is not difficult at all. Download it, install it on your Computer, open Desktop Manager and update your BB.

Now.....as for when the new OS will be available? Nobody knows that yet.

go with service over features. If the service isnt there then you have a cool phone that does everything you want except function

Verizons Curve most certainly does NOT have flash. It has support for video streaming because of the 3G. That is NOT the same as flash. The AT&T 8820 can do streaming videos also if you are connected via wifi.

The bad thing with VZW Curve is that GPS is locked down, so you won't be able to use any of the GPS applications for BB except VZNavigator. You are limited. Also, the VZW Curve has worse battery life due to CDMA and 3G. My friend has one, and with similar usage his has half the life mine does.

*Yawn.* But ONLY if you're connected by wifi. EVDO pretty much makes the wifi issue irrelevant.

Yes, yes. Verizon evil, lock down GPS. But GPS apps still work if they support an external BT GPS puck, like the Globalsat BT338 I have.

Oh, and regarding the "worse battery life," see what happens on your beloved AT&T Curve when you leave the wifi on 24 hours a day. With Verizon and EVDO, you're getting very close to broadband speeds wherever you are, all the time, and I guarantee the battery will last one helluva lot longer on the CDMA Curve than the AT&T GSM Curve with wifi enabled.

I was mostly pointing out that it does not have FLASH, like the other person stated. At any rate, it is my personal preference to have better battery life than the ability to stream youtube videos.


Why carry around a BT puck as a separate unit just because VZW locks out your device? It kind of defeats the whole purpose of an integrated unit.

Who is going to leave it on 24 hours a day? It is just as easy to toggle it on/off when you are at a wifi hotspot. With EVDO you don't have the option to turn it off and recover battery. And even if you could, CDMA is more power hungry. The BB 9000 is coming out soon, and we are getting 3G networking, which can be turned off. So when we don't need 3G we can still get EDGE data and good battery life. When it EVENTUALLY comes out for VZW you won't even have that option, because .... well, there is nothing to fall back to. I suppose there is 1xRT. But who wants that?

I think that's called an "iPhone", isn't it?

LOL .. Technically you can turn the EVDO off and go with 1X Howeve CDMA by nature does use more battery. Just nature of the beast.

I vote Stick with Verizon .. Great phone and the network is truly hard to beat.

I had VZ for years and never had any issues with them at all. I bought a 8310 from ATT back in December because that was the phone I wanted. Until 2 weeks ago it worked fine but I do notice that call clarity isn't as good and maybe that's because everybody I know is still on VZ and CDMA to GSM calls have never been really all that great. In any event, over the past two weeks I am suddenly experiencing a rash of dropped calls and I have no idea why. I even called ATT and they reset my phone on the network. So far it hasn't helped. They offered to replace it but I don't really think the phone is the issue here.

But I can have GPS, if I want to pay for it. So I get the convenience for an extra $10/month, which because of Verizon's recent change to unlimited calling plans, I can now afford (not that I couldn't afford it before, but I can add it and still pay less than I paid for my 4000min, 500 TXT message, unlimited data plan I had previously). And if I don't want to pay for it, my GPS programs will still work with only the minor inconvenience of an external GPS. You claimed that the only software that worked with the Curve is Verizon's.

Why would I want to worry about turning any feature on and off to preserve battery life? Forget to turn it off, and your battery is dead inside a day. My CDMA phone will still give me at the minimum a few days of standby, without having to disable anything. I thought this was all about convenience for you?

You're getting 3G networking, with speeds that don't differ that dramatically from what Verizon's had for what, 4-5 years now? I'm so happy for you :D

I've been enjoying high-speed data connections for quite some time now, and don't forget that EVDO is a moving target . . . Rev A (which will also be available on CDMA BBs in the future) offers a significant performance boost over Rev 0, and Verizon's moving beyond EVDO in the longer term with its acquisition of the 700Mhz spectrum for LTE. Even so, 1Mbit downstream and 250Kbit up, available all the time, beats the pants off EDGE and holds its own against the HSDPA service you'll likely see in handheld devices. And I don't need to disable it to keep my BB from dying before the end of the day.

HSDPA devices without an external antenna (such as the 9000) will unlikely see downlink performance significantly different from EVDO. And I think the coverage area for this capability will be only a small fraction of EVDO's for quite some time. FWIW, AT&T doesn't even bother to show the 3G coverage areas on its maps :O

You better be careful I hear the fanboy comments warming in their heads. The only thing these others have to throw at us is the GPS being locked out. Its like a jealous rage, they sound like a broken record. When ever they mention verizon thats the first thing out of their pitiful mouths. They know we have excellent service and they are jealous about it.

And its always the non vzw guys thats why I say jealousy. My daughters att phones get the worst service in history in Georgia she cant even make a single call at home with out walking 400 feet to the end of the drive way then its hit or moss.

Service is all relative to where you live. 2 years ago living in Atlanta I had VZW, loved the company, service was great, customer support was top notch as well.

Moved down to South Florida, VZW didnt provide the coverage in the areas where I needed it. Hated having to leave a good company but needed the phone to get better service. Switched to ATT and it has been working fine ever since. Like you said previously, choose service over functions. Words to live by.

Not sure why people have the need to bash other carriers? Whats the point, every one has a strength and a weakness.

I agree with you about the bashing. I just get sick of the same old arguement. All anyone can ever talk about is the GPS thing and there is so much more to a service then GPS.

GPS was probably the least exciting addition for me (personally). I have in car Navigation, having it on my phone isnt all that important. I certainly understand why people were excited about it though.

AT&T charges for their GPS, same as VZW, but AT&T decided to leave the work around so you can add 3rd party apps to use in place of theirs. But, honestly, the free gps apps are pretty much crap.

Oh well I am not allowed to talk about it anymore the mods are threatning to ban me if I dont leave it alone. So I guess the bashers will have free reign now.