Well to put it simply I just couldn't resist. I just bought a 8830 from Verizon on Saturday (used a corp discount), but I stopped by a ATT store while at the Union St Fair in SF on Sunday and saw the little 8300 and couldn't resist. I now have 2 blackberry's (returned the 8830 and re activated my 8703e). It's an AWESOME device. I think it is truely a significant size difference from the 8800's. It's got the camera which I was STOKED to play with and contrary to other reports I think it takes pretty good pictures for a camera on a phone. Ok this going to be short I literally just got home with the little tyke and I'm stoked more to come.

PS
As for my verizon one I'm going to look for a cheap KRZR or small verizon phone then call them and tell them I broke my blackberry, so I can ditch all my extra services with them besides voice. They don't have service where I work anyways and cingy does and I spend atleast 15 full days a month there!

How is the speed of sync/browser compared to Cingular?

I bet the Verizon speeds are killer.

I have both Verizon and at&t, and to tell you the truth Verizon's EVDO is not that much faster then at&t's EDGE.
I put my dad's 8830 up against my 8800 and it's almost the same speed, the 8830 is about 3 seconds quicker,same with my 8703.Not an earth shattering difference when you compare them side by side.

Well I'll put it this way. TO me the 8703e and 8300 are close to the same. The 8830 I feel is slightly faster than the 8300 and a considerable amount faster than the 8703e. I base this judgement solely off of navigating to websites like myspace, facebook etc.

After having the phone for a couple hours some new impressions. At first I felt the OS was a little slow it's definatly more snappy now the phones been running awhile. I was able to download all my favorite programs (Beyond411, Google Maps, JiveTalk) and blackberry messanger was pre installed (I thought ATT did not support this?).

I am a little disappointed with all the extra stuff ATT puts on the phone icon wise "Shop this shop that,"
Can't get the XM radio streaming to work... Any ideas?

Well thats it for now...

Yea the lag on the Curve pretty much goes away once it's warmed up for the first time! Also, do a reset by removing the battery after it's fully charged. Mine is much faster from when I took it out of the box, just about the same as my 8800.