by Joanna Canning

Created on: December 27, 2008

Every year it becomes more and more difficult to choose only one best performing cellular phone. Top companies are battling it out to satisfy their customers by providing them with little gadgets that combine the newest technological features with ease of use. Each year we are introduced to an increased number of mini computers that have now become an inseparable part of our personal life and professional career. A cell phone is now much more than just a means of communication with family and friends; we use it as our diary and a journal where we keep lots of different information, from as important as business meeting alerts to our daily shopping lists.

A phone that has been a hit around the world for the last couple of years, an item that we can find in bags and cases of businessmen and celebrities, is without a doubt Blackberry. Year 2008 has seen a growing fascination with yet another model from the team, Blackberry 8320, that combines features of the consumer-friendly Blackberry Curve 8300 and Blackberry 8820 and that I had a chance to try out.

As every Blackberry phone, 8320 is posh and sophisticated and its design suited to modern, successful, career-minded people. It looks great and once you have it in your hand you fall in love with it as its rounded edges fit a hand perfectly. 8320 in black is probably the best looking although it also comes in various shades of grey that present themselves not worse too. One may be at first discouraged by the seemingly tiny buttons but as you start using the phone you don't have any problems pressing them, although, I have to admit, it might be an issue particularly for males with large hands. The screen is big enough (320 by 240 pixels) to browse photos, watch videos and read and write comfortably without tiring your sight, and it is, in fact, one of the biggest advantages of the phone. As far as the menu is concerned, I thought there were too many unnecessary icons that cluttered it and I still believe the menu could be somewhat more reasonably organised, but once you've been using the 8320 for a few days you forget about this little chaos on the screen. Plus, you can always personalise it and try to adjust it to your liking.

In terms of features, the Blackberry 8320 is an impressive PDA phone with 2 MP camera, qwerty keyboard, MP3 player and Wifi connection that now enables you to make voice calls over wireless networks (UMA technology). Connecting to a Wifi network is a breeze and within seconds you can browse the Internet, download files, etc. The phone supports up to 10 e-mail addresses, a desirable feature for business professionals. The picture quality is what you would expect from a mobile 2MP phone camera, images are of good quality, though sporadically blurred. Audio and video player support formats such as MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV, MP4. The battery life is impressive as it stands by up to 400 hours.

The only downfalls this phone has are the lack of in-built GPS, which is of no importance for non drivers anyway, the fact that you cannot start watching a video from the point where you left it to watch another file, and as mentioned before, the size of buttons might prove a bit of a problem for heavy handed users. However, the sleek, stylish design together with the high functionality of Blackberry 8320 prove that this phone has been for me the best performing in 2008. It enables me to be more productive while I am commuting or out of office, keeps me on track with all the tasks and constitutes a great fashion accessory.

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