Asking $450 for a Blackberry Curve 8330 seems ridiculous. MetroPCS began selling the Blackberry 8330 for this price earlier this month. While this is the first smart phone for the discount cell phone service provider, it is a hard price to sell. Sure, the ability to have a Blackberry and its many functions for $60 a month sounds great, but at that buy in price many are considering other options.
As many already know, cell phones can be “flashed” and used on practically any service including MetroPCS. What is flashing? Simply put, flashing is a way in which a cell phone’s firmware is either changed or rewritten. Flashing a cell phone allows you to carry a phone to a different service provider in the event that you change. Flashing can also work in the event that you wish to use a phone not sold by a specific provider. For instance, say you want a Blackberry Storm which is exclusive to Verizon. The flashing process would theoretically allow you to take that Blackberry Storm and use it on another provider’s service plan. However, this is not always the case.
While flashing a cell phone is a practically simple modification process, some phones do not take well to the process. That is where the whole Blackberry MetroPCS problem lies. While $450 for a Blackberry you could purchase in theory for less than $200 elsewhere may seem outrageous, flashing is not really a good option. There are a few reasons for this.
First and foremost, MetroPCS offers Blackberry functionality but they do not support all models. In fact, the newer models are a no-go at this point. MetroPCS can only support the Blackberry Curve 8330 at this point and time. In regards to flashing another Blackberry model to MetroPCS, that seems like a bad idea. The fact of the matter is that when a Blackberry is flashed to be used on MetroPCS, it loses most of the inherent Blackberry functions. When a Blackberry is flashed for MetroPCS the only functions that phone is then capable of are talk, text, and picture messaging with your camera. The navigation of the phone is often messed up.
Again, it may be a technical glitch within the MetroPCS system itself as it has been less than a month since the company began selling the Blackberry. But to have a smart phone that isn’t very smart seems more impractical than a $450 Blackberry Curve. Perhaps in the future flashing will be possible without the downfall. We will all have to wait and see. As for right now however, it is advised that if you are thinking about using a Blackberry on MetroPCS, that you stick with their $450 model to stay safe
Image Credited to Wikipedia User Tkgd2007
any idea if the oldest blackberry model (7510) can be flashed…just got metropcs as a second phone and their phone sux and i have this old blackberry that i’d love to use instead. Any resources you can direct me toward? thx
Comment by Julian — March 30, 2009 @ 3:14 pm