Think of BlackBerry and automatically you think of email on the move, you think of easy, flawless, seamless communication. You think business device, office on the move, smartphone. What you don’t think, if you are being honest, is entertainment, feature rich specification or all round connectivity. Because, let’s face it, the BlackBerry is an almost device, crossing over from the business market to the consumer market, an almost device in the sense that it is almost a fully fledged consumer handset, but there is always something missing. WiFi here, HSDPA there, GPS elsewhere, for example.
The latest handset in the BlackBerry line-up is the Curve 8520, a compact phone, similar in design and look to the other recent BlackBerry to carry the Curve name, the 8900. A level entry handset, the 8520 of course comes complete with full email functionality we have come to expect from BlackBerry devices. As well as email, the Curve also offers instant messaging, with support for most popular IM platforms, such as MSN Messenger, Yahoo and AOL. The menu layout is standard BlackBerry, colourful icons, underneath which are the long lists of options the BlackBerry menu is infamous for. One new innovation on the Curve is the way the menu is navigated; there is no trackball, instead we find an optical track pad. To move around the menu, simply run your finger over the track pad, left, right, up and down, and the highlighter on screen mirrors your actions, as you highlight and select the option you want. It is a very simple way of navigating the menu, and takes very little time to get used to.
The simplistic design of the 8520 conveys laidback elegance. Compact, the Curve 8520 measures in at 109 x 60 x 13.9mm and weighs 106g. The screen is as on many other BlackBerry handsets, a TFT screen, supporting up to 65,000 colours, which gives a surprisingly clear look and images present sharp and clear. The screen has a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, and measures 2.64 inches point to point. On screen we find the standard 6 icon shortcuts, which mirror the top six icons from the full menu, offering shortcut access to the most often used menu items. Underneath the display alongside the track pad, is the menu back button, menu access button, send and end keys, and the keypad itself is comprised of a 35 key QWERTY keypad. Despite the size of the keys, composing a message is comfortable and seasoned QWERTY users should find no problems.
