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BlackBerry Curve 8520
RIM noted consumer demand for mobile email and delivered several inexpensive devices that bridge business and consumer worlds. Its latest offering is the budget BlackBerry Curve 8520 that has access social network and a full QWERTY keyboard.
What we like
This is not the most advanced social networking centric phone we've seen, but it does give you access to Facebook and Twitter, among others, and email and instant messaging packs too. If you want to stay logged in, but do not want to pay a high price for it, then the 8520 will deliver.
It's not as sexy as the BlackBerry Bold, but not as fragile as a sense of the original Pearl, for example. The Curve's screen is sharp and clear, and the audio is loud and clear through the speakers and headphones. We are pleased to say that there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can use your own boxes.
Apart from the good audio experience, the availability of music is made better by the addition of dedicated music keys at the top of the 8520 that allow you to play and pause tracks, or go forward or backward - even if the 8520 is in your pocket.
RIM BlackBerry after shaky start on the App World is starting to look better and using the years 8520 Wi-Fi, you can download applications with relative ease. We downloaded Viigo, one of our favorite BlackBerry applications, and the process was relatively smooth.
What we don't like
It's annoying that there is no 3G or GPS, but we understand RIM wanted to keep costs low so that retailers can sell the 8520 for less. That said, we would like to see a future version of punch brag a little more than downloading content on the go is much nicer when you're rocking 3G.
Instead of a trackball RIM has added a touch sensitive trackpad 8520 that apparently you get used to after a while - we have not. It sounds good, but it's annoying to use in our opinion. Bring the ball please, it might be a bit old now, but it works really well and that's what counts.
While providing the music for the 8520 is its offer great camera is just okay. Its 2-megapixel camera does not take amazing pictures and there is no flash. We also found the 8520's keyboard smaller and harder to press than we would like. The keyboard keys feel tight and we could have done with more space.
Conclusion
It is not a high-end phone and it suffers in some areas, but it does deliver when it comes to email, instant messaging and social networking base. We were impressed by the offer of music and we love that it's not as expensive as other BlackBerry devices, but the lack of 3G is a little off.