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Not in the too distant past, BlackBerry reigned supreme when it came to QWERTY phones. But in just a year, blowers toting full keyboards have gone from being the preserve of City boys and harried media morons to must–have touchscreen alternatives. And the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is RIM’s attempt to corner the kids with a classic effort, and slap down competition from Nokia and INQ in the process. Can it do it? Read our full BlackBerry Curve 8520 review to find out.
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is not a top–end smartphone. There’s no 3G or GPS, but pick it up and you’ll find a slick–looking QWERTY mobile which does what BlackBerrys do best: handle myriad mail accounts, with a few added app extras to boot.
In the hand, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 feels sturdy and solid. The faux metal casing of the Curve 8900 has been replaced with ruggedised plastic and curved edges. That doesn’t mean it’s as tough as the Sonim S1, but then it’s not as ugly as a night out with a gaggle of Premier League footballers, while the Sonim most certainly is.
In fact, the new frame is just the first in a line of tweaks that make this one of the best BlackBerrys to use yet. The Curve 8520 packs dedicated media keys at the top, so you can fiddle with music playback and the like in your pocket, rather than going through a raft of fiddly menus.
The biggest draw, though, is the new trackpad. Replacing the trackball first seen on the BlackBerry Pearl, it takes just a few seconds to master and feels far more intuitive than the sometimes erratic analogue sphere. In fact, it also means you don’t get tat stuck in the d–pad at all, so there’s no issues trying to clean the Curve 8520 after you’ve slung it in the bottom of your bag.
The Curve 8520 also comes with the tweaked version of BlackBerry App World installed too. That means you can now search apps easier and find and install them by vendor. It’s a much–needed makeover and makes this basic blower stand out from the crowd.
Read our BlackBerry Storm review
The only time the Curve 8520 really falls down is persistent keyboard use. We found, as with the Curve 8900, that typing quickly can cause your hands to feel uncomfortably cramped after ten minutes quickfire texting. Not great if your email addiction is causing you to seek counselling. Think the kind of aches you get after a five hour PS3 marathon and you get the idea.
That, however, is the only real flaw here. This isn’t a BlackBerry for those who want to spend hours mooching around the web or squinting at repeats of Friends on the way to the office. This is all about email and apps. And seeing as you lot seem to love downloading extras for nowt these days, it’s a worthy cheap alternative to some of the pricier QWERTY efforts out there.
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