BlackBerry throws a Curve ball

• • Nice design
• • Small and light
• • Good, all round phone

Finally someone at RIM, the makers of Blackberry, has been listening to the market- you know, those weird and wonderful people sometimes also called customers, and has managed to come up with a BlackBerry that even a teenager could love.

Known as the Curve 3G, this is a little gem of a smartphone from a company that has been body slammed so many times by Apple in the past 3 years, it’s amazing that they are still standing.

Nevertheless, the BlackBerry Curve 3G is, dare I say a great phone and a testament to RIM’s development team and what the BlackBerry should and could have always been.

It has a great, rounded, smooth design, is light but is not toy-like as with some phones in this genre. OK, so the Curve does have a lo-res screen, but lets face it, the vast majority of people use a mobile phone for, well phoning and taking calls and not for much else.

The Curve 3G is not the phone I would use to take snapshots nor as a gaming device, but if you want a well-made yet not-too-bulky smartphone with most of the bells and whistles, the Curve 3G is it.

It is enabled for Wi-Fi, 3G, HSDPA, HSUPA, USB, GPS connectivity as well as the ability to use Facebook and Twitter. It also sports a 2 megapixel camera and can play both MP3 and MPEG-4 videos.

Like most BlackBerry devices, the Curve 3G uses a QWERTY keypad, which these days is almost a rarity when we think of touchscreens, however there are still plenty of people out there in consumer-land that actually prefer a real, tactile keyboard and in this respect, the Curve delivers.

Weighing in at a tiny 104 gms means that it can be carried around with ease and being just 60 x 14 x 109 mm is size means keeping it your shirt pocket is also a real possibility.

For those that use their phone for emailing, the Curve 3G will provide SMS, MMS, E-mail, Instant Messaging and Push e-mail as well as having the ability to view and send JPEGS, Video and play games whilst on the train, bus or ferry.

Yes, the BlackBerry Curve 3G is a great little piece of engineering from Canada’s RIM and one that could, in fact, should lift the company out of its self-imposed design doldrums fairly quickly.

Pros: Light, fast and easy to use

Cons: useless camera, low-res screen and fairly standard battery life.

Score: 3.5 / 5