With all the Blackberry Storm, RIM manufactured a enormous step in the direction of the consumer market. That has a touchscreen, recently developed multimedia participant as well as a 3.2-megapixel camera, it was a step away from the straight-laced company philosophy that folks were utilized to from the Canadian producer.

Now, RIM has introduced one more more consumer-focused, decrease cost gadget inside type with the 8520 Curve.

Despite the fact that this most recent device doesn't function a touchscreen, there is a freshly made touch sensitive navigation button, situated inside centre below the screen. This takes the location with the Pearl, one element of your RIM we've turn into accustomed to.

This optical trackpad is productive at re-inventing a way to navigate about the Blackberry - allowing you to scroll easily by way of menus. Like the Pearl, you are able to press down on the trackpad to select an merchandise. For individuals people who have been employing a Blackberry using a Pearl, it may take just a little time to obtain utilised for the experience, but quickly you are going to find it really is more responsive.

On either aspect of this navigation element, there is the common RIM key that pulls up a content-specific menu, depending on which app you're employing, plus a again crucial within the right hand side. Within the outer edges, you will locate call solution and finish buttons. All 4 of those keys are recessed, giving the Curve 8520 a super-sleek finish.

Nonetheless, this sleek, shiny finish does can come that has a foible. The outer casing attracts much more fingerprints than some other RIM, so you may be wiping away smudges from dawn till dusk.

The keyboard is a joy to make use of. The keys may possibly be modest, but they're also somewhat tilted, and raised, so your fingers can locate them with out a lot situation.

A single thing which will actually strike you about the RIM Curve 8520 could be the feather-weight load when it really is inside your hand or pocket. At just 106g, it can be the lightest Blackberry yet. It's also slim and properly formed, ensuring your pockets will not be bulging.

Inside the Blackberry, there's absolutely nothing lacking to trigger concern. Even Wi-Fi is onboard, though you may miss the 3G capabilities when away from a hotspot. EDGE does make an appearance, while that's not considerably quicker than GPRS.

Multimedia is this device's major recreation. The digital camera is only 2-megapixels without a flash or autofocus, but devoted music keys alongside the top rated permit you to access tunes in a very jiffy.

A whole IM folder permits you to chat to your buddies or colleagues using RIM Messenger, Goal, Google Speak, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger or Windows Reside Messenger using the apps currently around the handset. It really is a shame there's not only one app that can signal you in to all of those on the same time preinstalled, but downloading RIM App World will eliminate this problem, that has a complete range of apps at your fingertips.

The 2.6-inch display screen is just as large as within the higher-end devices for example the Bold, and also with its lower-resolution screen (320 x 240 pixels in comparison with 480 x 320 pixels), it is equally as crisp, vibrant and obvious.

The interface is not anything new, sticking for the basic icon-based RIM look, with customisable shortcuts at the bottom of your display screen and massive, apparent icons in the major menu.

The Paperwork to Go suite of apps is preinstalled, permitting you to view Word, Excel, PDF and image files around the transfer. You will not have the ability to produce paperwork nevertheless - this can be a feature reserved for the premium version in the application.

What is beautiful on the Blackberry 8520 will be the battery existence. As opposed to any other Blackberry we've examined, the handset only needed charging as soon as each 3 days.