BlackBerry 8900 Curve Mobile Phone Review - Excellence in a Case, But Without 3G

The BlackBerry 8900 is the beneficiary to the BlackBerry 83xx catena. Despite maintaining a full-QWERTY keyboard, it is slightly slimmer, but otherwise the same size and weight as the 83xx,. Weighing in at 109g the Curve is very pocket/handbag friendly. Produced by RIM, the 8900 Curve is the mid-range BlackBerry, fitting neatly in among the Bold and Storm and the Pearl and Flip.

The BlackBerry 8900 Curve uses the OS 4.6 platform which allows for improved web browsing (with Ajax support), peerless document support including Word and Excel formats, with one joined perquisite for the spelling-challenged user - a continuous spell checker. In terms of speed when browsing - this phone is slower than the daring, whatever, as the mid-range hunk market attempting, this is to be anticipated. What is loses in speed to the bold, it gains in screen size.

The shade ashore the 8900 bend has been additional apt 480 x 360 pixels in size, with a cutback in the wasted space which circled the shade and keyboard in its ancestor. While this is nearly the same resolution as the Bold (48x360 versus 480x320), it is larger in size, and probably still the best above the market. The colours are warmer in intonation but still comfortable to see at.

The keyboard is more or less identical to the older curve, the feel and layout are alike, but with the keys quite slightly sloped in their set-up - less so than on the Bold, and virtually enough to notice unless you look closely at them. The key behavior is less squishy than that of the Bold. The trackball has been constricted up somewhat compared to the older edition.

The physical arrival is still typical of the BlackBerry range - compared to its faster brother (the Bold) this call is slightly fewer sophisticated in advent - the chrome looks a tiny inexpensive and it comes cross as a tool for the middle-manager.

The camera has also been cultivated - this now has a 3.2 megapixel resolution sensor with autofocus and image stabilisation.

Regular email polling is a criterion function, fair as in the recess of the BlackBerry range: POP3, IMAP and additional email accounts are assisted as well as BES, Groupwise and Domino send servers. Incoming emails tin be in HTML and attachments in maximum formats tin be peruse, including Word and Excel files. Call admission in areconsist in ... marginal whistle is better than the 83xx range of Blackberries.

If speed is what you are aiming for when it comes to your web browsing hand set - then this phone is outclassed along its more sophisticated big brother. The Bold has 3G, the Curve does not. If you are merry with a puny lag in the answer times, and absence to hold a Blackberry in your hand - then this is the mid-range phone for you.

Our opinion:

Despite RIM being a relatively small corporation, they arguably generate the best range of phones on the market, agreeable competition for the Apple iPhone. As a mid-range phone this is a absolute chip of kit, so long as you don't expect 3G. For the human with a little more persistence, with a slightly smaller budget to spend, and who hopes to hold a Blackberry in their hand, the Blackberry 8900 Curve is probably as agreeable as you are ever working to get.