BlackBerry Curve 8520 Smartphone Reviews and Deals

BlackBerry Curve 8520 review

Good

A low cost BlackBerry; push email

Bad

No 3G; smudgy backplate

Overview

Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry brand is synonymous with business mobile phones. The smartphone manufacturer has been at this QWERTY keyboard push email lark for years, and has it down pat. But where once it was a big fish in a small pond, it's now a big fish in a shark infested ocean.

Apple and HTC have moved into the arena with flashy touchscreens, while mobile's big guns such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung are now producing as many smartphones as dumb ones – so what was BlackBerry to do to take advantage if this growing market?

One answer is the Curve 8520, which those nice folks over at Orange were good enough to send us. At a glance, you could mistake it for the Bold, the jewel in the BlackBerry crown – it has a similar two-and-a-half-inch screen and QWERTY keyboard layout, same shape, same black casing and button configuration. But when you look a little closer, you start spotting the subtle differences.

On the down side, the finish seems a little cheaper – especially the grease attracting back panel. The metal trim is replaced by, well, more black, and it just looks and feels a little cheaper (although it's still comfy in the hand). But an added plus here is that's exactly what it is – easier on the wallet.

Work

That said, while the price point of the Curve is significantly lower than that of the Bold, it still packs the most important things – BlackBerry's best-in-class push email functionality, plus the operating system and user interface so many have come to know and love.

While there are clearly camps of warring Apple lovers and haters, there is a sense of belonging to a club about taking on a BlackBerry. With many mobile providers, you need to be on a specific BlackBerry tariff, while others require you to pay extra for a bolt-on to make its special services to work. It takes a little bit of fiddling around to configure, but once you have, you quickly start to see what all the fuss is about.

You can set up multiple email accounts to deliver messages directly to your mobile (called push email), which you can then delete on both the handset and your email account if desired. Replying is as easy as sending a text, while attachments are handled well by BlackBerry's mobile office applications.

Don't expect showy Apple-esque finery, as BlackBerry is still a business brand at heart. Calling, messaging, calendars and organisers are largely basic and text-based, but this makes them simple to use and understand – just what you need for the kind of functions you just want to use quickly, then get on with your life. The system is tried and tested and works beautifully.

Play

Another feature of the Curve is the addition of multimedia buttons. Clearly aimed at tempting in a new younger and less businessy audience, three keys down the right edge of Curve 8520's casing give you access to the camera and let you raise and lower the volume. The top of the handset houses play/stop, fast forward and rewind buttons.

With the ability to raise the memory of the device with 32GB memory cards (our one from Orange came with a free 2GB card), there's plenty of room for storing your tunes. The media player is simple and functional, with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a pretty good on-board speaker to annoy the locals. You can easily drag and drop your songs into the mass storage of the phone via PC – no need for something fancy, such as Apple's iTunes software – it's simple drag and drop.

If you want to watch videos in squinty vision on the 2.5-inch screen, the 8520 packs DivX support so you shouldn't have to convert any files – just drag them over from your PC the same way you can with your tunes. Sweet.

The news isn't so good when it comes to the retro two-megapixel camera, which takes poor fixed focus happy snaps with no flash in sight. That said, if you want to take pictures you'll want to keep forever and blow up the size of billboards, I advise you to go and buy a camera, not a cameraphone. If you want a blurry pic of your friends drunk at a festival to put on Facebook, this will do the job (just).

That said, the BlackBerry Facebook app is a bit rubbish at the moment. Don't be under any illusion – the BlackBerry app store is a very different beast than Apple's behemoth. There's still a pretty good choice though, specially for business apps.

Connectivity

This may well be the biggest area of concern for a lot of potential buyers, but things aren't as bad as they may initially sound.

Firstly, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 isn't 3G. This means it's not ideal for internet usage and generally getting online, but in truth the small VGA resolution screen was never designed for this anyway. Secondly, there's no on-board GPS, so it won't be replacing your sat nav any time soon.

However, it does have a very efficient and simple Wi-Fi set up, meaning it will automatically hook up to any wireless broadband signal you tell it to once you've done it once. Also, the push email service works absolutely fine over EDGE (the enhanced 2G mobile signal most people get nowadays) so your general communication won't be adversely affected unless you want to receive lots of image or attachment heavy emails.

Performance

I've experienced no problems in performance with the BlackBerry Curve 8520, but that is probably more to do with its limitations than any great processor power or efficiency of operating system.

It really comes down to what you want to use a smartphone for. If you're happy with few visual bells and whistles, aren't looking for it to replace your trips to the cinema, and aren't intending to run every app simultaneously, then you'll be fine.

Verdict

In the end, the Curve 8520 does everything RIM is famous for really well, and everything else adequately (except getting you online via 3G) – I can't find a reason not to recommend it. Then again, the only reason not to go for something slightly posher in the BlackBerry range would be purely financial. But whichever way you look at it, this is a nice little entry level smartphone.

Sponsored tariffs for this handset
200 Minutes   9999 texts   100MBper month   £20.50 per Month   24 Month Contract	100 Minutes   9999 texts   Unlimited Data  (fair use policy of 500MB)   £20.50 per Month   24 Month Contract	500 Minutes   9999 texts   Unlimited Data  (fair use policy of 500MB)   £25.00 per Month   24 Month Contract
Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now

BlackBerry Curve 8520 specification and features

Model

BlackBerry Curve 8520

Manufacturer

BlackBerry

Operating system

BlackBerry OS

Colours

Black, purple, blue, white, red, silver, violet, pink, lilac

Mobile internet

WiFi

Yes

3G

No

HSDPA

No

Size

Size

109mm x 60mm x 14mm

Weight

106g

Features

Talktime

5 hrs

Standby

408 hrs

Touchscreen

No

QWERTY keyboard

Yes

Camera

2 megapixel

Video

No

GPS

No

Bluetooth

Yes

Music Phone

Yes

FM Radio

No

Quad Band

Yes

Video featuring BlackBerry Curve 8520

Share your opinions about the BlackBerry Curve 8520

Add your review now