BlackBerry Curve 8900

At the end of 2008, Black berry gave us the storm and earlier on, the 8220 PEARL FLIP both dramatic design departures from phones one would normally associate with RIM. The new Curve™ 8900, also known by its code name of Javelin, is a nuts-and-bolts BlackBerry® smartphone, doing everything one would need with the minimum of fuss and in a form factor everyone instantly recognises as a BlackBerry®. But this is no lazy warm-over, this is a full-on upgrade to the Curves ™ gone by!

Why You Should Buy It!

• Full QWERTY keyboard and traditional BlackBerry® trackball for navigation.
• Enjoy wireless Internet access with the Wi-Fi connection.
• Gorgeous high resolution (480x360) 2.4” screen.
• Expandable memory via a MircoSD card.
• Built-in GPS.
• A 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera.

If you need almost constant access to your email then there are few other mobile devices on the market which will suit you better than a BlackBerry®, plus if you like simplicity and usability, there's little to challenge the Curve™ and its big brother, the Bold™. Access your work's BlackBerry® Enterprise or Microsoft Exchange network easily or by entering your username and password, your personal Yahoo or Gmail accounts are also ready to go. Plus, with the Curve's™ push email system, emails appear on your handset with no prompting from you.

Despite this return to a more business orientated style, RIM haven't removed the entertainment and leisure applications which had begun to creep into their phones. The music player may not look anything special, but it certainly sounds it and thanks to that fantastic high resolution screen, videos played on the 8900 look great too. The camera mounted on the rear of the handset is an acceptable 3.2 megapixels and from early indications takes impressive daylight photos. The autofocus and flash unit improve your shots and it also has the ability to shoot video too.

The 8900 Curve™ has BlackBerry® Maps pre-installed for use with the GPS receiver and the phone also supports A2DP Bluetooth for handsfree calls or wire-free music enjoyment. If controversy is to be found anywhere inside the 8900, it's when looking at the connectivity. This is a quad-band mobile and supports GPRS and EDGE, with Wi-Fi for when greater speed is needed, however the Curve™ 8900 is a 2G device rather than a 3G. Of course, this is understandable as if the Curve™ had everything, why buy the Bold™?

Summary of the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 smartphone.

It's worth mentioning just how compact the new Curve™ is too, as it's a genuinely pocketable QWERTY mobile phone thanks to dimensions of 109x60x13.5 and a weight of 110 grams. Add to the features above a full HTML browser and plenty of organisational tools all run by the excellent BlackBerry® 4.6 Operating System and you have another winner from RIM. Any decision to purchase the latest evolution of the Curve™ is only made difficult by the existence of the Bold™, a choice which will ultimately come down to a desire for increased portability or 3G. Either way, if you choose the new 8900 Curve™, your satisfaction is assured.