If the Aug. 5 release of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone
is any indication, Research
In Motion has decided to devote more of its energies to the consumer market:
the review device that eWEEK has looked at
puts as much emphasis on music, videos and games as it does
business-related tasks. Nonetheless, the smartphone’s features allow it to
operate effectively in both worlds.
Size and Shape:
The first thing you notice about the smartphone is its
form-factor, which is certainly very slim and light. RIM decided to avoid
emulating the Apple iPhone or the Palm Pre, both of which utilize touch-screens,
in favor of its hard QWERTY keyboard. The spokesperson who gave me the Curve
8520 also told me that the keyboard had been engineered to fit the device’s 109
x 60 x 13.90 dimensions; nonetheless, the keys felt "right-sized," and while
typing e-mails or phone numbers I had relatively few incidents of hitting either
the wrong keys or two keys at once.
The Curve 8520 feels a touch lighter than both the Palm Pre
and the iPhone. In place of a touch-screen or track-ball, navigation comes via a
small and intuitive "trackpad" located just beneath the screen.
The smartphone’s status as a more consumer-oriented device
becomes clear when you examine the buttons that line the outer rim of the
device. Along the top, RIM has placed a "Play/Pause/Mute" key, along with a "Previous" and
a "Next" key, for shuffling through media files. The volume keys, meanwhile, sit
along the right side of the device, right where your thumb goes (if holding the
phone in your right hand). This setup of "Dedicated Media Keys" is a little awkward at first; depending on how
you’re holding the device, your hand sometimes blocks the screen as you attempt
to adjust the controls along the top.
The "Convenience" keys on the left and right sides of the device
open the voice-dialing and camera functions, respectively, and these felt
somewhat more natural.
Call Quality
With all the nifty functions present in the BlackBerry, it’s
sometimes easy to forget that the fundamental purpose of the smartphone is to
actually make calls. Although I’ll need a few more days of testing to fully vet
the quality, my initial calls came through crystal-clear and never dropped.
Battery Life
As of this writing, my Curve 8520 has been on for 24 hours,
with maybe 2.5 hours of constant use (e-mail, Web browsing, games) and 20 minutes
of talk, and the battery indicator is down one bar. RIM’s specs have the
lithium-cell battery offering 4.5 hours of talk and 17 days of standby time on a
full charge.
Interface
The phone’s start screen offers Messages, Contacts, Calendar,
Browser, Phone and MyFaves, the last of which is a T-Mobile feature that allows
unlimited nationwide calling to the user’s five favorite people. By touching the
Menu key to the left of the trackpad, I could access a fuller menu of features,
including Media, Downloads and Instant Messaging. Despite BlackBerry pushing
this as a consumer smartphone, business widgets did not receive the short
shrift; for example, I could access Word To Go, which allows the user access to
editing .docs, in two clicks from the menu screen.
Instant Messaging and other functions worked fine, but these
are all pretty much standard-issue for smartphones at this juncture. The Curve
8520 features a media player, for watching videos and listening to music; this
lacked the bells and whistles of Apple’s iTunes player, but from a
pure-functionality standpoint it worked fine, with clear audio and crisp video.
The BlackBerry Media Sync allows you to import music files from either iTunes or
Windows Media Player.
Browser Speed
The Curve 8520 features Wi-Fi that’s 802.11b/g enabled, as
well as a connection through T-Mobile’s mobile network (the phone is a quad-band
world phone, meaning it offers support for EDGE/GPRS/GSM 850/900/1,800/1,900MHz
networks). Browser speed was satisfactory, with news sites such as CNN.com, and
graphics-intensive social-networking sites such as Facebook, loading quickly.
Camera
The Curve 8520 camera is 2 megapixels, which is relatively
standard for smartphones. This proved fine for snapshots, and produced some good
photos in a variety of different lighting conditions. The user can zoom in and
out via the trackpad. After taking the shot, the user has the option of
renaming/saving, sending or trashing the image. It gets the job done, in other
words, but won’t produce any visual masterpieces.
Conclusion
Despite RIM’s new focus on the consumer market with this
edition of the BlackBerry, SMB and enterprise users should have no fear that
they’ve been abandoned. The Curve 8520 supports the BlackBerry Enterprise
Server, as well as up to 10 e-mail accounts. It offers Bluetooth
support, and the interface doesn’t shun business functions in favor of a media
player; users also have access to BlackBerry AppWorld, for the downloading of
customized business-related applications (not to mention games).
That being said, the emphasis on dedicated media keys, media
player, mobile streaming for videos and music, and social networking
(through
Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, Flickr Photo Uploader for
BlackBerry
smartphones, and MySpace for BlackBerry smartphones) may put off some
procurement managers who want the smartphones in their enterprise or
SMB (small and midsize businesses) to be all-business-all-the-time.
Editor's Note: A correction was made to the description of support for the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
/ 6 
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