Discount BlackBerry Curve: Business and Multimedia Pleasure, All in One Package

The lineup of BlackBerrys is simply getting bigger and better as time passes by. This time around, Research In Motion introduces the BlackBerry Curve – a smart phone that isn’t just made as a business tool.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 (Sprint Nextel) PDA PHONE US $56.00 (19 Bids) Auction Ends: End Date: Thursday Sep-02-2010 20:51:09 PDT Add to watch list

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8320 (T-Mobile) US $61.00 (11 Bids) Auction Ends: End Date: Thursday Sep-02-2010 20:53:11 PDT Add to watch list

NEW BLACKBERRY CURVE 8320 WiFi AT&T T-MOB. ROGERS PHONE US $112.50 (22 Bids) Auction Ends: End Date: Thursday Sep-02-2010 20:54:25 PDT Add to watch list

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8310 (AT&T) US $61.00 (9 Bids) Auction Ends: End Date: Thursday Sep-02-2010 20:55:26 PDT Add to watch list

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8350i for Nextel (Sprint) US $102.50 (14 Bids) Auction Ends: End Date: Thursday Sep-02-2010 20:57:01 PDT Add to watch list

The Curve is slim at 0.6 inches and lightweight at 3.9 ounces. It’s small and light enough to fit in the pocket. The Curve’s design is a liquid-silver finish with accents of chrome on rounded edges, giving it a classy and attractive look. You also get a full-QWERTY keyboard that is backlit, making it more reliable than the SureType keyboard of the Pearl. The keyboard is well-spaced, making typing with your thumbs a joy. Located on the front of the Curve is a 2.5-inch 320 x 240-pixel LCD display. For navigation, the Curve has a white trackball in the middle and the assorted dedicated buttons located around the phone.

Pearl users will be envious of how well the Curve is able to handle multimedia. The 2-megapixel camera at the back of the phone is enough to take pictures to be printed on 4 x 6 sheets. It has an integrated flash that allows you to take pictures even in dim environments.  On the other hand, there is no video recording function. The device supports a bevy of codecs for multimedia playing. For audio, it supports AAC, MP3, WMA and for video, MPEG-4, H.263, WMV. To play videos on the Curve, you have to go through a conversion, just in case your file is not supported. This conversion is done by the bundled Desktop Media Manager software by Roxio. The software is quite intuitive, and it will attempt to convert any file that the Curve cannot natively play. The internal speaker is decent, though you might want to use your headphones for better multimedia experience.

BlackBerry phones have long since perfected the art of push e-mail, and the Curve is no different. Setting up accounts is a breeze and the Curve is able to handle up to 10 accounts, both personal and corporate. Pecking at the keyboard just became a whole lot easier with the new spell-checker function and a dictionary that you can customize. Just like other BlackBerrys, you can open different file formats such as Word, JPEG and Excel files. Internet browsing is done through EDGE, though it lacks HSDPA and Wi-Fi connection options.

Call quality with the BlackBerry Curve is generally good, though the earpiece was a bit weak. Battery endurance is excellent as well. You get 4 hours of talk time and 17 days of standby. Overall, the features that RIM put together on the BlackBerry Curve make it a very well-rounded smart phone.