BlackBerry Curve 8520 gets a hands-on, photo shoot
By Laura June 
posted July 27th 2009 7:19PM
posted July 27th 2009 7:19PM
Hot on the heels of the word that RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8520 would be heading for Vodaphone in the UK, Pocket Lint's gotten a hold of one. The optical trackball-boasting, entry-level non-3G darling looks pretty brilliant in the photos, despite its stripped down form factor. Pocket Lint is also reporting that it'll be Vodaphone-bound in August, and it'll also be available through Orange for pre-paid deals and from Carphone Warehouse where it'll be offered in violet. Now that, we'll admit, we're kind of interested in. The 8520 (or Gemini, as it's also known) is T-Mobile-bound in the US of A, most likely on August 5th. There's another shot after the break -- hit the read link for the full set.
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I'll close it.
Makes an excellent compliment to an iPhone.... they're both great phones in their own respects, just swap out the sims and these two phones should be awesome.
quite a sexy keypad but the screen looks dim in the pics
add 3g and a front camera
phoneArena has had a review up for at least a month now
I just got the BB Tour on sprint and I like it very much. I like the tracking ball even though sometimes it can be a bit laggy (I found that turning the sensitivy down all the way will help).. If the optical trackball is superior in any way, then I wish the Tour had the same feature since it's also one of the latest blackberrys. Great phone though, the best one I have ever owned so far
They cheaped out on that lower res screen which was a stupid move.
Terry, this is entry level, Entry level phones don't get the highest res screens...they get entry level.
Whats with the small screen? You can't watch movies on that tiny thing, you'd have to squint.
Why did they even bother to put buttons on the phone?
Apple proved that you can get rid of buttons without loss of function, Hell! You get more function WITHOUT buttons because you can put whatever you want in their place!
When is the Blackberry going to start innovating?
you're joking, right?
I'm very serious.
What kind of phone has such a high price but limits it's hardware and interface?
This is supposed to be a premium phone, why don't they make it look and feel like one then?
because its a blackberry, not an iphone.
well. to be fair, BB did make a touchscreen phone. And look how that went
Yeah, they should totally ditch the whole "keyboard" thing, and who wants multi-tasking anyways? \sarcasm
I would never use a Blackberry (or an iPhone for that matter) to watch movies. Blackberrys (Blackberries?) aren't made to cater to the same crowd that buys iPhones. And aside from that, you have the Blackberry Storm if you want a keyboard-less Blackberry.
and to be fair, that touchscreen blackberry would have been very good if not for 2 issues.
1) Rushing to get it out for the holidays and launching with a buggy OS
and
2) INNOVATING. Yes I said it. Not everyone on the planet universally despises the surepress screen, I know several people who like it. RIM took a risk by creating a way to add a level of tactitlity on a touchsreen and while it wasn't a huge success, it was a risk worth taking to at the very least, find out what didn't work and improve on it the next time. Unlike apple which would rather cripple features for 2 generation (like MMS, video recording, etc) rather than risk them not go 100% as planned and ruin their sterling reputation. They take the "innovative" route of stealing ideas from small companies no one knows about and claiming them as their own.
This isn't a premium phone, it's an "entry-level non-3G" Blackberry and I'd take a tactile keyboard over a touch screen anyday....
Driftwood plz. That's what I want. That's what T-Mobile needs.
:BUMP:
Yes!!! I need my next BlackBerry from good old Magenta, flavored w/some 3G, as nothing else will do!
The rumored 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, QWERTY keyboard (A MUST for me), optical trackpad, and 480×360 res screen wouldn't hurt either...
Until then, the 8900 looks nice and all, but it is not enough to get me to sign my life away for another two years. My 8320 does the job for now, but I'd ditch it in a heartbeat for the Driftwood/96xx.
And so I wait...
If you like cancer, get blackberry. Our phones are barely legal.
"...would be heading for Vodaphone in the UK"
Vodaphone? Srsly?
Man, what's with RIM? No 3G for a 2009 smartphone? Even Sony Ericsson's low-end Cybershot phone has 3G. RIM, why can't you just improve upon the Bold? Forget these various differentiations using old hardware, it's a waste of time.
still no iphone...blackberry's suck!