Blackberry Curve

Blackberry curves it to them

# Blackberry Curve
SingTel: $798 (w/o contract)
# StarHub: $968 (w/o contract)
# Get it at StarHub and SingTel mobile phone retailers

Blackberry made a name for itself as the quintessential communications tool for businessmen. But its new offering, the Blackberry Curve, marks its ambition to conquer the consumer market as well.

The usual enterprise applications are still there - like the powerful e-mail functions with support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise to push out corporate e-mail in real-time.

But the big difference this time is that the applications are housed in a sleek and elegant chassis (left) that won't look out of place outside the meeting room. Yes, the Curve does indeed have some sexy curves.

Despite its petite size and lightness, the quad-band smartphone manages to house a full Qwerty keyboard for easy and quick typing. The buttons are easy to use and provide good tactile feedback when pressed, and there are several in-built shortcuts to further simplify usage.

The Curve also comes with an array of media capabilities and consumer applications so consumers don't feel out of place using the phone. There is a 2.0-megapixel camera with flash, a music and video player, and you can download games off the web as well. It also uses a 3.5mm earphone jack so you can plug in your own set of earphones instead of those provided, which are not half bad either.

But one thing that greatly cripples the phone's usefulness is its limited connectivity. There is neither 3G nor Wi-Fi support, so you have to depend solely on the somewhat slower GPRS connectivity to go online.

Another gripe: The menu interface was an eyesore, with row upon row of icons cluttering the screen. But strangely, it was still easy to navigate.

Overall, the phone performed admirably, with almost no delay when opening and running applications, something which the Windows Mobile and Symbian interface used in other smartphones suffer from. And I had several applications running in the background on the Curve to boot.

Battery life was also decent: The phone lasted five days with moderate usage, including taking calls and web surfing.

FINAL SAY
The Blackberry Curve is a great phone for people who demand both form and function of a gadget. However, the price is steep for a 2.5G version. Then again, look at the iPhone.

- By Lim Yee Hung, a freelance writer