RIM BlackBerry Curve Review

The Curve has a very elegant design, neither flashy nor boring at the same time. The front and back are made up of a silver plastic. The left, right, and top sides are covered in a black rubber. This doesn’t give a lot of grip but it gives just enough support so it doesn’t slide out of your hand.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
BlackBerry Curve	4.20" x 2.40" x 0.60"	107 x 61 x 15.5	3.90	110.5
BlackBerry 8800	4.48" x 2.59" x 0.55"	114 x 66 x 14	4.72	134
T-Mobile Dash	4.39" x 2.46" x 0.50"	111.5 x 62.5 x 13	4.23	120
Samsung BlackJack	4.44" x 2.32" x 0.46"	113 x 59 x 11.8	3.52	100

With a dimension of 106 x 61 x 15.5 (4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches) and a weight of 110.5g (3.9 oz), the Curve is very comfortable to hold. The front holds a 2.6” inch display with a resolution of 320 x 240, which is the same one used on the 8830 but matches with the Curve much better. It is very legible, even in bright sunlight as the automatic light sensor does well at adjusting the brightness.

Located just below the screen are the trackball, call button, hang-up button, menu button, and back button. Below that is the full QWERTY keyboard. The buttons are small but because they are separated from each other, they are easily distinguishable and also provide feedback when pressed. There were times where we would press the two buttons at once but this didn’t happen often. This is much better than the 8800 or Pearl. With the 8800, the buttons are squeezed so close together that you can end up pressing many at one time. The Pearl uses a QWERTY keyboard but there are two letters assigned to each key.

Just above the display, the speaker and LED indicator are located. The LED informs you whether there is reception. When charging, the LED is glow red to show it is charging and then green once it is completely charged.

One the right side, you will find the shortcut button for the camera and the volume rocker above it. On the left is the voice dialing shortcut (which AT&T changed to Push-to-Talk as the default), miniUSB connection, and 3.5mm audio jack. Located on the top are the hands-free speaker button and the hands-free speaker. Apart from the voice dialing shortcut, the buttons are placed a little deep and it takes some force to press, especially the volume rocker. The two shortcut buttons can be changed to many other applications if you don’t like the defaults.


The back houses a 2MP camera with flash and a mirror. The camera does not have a cover but is embedded a little deeper so that there is no need to worry about scratching the lens. The back comes off to reveal the battery. Below the battery is the location for the SIM card and the microSD card which is very inconvenient as you need to turn the phone off everytime you wish to change it out. It seems odd that RIM chose to place it here since the 8830’s was placed just above the battery. It might be a real deal breaker if you have plenty of cards to switch between.