subject: Blackberry Curve 8520 Review [print this page] The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a business class phone by the big name Blackberry which comes at an affordable price. Blackberry came up with something new this time by introducing music keys in the Curve 8520. Weighing just 109 grams and having dimensions 109 x 60 x 13.9 mm it is a lightweight business cum music phone.
As the cell phone is made in plastic, the design of the mobile does not look presentable. The look of the plastic is still acceptable but the front portion of the cell phone has been designed in such a way that it does not qualify to be called a business class phone. It seems as though BlackBerry has played with the quality to make the phone affordable in terms of price. With QVGA output and 2.6 inch screen, the 8520 is capable of displaying 65,000 colors. In spite of all this, the color as well as the contrast makes images look dull compared to those seen in other models such as the Bold 9700. It is only the price tag which saves this model when compared to the other better priced models of Blackberry.
This cell phone has a 2 MP Camera with fixed focus supporting an image resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. The image quality of BlackBerry 8520 is not very good. The poor camera is supported by a poorer user interface. The Camera UI has no shortcuts to change some settings and is a bit annoying to use. On the contrary the video camera is much better than its still camera supporting QVGA output. The video camera is also better than that of other expensive Blackberry models like the Curve 8900.
The mobile phone does not have support for 3G in it. On the other hand it supports other utilities such as Wi-Fi, micro USB version 2 and Bluetooth version 2.0. It consists of 256 MB of expandable internal memory and is expandable up to 32 GB with a micro SD card.
With a battery back up of 408 hours, BlackBerry Curve 8520 has 4 hours talk time. A glaring benefit of buying the Curve 8520 is the money you will save, while the main drawback is its quality, in terms of technology as well as looks. Though for what its price tag is, this is not a bad phone at all.
