RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 review

User interface

Bearing in mind that this phone is aimed at first-time buyers, it’s worth looking at the BlackBerry interface anew. This phone is running BlackBerry OS 4.6, which builds upon the same BlackBerry principles of old: you scroll through a flat list of applications, folders and settings to find what you’re looking for.

Say, for example, you want to set an alarm. You press the physical BlackBerry button that launches the Home screen (essentially a list of icons). You scroll down to Clock, press the touchpad button, and that launches the application. You then press the BlackBerry button again, choose Set Alarm via the touchpad button, and then enter the time you wish to be woken.

It feels clumsy compared with a touchscreen phone, but once you get used to the icons RIM uses – and this can take a while – you should find it easy to navigate around. For example, one oddity is that it hides away programs you’ve downloaded into the Downloads folder by default, but it’s possible to move them into the Home screen if you so wish.

Conclusion

It would be too easy to dismiss the BlackBerry Curve 8520 as cheap and nasty. Certainly it doesn’t feel as well-built as a top-end BlackBerry, but it should survive the duration of an 18-month contract without falling apart. In fact, we think the touchpad will mean on average it lasts longer than phones that rely on a trackwheel.

However, it’s impossible to ignore the omissions of GPS and 3G. The lack of GPS makes using map-based applications much more fiddly, and we can guarantee that at some point you’ll want to know precisely where you are – but can’t find out.

The biggest problem for BlackBerry is that the competition is so fierce, and we fear that it’s set the price of the 8520 too high. On a pay-as-you-go contract, you can buy the Curve 8520 for £200 inc VAT from The Carphone Warehouse. Which is fine, except you can buy the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 for £250 inc VAT direct from Orange – and the 8900 is a more stylish phone with a higher resolution screen.

Even worse for RIM, the Nokia E63 typically costs £150 inc VAT on a pay-as-you-go deal, and 3 is offering it for free on an 18-month, £15-per-month contract. Shop around, and you’ll also be able to find the Nokia E71 on £20-per-month deals.

And how much does the BlackBerry Curve 8520 cost on contract? Amazingly, £35 per month – although it’s actually £25 per month once you take into account that £10 is "automatically" cut from the price.

That’s no bargain. Until this price drops in price to match the Nokia E63, both in pay-as-you-go and contract form, we can’t recommend it.

Author: Tim Danton