Compare Curve 8900 Deals

The Blackberry Curve 8900 from RIM has almost everything the Blackberry Bold offers, apart from 3G, so it’s on to a winner from the start. At 109x60x13.5 mm, the 8900 is slim and surprisingly light at 109g, making it a truly pocket friendly Blackberry: compare that to the 136g of other RIM devices. It also feels solid and looks sleek and its styling is common sensical, such as the trackball and top mounted screen lock button.

It offers a 2.4-inch display at high resolution (480 x 360 pixels) and a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash protected under a class cover. Internet is delivered via GPRS/EDGE – not the broadband-type speed of 3G, but acceptable – and there is Wi-fi for “hotspot” almost anywhere “on” connection, plus Bluetooth for short-range wireless (with A2DP for streaming music to headphones). Well done RIM for including a 3.5mm standard headset jack – but on the side rather than the logical place: the top.

An excellent music player supports all the popular file formats and the 8900 includes voice recognition and a host of organiser functions.

There is only 100 Mbytes’ storage, but a microSD expansion slot for cards up to 16GB should overcome this. Battery life is rated at six hours’ talk time and 19 days on standby from a full charge.