Is the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 Right for You?

Research In Motion’s (RIM) brand new BlackBerry Curve 8520 is now on sale in the United States, through T-Mobile. The Curve 8520, RIM’s third iteration of the Curve, falls directly in the middle of both RIM and T-Mobile’s Curve product lines.

After T-Mobile initially released the Curve 8320 in September, 2007, it quickly became one of the carrier’s best selling smartphones. More than a year later, T-Mobile was the first U.S. carrier to release RIM’s second-generation Curve, the BlackBerry 8900. And today, the carrier is first to offer the next Curve, the BlackBerry 8520.

Tuesday, I attended RIM’s Curve 8520 launch event in New York City, where the company showed off all kinds of up-and-coming wares along with the new device. I spent quite a bit of time with the new Curve and was able to mostly size it up.

Now, on to the Curve 8520 features and technical specifications, as well as my breakdown of why the new Curve could be a perfect fit for you–or not.

And if you’re interested in additional BlackBerry devices, check out my takes on the BlackBerry Curve 8900 or Tour 9630.

How to Tell if the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is for You

First and foremost, are you a T-Mobile customer or are you considering switching to T-Mobile? If not, you’ll want to pass on the new Curve 8520, since it’s currently a T-Mobile exclusive. (Additional carriers, including Verizon Wireless, are expected to release the Curve 8530, dubbed “BlackBerry Aries,” in the future, and AT&T will likely get its own 8520 variant.)

If switching your carrier to T-Mobile is a possibility, you’ll want to make sure that T-Mobile provides adequate service in the areas where you live, work or spend most of your time.

The best way to determine if you reside or work in an area with strong T-Mobile coverage is to speak with a friend, colleague, neighbor, etc., who uses the carrier on a daily basis. Get general impressions of each carrier’s coverage in your areas. Then check out the appropriate online coverage maps. And visit a T-Mobile retail location to speak with company representatives. In other words, do a bit of research.

If you find that T-Mobile coverage isn’t up to snuff where you roam most often, you’ll probably want to avoid the BlackBerry Curve 8520–at least for now.

Next up, some quick technical specifications from RIM:

• Quad-band GSM/EDGE/GPRS (850/900/1800/1900MHz)

• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)

• UMA support; T-Mobile HotSpot @Home Wi-Fi calling

• 2.0 MP camera with 5X digital zoom and video recording (No flash)

• 256MB Flash Memory

• High-resolution 320 X 240 pixel screen

• 1150 mAHr removable/rechargeable cryptographic Lithium cell battery (same as Curve 83xx family)

• DataViz Documents To Go

• Support for BlackBerry Media Sync (iTunes playlist sync)

• BlackBerry OS v4.6.1

• Expandable memory slot for up to 16GB of storage

• Support for the messaging capabilities of the BlackBerry platform, including push e-mail, popular instant messaging applications and premium phone features

The feature that really jumps out at me about the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is the brand new trackpad that replaced the traditional BlackBerry trackball found on the majority of RIM’s newer devices. The Curve 8520 is the first BlackBerry to sport the trackpad, and I like it very much. It’s not quite as sensitive as a BlackBerry trackball, so I bumped up the sensitivity settings, but it didn’t take long before I felt like I’d been using it for years.

Next, Curve 8520 pricing. Make no mistake about it: This is a BlackBerry, and BlackBerrys are typically associated with business users. The Curve 8520 lives up to its BlackBerry name, offering RIM’s tried-and-true messaging and security features, but this device is aimed at any entry-level smartphone audience, both enterprise and consumer. As such, it should be priced accordingly.

My take: Whoever sets T-Mobile’s pricing on new devices needs a very long nap or something else restorative, because the company’s introductory price of $129.99 with a new service plan is ridiculous. (The higher-end Curve 8900, which has a number of features left out of the new Curve, including a much better camera and flash, as well as both Wi-Fi and GPS, sells for only $20 more.)

Thankfully, Wal-Mart has stepped in and decided to sell the new Curve for a much more reasonable–and appropriate–price: $48.88 with a new two-year service contract. That’s a great price for a new BlackBerry, and I suspect T-Mobile will soon be forced to drop its price to compete.

The Curve 8520 is also the first BlackBerry to feature dedicated media player controls. The device has three media-centric buttons on its top side: Play/Pause, Rewind and Fast Forward. These should be valuable to anyone who frequently uses a BlackBerry to listen to music via headphones or via stereo transmitters like RIM’s BlackBerry Speakerphone Visor Mount. (Note: The Curve 8520 also has a standard, 3.5mm headset jack, so you can use your favorite headphones.)

T-Mobile’s great HotSpot @Home Wi-Fi calling service is also available to Curve 8520 users, enabling them to make free Wi-Fi calls whenever they’re at home. (Read about the pros and cons of dual-mode, “VoWi-Fi phones” like T-Mobile’s BlackBerry Curve lineup.)

The new Curve is speedy; it packs the same 512MHz processor found in its elder-Curve-8900-brother. The Curve 83xx family features 312MHz processors.

Like all of RIM’s devices since the Pearl Flip 8220, the Curve 8520 has a microUSB port for charging and syncing data.

It comes in two colors: Frost blue and black. And a variety of colorful skins are available for customization.

And the device ships with a 1GB microSD memory card.

Finally, my two minor gripes: the underwhelming two megapixel camera and the fact that the Curve 8520 doesn’t come with any sort of case.

Two megapixel quality is not enough for this device. All of RIM’s new devices–except the Curve 8520, of course–have 3.2 megapixel cameras, with features like autofocus. But that’s not even the worst part. The Curve 8520 has no flash, let alone auto-focus functionality.

For a consumer-oriented device, the lack of a flash is significant, to say the least. The iPhone has been repeatedly blasted for its lack of a camera flash, but I suspect RIM justified its decision to leave out the Curve 8520 flash because of the iPhone. (Hey, if the iPhone doesn’t have it, not ALL of our devices need it either, right?)

I asked RIM why it decided to forego the flash and was told it was to reduce manufacturing costs. That’s understandable, and the $50 Wal-Mart price point sure is nice, but I still think the Curve 8520 should have a flash.

Finally, the Curve 8520, Storm and the Pearl Flip 82xx are the only current BlackBerry devices that don’t come with any sort of case. I’m sure the decision not to include a holster, slip-case or skin is related to cost-cutting, as well, but it rubs me the wrong way, just the same.

There you have it, a quick breakdown of the brand new BlackBerry Curve 8520 from T-Mobile. Still looking for additional smartphone options? Check out “Forget iPhone 3G S: Eight Great New iPhone Alternatives.”

T-Mobile offering iPhone upgrade to UK big spenders

T-Mobile has started offering the iPhone in the UK, according to insiders at the firm’s Merthyr call centre. V3.co.uk has been contacted by two separate sources, both claiming that T-Mobile was trialling limited stock of the iPhone 3G, having purchased a number of units from Germany, and would start offering UK customers an upgrade from 30 July.

Only a few select T-Mobile call centre operators have been authorised to give the upgrade and customers need to meet strict criteria to qualify, including being a heavy mobile user, the sources both said.

One of the sources sent us an email with an advisory note from T-Mobile labeled Action for All Advisors: T-Mobile UK’s Churn Challenge, indicating that the iPhone deal is part of a strategy to stop customer churn.

The note states that T-Mobile wants to reduce churn from 27 to 20 per cent, which would still put the operator at several percentage points higher than O2; and that high value customers are leaving because of their desire for an iPhone.

To stop the customer churn, T-Mobile has decided to introduce special deals on the iPhone and the G2 Touch (aka HTC Hero), the note continues. This would be limited to eligible customers either on or willing to move to a Flext 2009 plan, who are lucky enough to get through to a member of the ‘Save Desk’ team based in Merthyr.

V3.co.uk contacted T-Mobile in the hope of getting a confirmation or denial on this information, but was given the standard “no comment” response.

So for any T-Mobile customers wanting to move onto an iPhone, the advice is to call T-Mobile, threaten to leave unless they give you the iPhone, and hope you’ve spent at least £1,000 on your mobile bills over the last two years.

If any V3.co.uk readers get anywhere with this, please get in touch and let us know. Though we wouldn’t be surprised to hear that T-Mobile has pulled the offer now that the details have gone public, as demand could well outstrip supply if the iPhone handset was going to be thrown in for free for those customers already paying hefty mobile bills each month. Also Apple and O2 might want to put a stop to the offer, as their iPhone exclusivity deal is still supposed to be in place in the UK.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 is already available in the UK

As of 1st August one of the most anticipated handsets of summer 2009 is available across the UK. And along with that news there two more: one of them positive and one – negative.

If you live in the UK you can get the Pixon12 for free but you’ll have to pay Orange at least 35 GBP (approx. 41 euro) a month during the next year and a half.

Samsung M8910 Pixon12 is the first Samsung GSM phone to feature a 12 megapixel camera and it also comes with a 28mm wide-angle lens, Xenon flash and additional power LED flashlight.

If the specs sheet alone is not enough to attract your attention, our recent detailed review proved the Pixon12 is the ultimate cameraphone to date.

A new dual-SIM phone down the road – budget Samsung C3212

The C3212 DuoS is a new dual-SIM device from Samsung, which is one of the few major manufacturers bringing dual standby phones on the market. The C3212 DuoS has a basic feature set but will cost only 135 euro.

The new Samsung C3212 DuoS has a standard bar form factor and targets the low-end budget class. It is expected to feature only basic functions, but at this point there is no further information available. We don’t even know if that’s a color screen on that press photo there.

Previous dual-SIM devices from Samsung are the C5212, which costs only 15 euro more than the C3212 DuoS suggested price tag, and the slider B5702 featuring bigger screen and better camera. Let’s don’t forget the luxury S9402 Ego, which impresses both with its unique looks and high price. If you’re into touchscreens, you can also go for Samsung D980.

If you haven’t seen any of these in your local store, we’d guess that’s only because you don’t live in Eastern Europe and especially Russia, where all these 3G-less phones are all headed to.

The Samsung C3212 DuoS will probably be the cheapest of them all with its expected price of 135 euro. It’s expected later this summer on the Russian market.

VIDEO: LG’s new Crystal ad

LG and Channel 4 are going all irreverent for their joint touchscreen phone ad campaign, which is all right by us. Here’s a 15-second spot due to be shown ont’ telly soon.

Virgin launches ‘unlimited’ mobile contract

But by ‘unlimited’, Virgin actually means ‘restricted’, writes Al Warmington

Mobile addicts, listen up. This could be the contract you’ve been waiting for. Virgin Media has announced a new ‘unlimited’ phone contract deal , offering unlimited calls to other Virgin users, unlimited calls to non-Virgin users, unlimited internet access and unlimited access.

You’re probably wondering what the catch is. In fact there’s two. First is the price. It’s a princely £65 per month for all those free minutes, and it’s an 18 month contract. On top of that, you are only eligible if you already have a TV, landline or broadband package with Virgin Media.

Second and more importantly: it’s actually not unlimited at all. Virgin has instead chosen to hide the awkward truth behind a ‘Fair Use’ policy. In this instance, Virgin has deemed that it’s only fair for you to use up 3,000 minutes of Virgin-to-Virgin calls, 3,000 minutes of cross network calls and send 3,000 texts per month. Data is capped at a paltry 1GB.

Now, most ordinary mortals may struggle to find the time to spend 50 hours on the blower each month, in between eating and sleeping, nor might they manage to send so many texts without turning their fingers to bleeding stumps (although we’d probably get through the data allowance in a single train journey). But it’s a far cry from an dictionary definition of ‘unlimited’ that we’ve ever heard.

On the plus side you get a couple of tasty handset to choose from – the Samsung Jet and the Nokia N86.

Link: Virgin Media (via V3.co.uk)

LG Crystal GD900 Review

The Crystal GD900 is a slider whose numberpad’s white markings glow against their tempered glass surrounds. After a moment, the glow subsides and you can see the numbers, but much more faintly. Touch the numberpad area and the white glow returns.

The keys are flat, and while I had no trouble working at a fair speed, ultra-speed texters may want to try before they buy to be sure that they can get their fingers flying fast enough error-free.

The transparent numberpad looks, to me anyway, rather cool, and there is no denying, even if you don’t like it, that it is innovative. There are lots of touch control niceties here and on the screen. You can get through content such as photos by sweeping a finger horizontally across either the screen or the numberpad. Sweeping upwards opens an information screen telling you, for example, when a photo was taken, its resolution and file name.

You can pinch to zoom when viewing photos, emails, web pages or maps. This was fairly responsive. The first zoom in any photo took a short time to work, but thereafter zooming was smooth. Again, this works on either screen or numberpad.

Perhaps a bit more interesting is LG’s Gesture Control, which is located on the numberpad, which, by the way, LG calls the Transparent Touchpad.

There are three shortcuts under the screen – Call, End and the LG ‘cube’. Press this for a second and the multitasking menu opens up. Here you can get to a subset of running apps. But you can also tap a button to set up the gesture shortcuts. There are 12 of these and you can assign them to nine different apps. So even when maxed out, three gestures will remain unused.

With the assigning done, simply tracing a shortcut on the Transparent Touchpad opens its associated app. These gesture shortcuts can’t be used on the screen, so you have to go through up to three stages to make a shortcut work: slide out numberpad, make gesture, slide in numberpad. It is hardly a superquick option but it works, it is innovative and it can save time when you are in one app and want to switch relatively quickly to another.

LG again uses its S-class 3D user interface in the Crystal. This comprises four main screens you finger-sweep on either the screen or Transparent Touchpad to get through. Dedicated to favourite contacts, multimedia, shortcuts and widgets, all can be customised. Whichever of the four you are on, links to the main menu, phone dialler, contacts and messaging are always present on a strip along the bottom of the screen.

Just as with the LG Arena and Viewty Smart you can call up a cube around four of whose faces you fingersweep. These faces represent the four main screens, and you tap one to bring it up full size. It is as redundant now as it was then.

Web browsing was a mixed experience. The phone completely refused to load the TR home page, complaining of an ‘internal out of memory’ error. Moving on to the BBC news page I got more success but then that is formatted for mobile devices. Looks like you might have to take a few chances with browsing.

When you do get to pages that work you can browse by running a finger around the Transparent Touchpad to move a cursor around the screen, and double tap to choose a link. This worked very well. When web pages were at a zoom level that made text quite small – often the optimum when trying to see a lot of data – it was more accurate than tapping the screen with a fingertip.

The Crystal is a 3G device. It also has Wi-Fi but sadly it is missing GPS. This really detracts. A modern top-notch handset has to offer all three features to stand a chance of capturing the imagination.

There is an FM radio on board as well as a music player, but LG has shot itself in the foot by using microUSB as the headset connector. At least there is a 3.5mm connector just past the headset microphone, but I’d prefer 3.5mm on the phone itself. And the headset/mains power/PC connection jack is on the upper left side of the phone making pocket-snagging inevitable.

That’s doubly annoying as this is a fairly pocket and hand-friendly mobile measuring just 105mm tall (and according to my ruler 135mm with the Transparent Touchpad out), 52.8mm wide and 13.5mm thick and weighing 120g.

Obviously at this size it can’t accommodate a super-large screen. But at 3in it is a fairly good size and its 800 x 480 pixels are sharp and clear. The screen size is only really a let-down when it comes to text entry. There is an accelerometer built in, which worked smoothly, and when the screen is in landscape mode there is a QWERTY keypad. It is just that bit too small for comfort, though, and I found it slow to respond, both of which factors combined to prevent total accuracy. In portrait mode you get handwriting recognition too, but it works just one letter at a time so it is slow.

There is only 1.5GB of built in memory, but a microSD card slot sits on the right edge and you can get to it when you slide the keyboard down.

There is a front camera for two-way video calling, and the main camera shoots to 8-megapixels. It has an LED flash and self-portrait mirror. These and the lens are protected under the slide. There are a few tweakables including a good macro mode you can see in use on the pink flowers, and a continuous shot mode, but the extras aren’t as plentiful as on many other phones. Smile and blink detection, for example, are missing.

ndoors photos were a bit washed out. The coloured dish photographed under normal household lights shows this. The chair, too, lacks the kind of definition and colour purity I’d expect from an 8-megapixel camera. If you are into digital zoom, then simply running a finger round the Transparent Touchpad does the trick.

Sadly I lacked the time to perform my usual battery rundown test, but I can say that battery life was fairly good. I was still using the phone after two days on a single charge, though you’ll need to factor in daily charging if you are a heavy data user or like your Wi-Fi or music a lot.

Additional applications not already mentioned include mobile email, Google Maps, some accelerometer-friendly games, alarms, calendar, memo maker, stopwatch, voice recorder, calculator, world clock, and unit converter. Bluetooth is present too.

Author	Sandra Vogel
Published	31st Jul 2009
Manufacturer	LG Electronics
Price	From free on contract

Nokia ‘N97 Mini’ Surfaces

Here’s an odd one…

Following years of speculation that Apple would release a smaller version of the iPhone (then iPhone 3G, then iPhone 3GS), Nokia looks to have silently gone about making a smaller N97.

Dubbed the ‘N97 Mini’ by leaks, the shrunken smartphone looks virtually identical to its bigger brother except for the removal of the d-pad and sliding camera cover. Whether the primary specifications (3G, aGPS, WiFi, 5MP camera, 32GB native memory, microSD expansion slot) all translate remains to be seen.

What is beyond doubt is slicing something off those portly 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm (18.25 mm at the camera) dimensions and 150g weight would be appealing to pockets everywhere. Personally however, I’d say cutting off the keyboard on the original and adding a capacitive screen would be the more logical way to approach this.

Either way, Nokia security is barely any better than RIM’s infamous sugar glass gates so expect a confirmation on the N97 Mini’s existence or otherwise within the next few weeks…
Link:
via Engadget

Virgin Joins Tesco With Unlimited Minutes Tariff

That didn’t take long…

Within 24 hours of Tesco announcing the UK’s first unlimited monthly tariff (read: £30pm for £500pm worth of calls, SMS & data), T-Mobile virtual network Virgin Mobile has unveiled its own variation.

The ‘Unlimited’ monthly tariff (yes, it is that phrase again) takes a very different approach to Tesco’s Sim only 30 day rolling contract. By contrast Virgin Mobile is offering a £65pm 18 month contract with subsidised premium Nokia N86 or Samsung Jet handsets (I’m famously not a fan of the latter) and ‘unlimited’ calls, SMS and data.

Naturally this is subject to a fair use clause but this much hated term actually translates to a generous 3,000 minutes, 3,000 texts and 3,000 Virgin mobile to Virgin mobile calls along with 1GB of data.

Yes, in all it’s a big commitment and currently I also find a few details to be lacking. Namely: how big are the handset subsidies? Are any other models available? And when does this tariff launch? I’m going with ‘free’, ‘not right now’ and ‘August’. I’ve lodged all three questions with Virgin so should favourable answers return and the side of your face is indented from your mobile phone use then this could very well be the tariff for you…

Update: I was close: The answers were: ‘free’, ‘not right now’ and ‘right now’!

Link:
Virgin Mobile

LG Officially Unveils New Chocolate With 4in 21:9 LCD

I’m now a little worried…

LG has formally announced the truly nutty BL40 which we saw leaked on a promotional video earlier this month. Interestingly, the only detail we have is that the remarkable 4in 21:9 aspect ratio 800 x 345 pixel screen is indeed in line with the earlier scoop. LG is also simply calling the handset the ‘LG Chocolate’ which means a complete reboot of the series – fine choice.

So with this in mind let’s recap what LG can’t say yet: the BL40 will also have HSDPA, aGPS (meaning WiFi as well), a 5MP camera with flash (unknown kind) and capactive touchscreen with multi-touch gesture control. What remains a mystery are the overall size and weight, battery life as a result of powering that monster display and OS. Which brings me to the worried part…

f you check back to the leaked video (above) what we saw was a superb, next generation, finger friendly UI that had us positively spellbound. What this official press shots show on the other hand are the same layout and criminally ugly icons as the flawed OS seen on the GC 900 Viewty Smart and 12 megapixel GC 990 Louvre. Two handsets which also aren’t smartphones.

Now I’ve fingers tightly crossed that we are completely wrong about this but with LG quoting a Q3 launch timeframe for a whopping 54 countries that doesn’t leave much room for last minute alterations…

Link:
Press Release