BlackBerry Curve 8520 review: BlackBerry Lite, Price, pictures, Details, model specifications
With the Bold almost reaching perfection in the BlackBerry arts, new horizons need to be explored to keep the spark alive. The tall task to pioneer new territories (in BlackBerry terms anyway) falls on to the Curve 8520.
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BlackBerry Curve 8520 official photo
The new Curve has a price tag that’s easier on the wallet and – coming from a BlackBerry – that’s a welcome change of game plan already. But what makes this here Berry a shocker is… wait for it… music keys. Last time we checked features like that were teen geek stuff and we don’t know many teens are walking around with a BlackBerry in their pocket. Well, it’s certainly going to be interesting to see how BlackBerry’s attempt to woo this new demographic will turn out.
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Key features
- 2.46″ 65K-color TFT landscape display of QVGA resolution
- Comfortable four-row full QWERTY keyboard
- Quad-band GSM support, Wi-Fi connectivity
- 2 megapixel camera with fixed focus
- 512MHz CPU
- BlackBerry OS v4.6 with responsive trackpad navigation
- Hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- Decent audio quality
- Nice web browser
- Office document editor
- Smart dialing
- Dedicated music keys
- DivX and XviD video support
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Main disadvantages
- Many features are unusable without a BlackBerry Internet Service account (plan)
- BlackBerry OS offers basic text-only submenus
- Mediocre camera performance and features
- No FM radio
- No 3G support
- No TV-out functionality
- Music keys are stiff and unresponsive
- No built-in GPS receiver
- Back panel is a fingerprint magnet
Most of the software-related shortfalls in the list above are shared by all other BlackBerries out there. The hardware disadvantages boil down to features that the 8520 needed to skip to fit budget. After all, the fancy stuff is in the more expensive 8900 Curve and 9700 Bold. So if you’re already ok with the 8520 Curve specs and you want to go for a BlackBerry device and service, you won’t find anything substantial to complain about here.
Obviously it took a few sacrifices for the Curve 8520 to keep that price tag within limits. The magnificent screen was ruthlessly trimmed down to the run-of-the-mill QVGA resolution. On a second thought though, that only puts it on a par with the screens on the Nokia E71 and E72 and we don’t see anyone complaining about them.
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BlackBerry Curve 8520 studio shots
But how Blackberry and other makers define cheap are completely different things, so a commitment-free 8520 Curve fetches nearly the same as a Nokia E71. Now, that can’t be too good for the BlackBerry, right – especially now that Nokia are offering their paid Push Messaging service in quite a lot of countries.
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As we see it, the only way for the Curve 8520 to escape constant comparisons to its Nokia counterparts is to find some way to appeal to a wider market.
But frankly, we’re a little skeptical whether one handset can convince the masses that BlackBerries are now as much about pleasure as they are about business. RIM have built a reputation on churning out no-nonsense corporate phones and it will take several more generations (and frankly, optimizations) for people to start seeing the company differently.
Design and construction (continued)
The keyboard also seems downgraded to lower quality plastic. Almost the entire keyboard rocks and wobbles when you press a key. Luckily, this has little impact on usability, and the Curve 8520 is just as good at typing as its predecessors.
On a different note, the tactility and press feedback of the keys is excellent. There is sufficient spacing between the different rows and columns.
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The keypad feels cheaper but is equally comfortable
With a four-row keypad the numbers had to be accommodated over some of the letters – the numpad is on the left. You will also have to use a two-key combo for all the punctuation, but at least there is no need for three-key combinations.
The optical trackpad sits between the display and the keyboard of the BlackBerry Curve 8520. Apparently the trackball is no longer an intrinsic part of the BlackBerry devices and it makes way for the extremely sensitive optical trackpads.
سعر بلاك بيرى BlackBerry Curve 8520 PriceThose are quick, and despite the one on the Curve 8520 feeling slightly wobbly at times, provide great user experience. You can even customize the horizontal and vertical speed to best suit your taste (or thumb).
The menu and back keys and the two call management buttons sit around the trackpad. The End key doubles as a power button. None of these cause any obstacles to usability.
On top of the display we find the earpiece and the LED status light.
The earpiece and the LED status light
The left side of the Curve 8520 incorporates the 3.5mm audio jack, one of the “convenience keys” and the microUSB slot. There isn’t any cover over either of the two apertures here so you might expect some dust accumulation in time.
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The two apertures at the left are the 3.5mm audio jack and the microUSB port
By default the left convenience key activates voice commands but you can easily assign it a different task.
The same holds true for the other convenience key, which is located next to the volume rocker on the right-hand side of the 8520. By default it acts as a camera key but as there is no autofocus on the Curve 8520, it’s not a two-step button.
The volume rocker and the right convenience key
There’s hardly anything interesting at the bottom, the microphone pinhole being the only notable presence there.
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The microphone pinhole
The top of the 8520 Curve is where it gets interesting – here you can find the first-ever dedicated music keys on a BlackBerry handset. Their implementation is somewhat poor as they are really hard to press despite their large size.
The music keys have a pretty short stroke but getting a press accepted requires quite an effort. The middle play/pause key is the worst of the lot as you actually need to press only the middle part of the marked key. Definitely not cool!
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The music keys are rather uncomfortable
The back of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 features nothing but the 2 megapixel camera lens . It is well recessed so you cannot scratch it unless you try really hard.
The 2 megapixel camera sits in the top left corner of the back panel
Removing the plastic cover reveals the microSD card slot and the 1150 mAh Li-Ion battery. The battery turned out quite a performer delivering almost identical performance to the Bold 9700 1500 mAh unit. We guess things like a lower-res screen, slower CPU and no 3G make up a nice recipe for longer battery life.
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The 1150 mAh battery is quite good
In a real life scenario the Curve 8520 lasted for about six days under relatively light use (about ten minutes of telephony and 40 minutes of using the other phone features a day).
BlackBerry Curve 8520 held in hand
Now join us on the next page to check out the software package that the Curve 8520 has to offer.
BlackBerry OS v4.6 is nothing new
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 runs on the proprietary BlackBerry OS v4.6 just like its elder brother – the Curve 8900 that was released a year ago. We are fine with the idea of a manufacturer offering similar user experience over different devices but that doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t welcome updates to functionality.
Even the Bold 9700, which runs BlackBerry OS v5, didn’t introduce any serious changes. In the same time, there are quite some aspects of the user interface that need updates. But as we already said, RIM seem somewhat hesitant to make them.
The BlackBerry homescreen is quite to-the-point • the Main Menu skimps on eye-candy
سعر بلاك بيرى BlackBerry Curve 8520 PriceThe first issue that needs urgent attention is the text-only sub-menus, which are a real eye-sore. Do they really expect teenagers to be happy scrolling through microscopic text lists? Or maybe that whole music keys thingy is a con. Just give the people something that doesn’t look like Windows 3.11, okay?
Going deeper reveals the worst part of it
The fact that it performs well doesn’t excuse it. Corporate folk might be less worried about the aesthetics of the UI (especially when they’re getting the device assigned by their company), but why treat them like they are blind?
سعر بلاك بيرى BlackBerry Curve 8520 PriceAlso the BlackBerry UI organization needs some things fixed. Who in the world would think that the best place to put the file manager is in the media options menu? Perhaps someone was trying to hide it there instead? You may get familiar with that in a few days of use (and probably a few nights of reading through some forums), but why the lack of logic in the first place? It’s not rocket science really!
But we digress. The homescreen of the Curve 8520 holds 6 (by default) shortcut buttons placed at the bottom and all status icons at the top. You can also access the ringing profiles straight from there by clicking the icon in the top right corner, right below the battery indicator.
سعر بلاك بيرى BlackBerry Curve 8520 PriceThe menu navigation of the BlackBerry handsets is different than the soft-key based approach of most competitors. Instead of having the available options for every menu item assigned to the context keys, the Curve 8520 has the menu key in charge of all that. That is pretty strange experience if you’re used to the soft key labels keeping all options in sight. And you may have to spend a bit longer studying the available features if you are a first time user.
The performance offered by the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is decent and the zippy response of the trackpad is impressive. There’s nothing you can do about the deeper text-only menu levels at this point. Experienced BlackBerry users may even have a special insider-kind of fondness for that stuff, but switching from a different platform involves a bit of a learning curve.
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Dire-looking phonebook does the job
The phonebook is best described by the punch line in one of those Schweppes commercials with the cheetah and the alligator. It goes “Pretty ugly fella but has its uses” (it might not be a correct quote but you get the idea) and we cannot think of a more accurate description.
Looks are very basic reminding us of good old Windows 3.11 that we enjoyed 15 years ago. Granted, it’s got virtually unlimited capacity and good organization and that makes it a decent performer. Still a new paintjob would have been welcome and some extra functionality quite appropriate.
The contacts get listed alphabetically in one of those black and white lists that we warned you about. You can search a contact by gradually typing the desired name like on almost any other phone.
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The phonebook of the Curve 8520 isn’t something to write home about
Editing a contact gives you a vast number of fields which are organized in several sub-groups. You can also replicate some of the fields as many times as you like.
Editing Dexter’s details
Telephony: smart dial saves the day
Making calls with the BlackBerry Curve 8520 was fine, without any issues with reception, or in-call sound quality.
سعر بلاك بيرى BlackBerry Curve 8520 PriceWhat impressed us was the Smart Dial feature, which worked so well with the QWERTY keyboard. The phonebook is nearly redundant since you could find the contact you need so easily straight on the homescreen.
The smart dial is probably the best part of the whole BlackBerry OS
All you need to do is punch a few keys on the homescreen and the names that contain the letters will appear on the screen instantly. You can then select them and place a call – it doesn’t get any simpler than that, does it?
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 fared decently in our traditional loudspeaker test. It went away with a Good score, matching most of its siblings.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Pink noise/ Music, dB | Ringing phone, dB | Overall score |
| Nokia E72 | 65.7 | 60.2 | 66.3 | Below Average |
| Nokia E71 | 68.0 | 66.5 | 76.2 | Good |
| BlackBerry Bold 9700 | 72.7 | 66.6 | 73.6 | Good |
| BlackBerry Curve 8520 | 69.8 | 68.7 | 76.0 | Good |
| BlackBerry Curve 8900 | 75.7 | 66.6 | 75.3 | Good |
| HTC Touch HD | 77.7 | 73.7 | 76.7 | Excellent |
You can learn more about our test here.
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Messaging is the BISt
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 has no trouble handling SMS, MMS and email (theoretically) plus it offers the BlackBerry instant messenger preinstalled.
The common message editor is fairly simple and easy to use. There is a counter at the top indicating the remaining characters to 160, and another one showing the number of parts the message will break down to for sending.
Creating a message on the Curve 8520
Emailing also has a remarkable set of customizable options, probably one of the best in the business. Yet did you notice that tiny remark in brackets up there? We said theoretically because without a BlackBerry Internet Service plan you cannot set up any email accounts on the Curve 8520.
سعر بلاك بيرى BlackBerry Curve 8520 PriceYep – it’s a package deal or no deal at all. You either get a proper service plan or you are left with a handset that can do stuff worth about a tenth of its (admittedly high) price tag. Kinda looks like one of those scam sites where you need to buy lots of extra stuff and accessories to make your “bargain” purchase work like it should have worked in the first place.
We guess this is exactly what makes the Berries the niche product they are. If RIM were selling phones things would’ve been so much easier, but they’re selling a service along – actually it’s the other way around perhaps. Business level encryption and syncing options cost, we agree, but a device has questionable value to common users as long as they cannot set up a Gmail inbox without a BIS account.
A decent music player
Now, we don’t know what those music keys on top might have you thinking but RIM didn’t move a finger to improve the music player application on the Curve 8520. Don’t be too hard on yourselves – we had expectations too, only for them to be broken in pieces when we saw the actual app.
The music player is the same conservative looking thing (notice how we didn’t say coyote ugly – it’s much better than most of the rest of the interface). Besides, it has decent functionality and we are actually pleased with it. Not that BlackBerry ever set the bar too high.
The music player sorts the music library automatically by artist, album and genre and you can search your tracks by gradual typing. You can also create your own playlists in no time.
The music player hasn’t been modified at all
Album art is also supported and if you don’t like the default sound of the device you can enhance it by activating the equalizer presets. Unfortunately, custom equalizers are not available.
Quite naturally, the player can also be minimized to play in background. You can then go back to it via the task manager or through the main menu. There’s no indication of the currently playing song on the home screen but you can still skip tracks using the forward and rewind keys on top the phone.
2 megapixel camera is only good for MMS
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with a 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera with a maximum image resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. It’s one of those cases where your expectations have already hit rock bottom and yet the handset still somehow manages to disappoint you.
From camera key ergonomics through camera interface to image quality it just goes from bad to worse for the Curve 8520. For one it has the same problem as the other landscape screen handsets where you have to hold it vertically to shoot but in this case the shutter key position is totally wrong. You can use the trackpad to shoot but we have to admit it is located a bit too high to be comfortable in single hand use.
Next comes the viewfinder, which has the status bar appearing at all times at its bottom end, hiding a good portion of what actually ends up in the picture. So yeah, you will have quite some trouble properly framing with this one.
Getting proper framing isn’t the easiest thing to do on the Curve 8520
The camera UI itself is the same inconvenient piece of software, with no shortcuts on the screen. You have to dig in the menu for changing any of the (admittedly very few) available customizable options.
The number of customizable settings is quite small
Those would include: white balance, color effects and image stabilization. There is also the obligatory picture size and quality.
And then came the image quality and all our previous gripes just paled into insignificance. Yes, the weather hasn’t been exactly favorable around the office recently but it shouldn’t excuse this kind of output.
The 2 MP league isn’t really Premiership, so when you are battling to avoid relegation in that division then that is really saying something. Saying something from the beginning of the decade that is, where handsets with that kind of price tags gave similar image quality. Of course it was considered high-end back then so it was a bit more excusable.
The amount of resolved detail falls seriously short of impressive. Probably part of the explanation is the extremely aggressive noise reduction applied, which eradicates all fine detail and gives the photos a distinct oil-painting look.
Strangely enough, the only thing it doesn’t seem to affect is the actual noise which is available in spades in the Curve 8520 shots. The color balance is generally a miss rather than a hit, although the phone manages to get them right on some of the photos.
Here go the sample photos so you can see for yourselves. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
BlackBerry Curve 8520 camera sample photos
Normally we say that underperforming cameras are only good for taking contact images. With the Curve 8520 we aren’t actually sure it’s even good for that. You will be better off using those for MMS only.
QVGA videos leave us speechless
Well what did you expect really? With a still camera like that, the video recording was probably put there because it would be more of an effort to remove it from the firmware.
The Curve offers QVGA videos that are recorded in the 3GP format. They can have color effects applied and that’s about as good as it gets here.
BlackBerry Curve 8520 camera sample video
Little consolation here comes from the fact that QVGA is still better than the 240 x 180 pixels resolution that the Curve 8900 offers. Yupee!
Flawed connectivity
Smartphones can get away with lots of things but poor connectivity isn’t one of them. And the lack of 3G support really deals a major blow to the ambitions of the Curve 8520.
At least the Curve 8520 offers Wi-Fi but when you are forced to have a BlackBerry internet plan in the first place we feel that it doesn’t make up for the missing fast network data. EDGE isn’t our first choice in 2009.
Leaving the wireless connectivity aside, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 is equipped with a standard microUSB port that is used both for connecting to a computer and for charging.
Finally, the Curve 8520 comes with Bluetooth v2.0 that also sports A2DP and a microSD memory card slot. The memory card slot will usually give you the fastest data transfer rates if you have a card reader handy.
Web browsing could’ve used some more screen resolution
The web browser on the BlackBerry Curve 8520 provides a very good experience when working with mobile sites, but switching to the full version makes the screen limitations very apparent. Still, as far as speed and ergonomics go, the browser scores high marks.
The QWERTY keyboard plus good address suggestions make for quick navigation and most pages are cached very well so they open very fast. The trackpad makes moving about the page effortless (as far as non-touch phones go anyway) and panning is fast, almost redraw-free.
The bad part – the QVGA resolution doesn’t play well with the full desktop versions of websites. The lack of text reflow limits you to low zoom levels and the screen just can’t render the small font well enough so you have to zoom in closer and scroll horizontally to read each line.
The web browser isn’t as impressive on a QVGA screen
Still, panning is great thanks to the trackpad and the virtual mouse cursor. You just push it towards the border of the page. The precise trackpad makes text selection quite easy as well.
Page rendering is good, without major issues, but there are rendering bugs. We didn’t see anything that would make a page unusable, but the Opera Mini 5 beta does a better job overall. And it can handle several pages too, which is invaluable to the multitasker.
By default, pages are loaded to fit the display width with the virtual cursor taking the shape of a magnifier. You then just click on the part you would like to read and it gets zoomed in to fill the screen. A press on the back key and you are back to the fit-to-width view. Rinse and repeat until done.
Digging deep in the settings menu
The lack of Flash support is to be expected in the BlackBerry Curve 8520. But it’s the other software limitations that keep it down – text reflow especially is essential on small, low resolution screens so it really should have been included.
Organizer well functional
Much like its phonebook, the organizer of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 will hardly impress you with its look but it usually gets the job done. The treat here is the preinstalled document editor which allows you to handle documents straight on your handset and not only look at them.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take things one at a time. The calendar has monthly, weekly and daily view modes and allows easily customized events to be set up.
The Curve 8520 calendar
Mobile office is also very well stocked, with preinstalled applications able to open and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Furthermore, document editing is also supported right out of the box, unlike most competing phones. Unfortunately, there is no PDF viewer preinstalled so potential users will have to get one themselves.
Editing documents is supported out of the box
The organizer package also includes a calculator with a built-in unit-converter as well as a voice recorder and a Notes application. The handy To-do manager allows you to set-up and organize your upcoming tasks.
The BlackBerry calculator
The alarm application fails to impress – it will only let you set a single alarm. It’s quick to turn on but most of its settings can only be adjusted from the settings menu. There you can change the tone, snooze time and the volume, as well as the vibration intensity.
Only one available alarm slot is no great acheivement
The clock also offers a bedside mode that turns off the status LED (unless you set it otherwise) and displays a large clock on the screen.
Finally, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 comes with a stopwatch and a timer. Both are accessed from the clock application and have the usual functionality.
Many games aboard
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 has five preinstalled games which is a decent amount for a business handset. Those are all the same titles that we find on the last three BlackBerry phones we reviewed so we kinda expected that.
The first two titles include a version of the all too popular Bricks game and Word Mole, where you have to compose words with the letters given on the board. We did find Word Mole quite amusing as it offers various bonuses and extra levels.
Bricks and Word Mole games
The others are Texas Hold’em King 2 which, as the name suggests, is a mobile version of the popular card game, Sudoku and the Klondike solitaire.
The other three preinstalled games: Texas Hold’em King 2, Sudoku and Klondike
Final words
With so many shortcomings and so little nice surprises to offer in return, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 isn’t an easy handset to recommend. Maybe if the BlackBerry service is essential to you and your budget is so limited that you cannot afford the better looking Curve 8900 or the more functional Bold 9700 then this may be your only option.
Yet we cannot see anyone who will pay hundreds of dollars in monthly payments over the year or two of their contract as being so cash-strapped. And that certainly won’t be anyone who does need the extreme security or the extensive functionality of the email client. After all, if your email is so important to you, you’d be wise to get something better than a handset that tries to break the habit and fails.
And if you are looking for a new mobile user experience and are researching the BlackBerry smartphones we would suggest that you keep looking. A new experience it certainly is, but we don’t think it’s something to write home about.
And just to give you an idea of the bang-for-buck ratio of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 we will try to give you a few alternatives that you can get for about the same kind of cash.
The much better built Nokia E71 is the first thing that comes to mind of course. It packs a slightly slower CPU, but compensates with 3G, GPS and a better screen under direct sunlight.
Nokia E71
If pricing is more of an issue you can also check out the plastic Nokia E63. It doesn’t put GPS or a metal body on the table but still offers 3G along Wi-Fi and costs a lot less than a commitment-free Curve 8520.
Nokia E63
The Nokia 6760 slide will chip in with a larger and more comfortable slide-out QWERTY keyboard and 3G with HSDPA connectivity, but won’t give you WLAN. The pricing is also a bit easier to swallow and you won’t get any text-only menus with any of the Symbian handsets.
Nokia 6760 slide
You can also check out the WinMo-running Samsung B7320 OmniaPRO and the i637 Jack. Normally we aren’t great fans of the Windows Mobile Standard edition but they will both give you a juicier spec sheet for roughly the same price.
Samsung B7320 OmniaPRO • Samsung i637 Jack
سعر بلاك بيرى BlackBerry Curve 8520 PriceThere isn’t much more we can say. Ultimately you know how much you need the services offered by BlackBerry and whether its worth all the compromises the Curve 8520 brings to have them. Some may say that if a BIS account is a must-have it doesn’t make a difference which BlackBerry phone it comes with. It’s exactly the kind of attitude that fails the Curve 8520. Instead of widening the RIM appeal and demographics, the Curve 8520 struggles to come to grips with its own identity. An affordable QWERTY messenger with an ear for music is not the most compelling brief to begin with. An affordable (sort of) BlackBerry device with music keys and downgraded looks and specs isn’t really going to any exciting places.
BlackBerry Curve 8520 review: BlackBerry Lite, Price, pictures, Details, model specifications
