Thrown for the Curve

A sleek smart phone with a slim and stylish profile, the BlackBerry Curve 9360 packs a powerful punch thanks to the new BlackBerry 7 operating system.

True, it’s a mere 11mm thick and weighs just 99 grams but that’s meant comprising on the screen too. At 2.44-inches wide, only those with perfect eyesight and the young set will really enjoy texting, reading mails and checking their Facebook status on its 480x360 pixel screen.

It’s great that the new Curve supports 3G HSPA connection, which allows it to connect to social networks and email severs as well as websites very fast.

     Like most classic BlackBerry phones, the full QWERTY keyboard makes it easy for typing so teens who love texting should be pleased with it. Its optical track pad works effectively as a navigation tool.

The 5 megapixel camera takes decent photos for a mobile phone and with 3G connection, the snapshots can be easily shared via emails or Facebook.

Research In Motion has improved its BlackBerry OS and the Curve 9360 worked fluidly during the test although it uses 800 MHz CPU.

The new OS combines the improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine with the hardware enhancements in the new BlackBerry Curve smart phone to deliver a faster, more fluid web browsing experience as well as smoother navigation and optimised HTML5 performance for gaming and video experiences.

BlackBerry 7 OS has a number of useful pre-loaded applications. One of these is the Premium version of Documents To Go for editing and for reading PDF documents.

A very nice feature of the new OS is BlackBerry Protect. This allows you to locate your misplaced phone using GPS or remotely turn up the ringer for an audible notification if the Curve is close-by.

The new OS also extends the function of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) to a range of other apps, such as Foursquare. This allows you to easily interact with friends from within the “BBM connected” app.

Best of all, its updated Social Feeds (2.0) app has been extended to capture updates from media, podcasts, and favourites all in one consolidated view, using RSS feeds. And you can monitor feeds from your emails, Facebook and Twitter accounts in one place.

And the new Messages application of the new OS has also been enhanced to consolidate all types of messages, including SMS, BBM, Facebook chat and Twitter personal messages in one place

Another improvement is the new Facebook for BlackBerry 2.0 app. 

It has new features like Facebook chat and BBM integration that makes it easier for social networks to connect with their Facebook friends in real time utilising push notifications. 

Twitter for BlackBerry also delivers a deeply integrated experience, including use of real time push notifications.

Its YouTube application allows you to easily share the clip you are watching.

Using 1000 mAhr removable/ rechargeable lithium-ion battery, Curve 9360 has plenty of battery life. One charge lasted me longer than a day despite extensive usage of various applications.

BlackBerry Curve 9360 retails for Bt10,900.

 

          Key specs

 

_ Platform: BlackBerry 7 OS

_ Network: 2G, 3G and HSPA voice and data

_ CPU: 800 MHz processor

_ Camera: 5 Megapixel, video recording 640x480 pixel

_ Display: 2.44-inch 480x360 pixel HVGA ransmissive TFT LCD

_ Memory: 512 MB onboard, expandable with microSD card up to 32GB

_ Battery: 1000 mAhr removable/rechargeable lithium-ion battery

_ Dimension: 109 x 60 x 11mm

_ Weight: 99g