BlackBerry's latest offering in the 8520 Curve is going to give all the other business handsets a serious run for their money, including the other BlackBerrys. The handset may lack 3G but it fares quite well without it and even at its low price as compared to other Research In Motion (RIM) devices - it's well equipped for both business and play.

What stands out, and not necessarily in a good way, is the 2.6-inch display with its 320 x 240 pixel resolution, which is quite mundane. You'll get used to it especially if you're upgrading from any other handset with the same resolution. Instead of the 'standard' trackball or 'Pearl', RIM has gone with a Touch-sensitive optical trackpad. The sensitivity is just right and after just a little while navigation becomes extremely simple. The full QWERTY keypad looks a little squashed but it's very easy to use. A first for BlackBerrys are media keys (on top).



It also offers a 3.5 mm earphone socket for use with any headset or earphones of your choice. With regard to connectivity the 8520 is well equipped with options like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, USB 2.0 (micro) and EDGE or GPRS via Airtel's network - that's who it's available through. A Facebook app and other chat applications are also on-board for the avid social networker. The lack of GPS or 3G is not really a big deal, considering the other features it packs. With video codec support for DivX and XviD formats one can copy and paste videos for instant playback. It also has a 2 megapixel camera.

RIM is bundling the BlackBerry 8520 with a two GB microSD card and a very comfortable handsfree kit. The handset also manages to deliver about four hours and 15 minutes of talktime which is just another feather in its cap.