Heading out for a movie with friends? Meeting buddies for coffee? Whether it's your girlfriend you want to text all day and night, or share moments through pies, BBM is possibly the fastest and most economical way of doing so. Enter the Curve 9220, the most affordable BBM-ing device yet... and toting the latest BB OS 7.1.


The build quality is quite decent and the handset retains the conventional feel of a BlackBerry with its QWERTY keypad. Youngsters will also love the latest new feature on this smartie - FM radio makes it debut on a BlackBerry for the very first time. The dedicated BBM key on the left is basically a customisable convenience key. There's also another convenience key on the right that's mapped to the camera by default.

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Apart from BBM, you also get the typically superb push email support, a document editor, PIM and the usual smorgasbord of BB apps such as IMs, Facebook, Twitteret al. The keys are spacious and intuitive to type on, while the FM radio is surprisingly clear as long as you have good FM reception ... a handy addition to the music player and a boon for daily commutes.


The battery life is very good and stretches well into the second day. We feel that BBM still has an edge over its rivals such as WhatsApp in terms of speed, convenience and overall reliability ... and many operators are now offering cheap only-BBM plans too. Sure, the app-loading possibilities are limited as compared to a similarly-priced 'droid, but if it's an affordable messaging device you're looking.