BlackBerrys are now fullfledged smartphones, ready for both work and play. The BlackBerry 8300 is the best example of the new generation of 'Berrys, with its 2MP camera and top-notch music and video players. Yet it still handles e-mail with BlackBerry's traditional ease, efficiency, and speed. With its cute look, camera, and a keyboard descended from text-messaging devices, the Pearl was shooting for a younger crowd who may never even have considered buying a smartphone.

The Curve is the first BlackBerry to finally get multimedia right. Really right, as in, it has a real headphone jack for connecting audiophile headphones, and some real PC software to convert your music and videos to play on its gorgeous, visible-in sunlight screen. And yet it's still a BlackBerry: E-mail is efficient and easy to use as always. The first two new-generation BlackBerrys, the Pearl and the 8800, targeted very different audiences. With its cute look, camera, and a keyboard descended from text-messaging devices, the Pearl was shooting for a younger crowd who may never even have considered buying a smartphone. The 8800, meanwhile, served as the latest all-business BlackBerry for 2007, with a big screen, traditional keyboard, and no camera.

It has lots of multimedia capabilities, including a rockin' music player, a video player that's actually easy to use, and a 2-megapixel camera. But it does it all with a size, shape, and keyboard that will seem reassuringly familiar to more experienced BlackBerry users. Let's start with that keyboard. These are old- school keys here-squarish and clicky, not the new sculpted keys from the 8800. The spacing and tactile feedback are both excellent. Above the keyboard sits the "pearl" trackball and a very bright 320 by 240 screen that automatically changes its backlight level so it's readable indoors and out. Yes, it's a narrower display than the one on the 8800-but I hardly noticed Moving over to this BlackBerry's media capabilities, RIM has enhanced its Microsoft Windows XP and Vista desktop software with a stripped-down version of Roxio Easy Media Creator 9. For the first time, you can drag and drop any video file your computer can view into the software and it will automatically (if slowly) be re-encoded for the BlackBerry.

RIM bumped the Curve's camera up to 2 megapixels, though it still doesn't record video. I found it to be sharp, with 650 lines of horizontal and vertical resolution, but it has an irritating tendency to blowout bright areas. Still, pictures were good for a cameraphone CrackBerry addicts will be pleased to know that the 8300 is a BlackBerry through and through. As you'd expect, it gets lots of e-mail and browses the Web, too. The e-mail shows up, unbidden, as it's sent. You probably know the drill by now. RIM added a spell-checker to the e-mail client, but that's the only change here.


Name: 4564.jpg Views: 46 Size: 39.0 KB