Rim's been on a launching spree with its handsets: first the Bold, then Curve 8900, Storm and Flip amongst others. However, a budget 'berry has been rather conspicuous by its absence. Not anymore. The Curve 8520 may finally be the answer to every shallow-pocketeer's prayers.

Locking horns with Nokia's E63, the 8520 is a nifty device. As far as features go, it's a twin to its elder bro, the 8900. The latter is far more suave, no doubt, and brandishes a 3.2-meg snapper with LED flash. The 8520, like its archnemesis, makes do with a 2-meg flash-less wonder. It's a lot thicker too and comes across as rather plasticky. But slap on a silicone skin and the average build won't be in your face.

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What's really exciting about the newcomer is the trackpad. Gone is the venerable trackball its place is a flat nub for menu navigation, which is extremely accurate and translates the lightest gestures into movement on-screen. Furthermore, its sensitivity can be fine-tuned from the options menu. Frankly, we love it, and expect to see it replace the trackball in BB's upcoming models.

The rest is true BlackBerry. There's EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 on the connectivity front. The screen's a tad low-res at 320x240 pixels and the fonts aren't antialiased - expect minor eyestrain while reading lengthy emails. The 2,meg camera is quite pathetic though.

Despite its shortcomings, this 'berry works impressively well as a budget business phone, giving you class-leading email and internet functionality, and a little bit of everything else In short, it's worth every penny spent on it.