Mobile News

Release Date: November 22, 2009

$450 Retail
$200 with 2-year AT&T Contract + Online Discount
$130 with 2-year T-Mobile Contract + Mail-in Rebate

Battery

Users will not enjoy a lot of talk and usage time with the Blackberry Curve 8530. This Blackberry’s battery charge will only last 4.5 hours with constant talk time and while it will keep going for 10.5 days on standby, it is irrelevant because virtually no Blackberry user will go more than one day without using their device.

Memory and Processor Speed

This Blackberry features a 528MHz processor speed, which makes it relatively fast compared to other cell phone models released in the past several months and especially faster than Blackberry’s previous 8520 model. The Curve 8530′s RAM has also doubled to 256MB since the release of the 8250, making the Blackberry Curve 8530 one of the fastest Blackberry phones made to date.

Screen

The Blackberry Curve 8530 has a 320 x 240 screen that can display more than 6,500 colors. The screen size is a quite smaller at 2.5 inches than most comparable phones. And while this screen looks nice, it is not quite up to snuff when evaluated against other Blackberry phones such as the Blackberry Tour. One complaint voiced by several users is this phone’s LED indicator light’s small pinpoint size is barely noticeable when lit up from a text message or incoming call.

Form

This particular Blackberry phone is slightly different from other Blackberry devices. First, it has a rubber strip that wraps around the sides of the phone as opposed to pronounced convenience keys and chrome bezel. And finally, the trackball of Blackberry devices from yesteryear has been replaced with a newer and better trackpad. This phone is also smaller than the Tour but is not slim and petite like so many of today’s cell phones. It is sturdy yet compact.

Controls

While the trackpad is a relativity new feature for Blackberry phones, the keys are soft and square, which is a throwback to previous Blackberry models. There is also the matter of the 8530′s redesigned “Return,” “Menu,” “End,” and “Talk” buttons. These buttons are now made to look as if they are integrated into the phone’s screen, which causes some users to mistakenly end a call while talking on the phone or other slight mishaps.

Camera

The Curve 8530′s camera is definitely is not an impressive phone feature. With only a 2.0 megapixel camera that does not even possess a flash, users should not expect pictures that even come close to the vicinity of decent, especially considering the higher power cameras of previous Blackberry devices. One other disappointing camera aspect is its lack of auto-focus. If any user values a cell phone’s camera and believes it to be an important purchase point, there are definitely better buys for under a retail price of $450.

Other Features

•    Blackberry 5.0 OS
•    Bluetooth
•    Wi-Fi
•    GPS
•    Many Blackberry apps including DocumentsToGo, DataViz, Blackberry Maps, and Pandora