The BlackBerry Curve 8520 shows that the future of the BlackBerry is almost here.

Beneath the Blackberry 8520’s unexciting surface is an overflow of features for both work and pleasure, including music and video players, full text, Instant Messaging and, naturally, BlackBerry's e-mail capabilities. That includes complete Microsoft Office attachment viewing, reading and editing, and several other embedded applications, including direct links to Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. The BlackBerry App Store also offers hundreds of other apps.

Unlike previous BlackBerrys, the 8520's edges are ringed with rubber to ensure a better grip. The trackpad is a massive leap beyond BlackBerry's other navigation options. The tiny pad is more functional and intuitively reactive than typical concentric circle navigation arrays. You can simply slide your thumb across it to move the cursor in any direction, and press it in to activate whatever lights up – simple and easy. The keypad consists of a 35-key backlit QWERTY keyboard.

The Curve's 2-megapixel camera takes surprisingly excellent pictures both indoors and out, with plenty of preset exposure options. Snapshots are vivid, with as much detail as you'd expect from a 2-megapixel camera. However, with each step-up on the 5x zoom, reduces resolution, as if you were simply cropping a larger image. Other than its zoom feature, the camera also has a fixed focus feature but does not come with a flash. The display on the 8520 is a 2.46 inch, 65k TFT screen.

The Curve can support MPEG4, H.263, H.264 and WMV3 video formats. I also supports AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 PRO/WMA10, AAC-LC for Audio. The user may want to expand the memory as the internal capacity is only 256MB. The phone does come with a 2GB Micro SD card to expand your storage size. The 8520 comes with a 3.5mm stereo headset so you can listen to your music wherever you go.

Connectivity options for the Blackberry are Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth v2.0 as well as a micro usb (cable comes with the handset). Other features for the Blackbery 8520 Curve include an optical trackpad navigation, iTunes Sync Software out of the box, user customisable side keys and dedicated media keys on the top of the device.

Dimensions of the handset are 109 x 60 x 13.88mm and it weighs 106g.