Review: BlackBerry Curve 9380

In an effort to strengthen its market share in the Philippines, Research-In-Motion has recently launched a new set of devices. Of the three the Curve 9380 is yet again an all-touch device that has ditched the QWERTY keypad. The 3.2-inch capacitive display is bright and easy to navigate around. Although typing using the onscreen keypad had improved drastically, we still ended up typing wrong alphabets. Powered by an 800 MHz processor, it comes with 512 MB RAM and runs on the BB OS7. It smartly handles personal and official email accounts and the social networking feed brings all Twitter and Facebook updates under one hood.

However, for data connectivity – be it for email or internet browsing – the user has to subscribe to a special data plan. Wikitude, a mobile augmented reality application, comes pre-loaded on this device. And for backing up data, the BlackBerry Protect is onboard. It can come in handy while switching between two BlackBerry smartphones. At 98gm, the new Curve is really very easy to carry around. It quietly slips into the pocket and is equally comfortable to hold in the hand. A number of BlackBerry smartphones have the New-Field Communication (NFC) chip and a 5MP camera at the back, and this one isn’t an exception. As for the battery backup, it is decent and goes through a whole day.