The BlackBerry Curve had gone largely unnoticed in the shadow of the innovative BlackBerry Torch. An upgraded version of the Curve 8520, the Curve 3G is targeted at messaging obsessives who have not yet tried the BlackBerry and want to give it a try – a “my first BlackBerry” if you like.

Style and handling on the BlackBerry Curve 3G

The BlackBerry Curve 3G is the same size as the 8520, which is a nice size in the hand. The front is split equally between the efficient QWERTY keyboard and the 2.46-inch display. The keyboard is expertly designed, with raised keys that make it easier to tell between the keys. We found that using our thumbs to type had us racing smoothly around the keyboard, with an easy-access alt key on the bottom left providing access to numerals and punctuation marks. The centre keys may cause those with bigger thumbs to falter but otherwise it works well for a small QWERTY.

The familiar BlackBerry trackpad sits above the keyboard, and has adjustable sensitivity – it’s so good that the traditional and iconic BlackBerry Trackball has faded into memory.

The textured rubber back looks a little cheap unfortunately and can’t compete with the leather cover on the Bold 9700. The front fascia has either red or chrome trim, depending on whether you want striking looks or a more businesslike device.

Email on the BlackBerry Curve 3G

Of course, the shining star of any BlackBerry is its email capability, and the Curve 3G is as good for email as you would expect. There is support for up to ten business or email accounts. To set up an email account you simply need to enter your address and password. Each account has its own unique icon, which gains a star above it when it has a new message. Emails arrive almost instantly and any mails you send from the BlackBerry are retrievable from your home computer. The iPhone 3GS doesn’t even offer this capability, although the iPhone 4 has introduced it.

One flaw is that picture-heavy emails look crowded and messy, and displaying them in text mode just gives you a long list of hyperlinks.

Internet on the BlackBerry Curve 3G

One of the main upgrades the Curve 3G has over the 8520 is its data connection. The Curve offers fast HSDPA internet speeds as well as Wi-Fi, so websites load quickly. However, streaming video YouTube was slow, with a long buffering process even over Wi-Fi. And the small screen means that browsing webpages requires lots of scrolling. If you want to zoom in more than once you will have to negotiate BlackBerry’s fiddly menu system – although there will soon be an upgrade to the more user-friendly BlackBerry 6 OS, for which we’re grateful.

Feature set on the BlackBerry Curve 3G

As we’ve come to expect from BlackBerry phones, the camera on the Curve 3G is mediocre, at just two megapixels with no flash, an if you zoom in the resulting pictures become more grainy with each zoom.

Music and video playback are controlled by the three media keys on the top of the phone for play/pause, rewind and fast forward. You can play music over your headphones, which plug into the always-welcome 3.5mm audio jack, or use the built-in loudspeaker. Unless you’re in camera mode you can listen to you tunes while you are using any other feature. One gripe is that the audio port is on the side of the phone instead of at the top, which means the plug on your headphones gets bent over in your pocket.

The verdict on the BlackBerry Curve 3G

As an entry in the world of BlackBerry, the Curve 8520 did the job nicely. The Curve 3G does the same good job but the upgrades aren’t really impressive enough to justify the new handset. Of course it’s email and messaging capabilities are unmatched, but other than that there’s nothing too special to recommend it.