RIM unveils BlackBerry Curve 8520

BlackBerry Curve 8520

Research in Motion (RIM) today announced that the latest in its smartphone family, the BlackBerry Curve 8520, will be available from next month.

The new handset boasts a touch sensitive track pad a first for BlackBerrys and is aimed at those who want to keep connected while on the move, with a big emphasis on email, IM, SMS and MMS in addition to social networking, according to RIM.

Wi-Fi is on the menu, as is a two-megapixel camera and a 2GB microSD card (with support for up to 16GB at present). The 8520, which will be available in three colours black, violet and frost' - also features dedicated media buttons and weighs in at a lightweight 109g with vital statistics of 60mmx13.9mmx109mm (WDH).

"More and more [mobile] phone users are choosing to upgrade to a smartphone and the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will undoubtedly convince many more people in the UK to make the switch," said Carlo Chiarello, RIM's vice president of product management, in a statement.

"It is a great new addition to the BlackBerry Curve series and delivers all the great messaging, social networking and multimedia features that customers have come to love about BlackBerry smartphones."

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.