BlackBerry Curve 9360 Review

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BlackBerry is on the offensive -- having only just spawned three new mobiles that use its new BlackBerry 7 operating system, it's got a fourth lined up already. The BlackBerry Curve 9360 is a slim phone with a full Qwerty keypad, aimed directly at the younger market.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: Design & Build

The phone is an impressive 11mm thick and comes with the same keyboard as others in the Curve range, meaning more lozenge keys that sit separate from one another. The phone still has the same optical trackpad as all the others in the range.

The side of the phone has a helpful little camera button, which we’re always pleased to see – it might not be much used as the trackpad is best for landscape shots, but it’s an easy way to fire up the camera.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: Display

However, the screen is certainly a step up from others in the Curve range, with an HVGA resolution on the 2.4-inch display good enough for 246dpi – not the sharpest on the market, but certainly among the best for a phone in this price bracket.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: OS & Processor

The 800MHz offering is slick enough, and although we’ve yet to learn the amount of RAM packed in, is unlikely to be more than the Bold 9780 – owners of that model should feel hard done by in not getting access to the new OS.

Anyway, BB OS 7 means the same swipable home screens for looking at rows of your application icons, grouped together in various arrangements to help you find those you’re looking for. You can only seem to set the app drawer to show three rows or none – nothing in between, which may irritate some.


BlackBerry Curve 9360: Browser

Well, it’s both good and bad news: the browser is a lot better, but it can be really slow indeed. Loading up the likes of MobileMegaMall.com saw the on-screen pointer freeze, pictures take a while to display and general sluggishness, even over Wi-Fi.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: Messaging (BBM)

The messaging capabilities of the device are still as sparking as ever. We love the integration throughout BB OS 7, allowing you to easily flick between BBM, email and SMS at will, along with decent Facebook and Twitter integration.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: Keyboard

The keyboard is high quality, if a little compact compared to the Bold range – but that’s nothing new. We were up to speed quickly, although one handed operation isn’t the easiest thing to achieve in the world.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: Multimedia

Here’s some more good news – the media section of the phone seems pretty impressive, even with the slightly lower-resolution screen. Flicking through music tracks was easy (although navigating with the optical trackpad was a bit hit and miss at times) and we could find our favourite track swiftly.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: Video

Video looks good and loads quickly – we’re sure you’ll work out that this isn’t a phone for the movie marathon-loving clientele, but it’s more than acceptable for YouTube and some TV shows if you’ve got the eyesight to stand up to the squinting.

BlackBerry Curve 9360: Social

The Social Feed is an impressive widget – it’s certainly not new, but it’s been tarted up for BB OS 7 and will be winning feature on the Curve 9360 in our opinion, as you can check out Twitter, Facebook, RSS and podcasts in one long list, or separate them out to view individually.

Conclusion:

We're really fond of the design of the Curve 9360, because it's very slim, and impressively light as well. We suspect if RIM is able to keep the price low, this phone could be a big hit with young people looking to upgrade their BlackBerrys.

But there's not much here to tempt Android fans to switch, as Google's operating system offers a better app selection and touchscreens too.

BlackBerry Curve 9360 Specs & Price >