BlackBerry Curve 8520 - BlackBerry Gemini

The new Blackberry Curve 8520 smartphone has been launched by RIM in Indonesia that featuers a large 2.5-inch 65K display with full QWERTY keypad and is the first BlackBerry device with dedicated multimedia keys.

The quad-band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz network ready Blackberry Curve 8520 smartphone sports a stylish design has 2.64-inch 320 x 240 pixels 65K-colours TFT scratch resistant display.

The smartphone is equipped with all new touch-sensitive trackpad instead of traditional trackball and it comes with a full HTML web browser and several social networking appls for Facebook, Myspace, and Flickr.

Since new touchpad involves no moving parts, it should be more robust and expected to last long.

The trackpad employs all the same gestures as the conventional trackball, besides feels similar to using a trackpad on a laptop. To select an option, one can click the pad just like one would with the conventional trackball.

Measuring just 109 x 60 x 13.9 mm and weighing just about 106 gms, the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 mobilephone comes with 256 MB shared internal memory and it has microSD memory slot supporting up to 32 GB maximum memory storage.

Equipped with a 512 MHz CPU, the Blackberry Curve 8520 phone is powered by BlackBerry’s own Operating system.

BlackBerry Curve 8520 sports three dedicated music and multimedia atop the smartphone allowing skip over songs, pause music to talk, or repeat favorites over and over options in addition to enabling mute phone calls with the easy-access mute button.

The handset offers simple and straightforward email and IM setup and it supports Windows Hotmail/Live, AOL, Gmail, Yahoo, ICQ and Blackberry messenger.

Data Connectivity

Supporting Polyphonic ringtones along with MP3 ringtones, the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone offers GPRS Class 10 connection with upto 48 kbps speed, HSCSD (High Speed Circuit Switching Data) wireless connection with upto 38.4 kbps speed, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN connecivity and ultra fast EDGE class 10 connection allowing upto 236.8 kbps data speed.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 also offers wireless Bluetooth v2.0 connection with A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) option . The Bluetooth v2.0 with Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) allows listening to music on bluetooth compatible headset absolutely wire-free and in full stereo.

The smartphone is also equipped with standard fast USB v2.0 port (miniUSB port) which is used for both power recharging and PC connectivity for data exchange.

Digital Camera

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 mobilephone sports a top class 2.0 Megapixels digital camera that offers 5x digital zoom (using volume control key) at maximum resolution of 1632 x 1224 pixels. The still pictures are stored in standatd JPEG format.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520’s digital camera is a fix-focus lens technology and shooting mode supports various options for still and video recording under several adjustable shooting conditions.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 phone allows shooting pictures in three different resolutions: 160 x 120, 640 x 480 and 1632 x 1224 pixels (2 MP), and they are saved in standard JPEG format. The smartphone also support video recording a normal resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Recording length is only limited by the available free space on the memory card.

Media Player

The included media player in BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphones is a full featured media player that allows playing video and audio files. Audio media files supports AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 PRO/WMA 10, and AAC-LC and Video format supports MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV3 files and file transfer is fairly fast using USB v2.0 interface.

In addition, it also offers 3.5 mm audio out port to allow users plugin their choice of headphones. One can play, rewind, fast forward, equalize, shuffle tracks and create playlists – just like in any other digital music player.

FM Radio With RDS

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone also features an integrated FM Radio with RDS and 20 station memory. The radio can be played through the loud speaker as well. The radio is stereophonic reception and the phone is capable of receiving very clear and stable signal without any interferences in the broadcast.

The RDS feature of FM Radion enables display of the radio station name or even additional information – like artists’ names or songs’ titles and duration etc. The FM Radio offers 20 stations memory and allows frequency scale of 87.5 up to 108.0 MHz.

All the rest..

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 supports MMS (Multimedia Message Service) for Multimedia text messaging allowing sounds, pictures, animations and formatted text in SMS message and its integrated image blog features allows sharing photos instantly by directly posting them onto any blog site.

Available in black color, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone’s some other features includes, WiFi access to Blackberry Enterprise Server, WiFi access to Blackberry Internet Server, built-in full HTML browser, Email Client, Wireless Email, voice memo recording, built-in handsfree Speakerphone, WAP 2.0/xHTML Browser, Java MIDP 2.0 support, picture caller ID, applications such as calendar, currency converter, alarm clock, auto keypad lock, stop watch, and preloaded polyphonic ringtones with ringtone composing application.

Equipped with Li-Ion 1150 mHz standard battery, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone offers upto 17 days of standby and 4.5 hrs of talk time (on GSM network).

BlackBerry Curve 8520 Smartphone Features

• Quad band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
• 2.64-inches, 320 x 240 pixels, 65K colours QVGA TFT display
• Full QWERTY Keypad
• Touch Sensitive Optical Trackpad (instead of trackball)
• 256 MB shared internal memory
• microSD memory card slot, support up to 32 GB
• GPRS Class 10, 32 – 48 kbps
• HSCSD, 38.4 kbps wireless connection
• EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
• WiFi 802.11a/b/g Wireless Network
• Bluetooth v2.0+A2DP
• USB v2.0 port, USB Mass storage
• 2.0 Megapixels digital camera, 1600 x 1200 pixels resolution, 2.5X Digital Zoom, Autofocus, integrated flash
• Video Recroding in QVGA, 320 x 240 pixels resolution, 15 fps
• Media Player Supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, ASF file formats
• Video Player Supports MP4/H.263/H.264, WMV file formats
• Integrated FM radio with RDS and 20 station memory
• Ringtones – Polyphonic 72 channels, MP3, and AAC
• Organizer
• Voice dial, voice memo recording
• Built-in handsfree Speakerphone
• HTML Browser
• Li-Ion 1150 mAh Standard battery
  Stand-by Up to 17 Days
  Talk time Up to 4.5 hrs
• Dimension: 109 x 60 x 13.9 mm
• Weight – 106 gms

The new BlackBerry Curve 8520 Smartphone with 2 MP camera and FM radio is available in India for the price of Rs. 15,999 (inclusive of all taxes) with one year warranty. Visit www.blackberry.com for more details.