RIM BlackBerry Curve 9350

Amidst a slew of new, touch-based hardware it may have been easy to miss theCurve 9350. The little brother to the Torch and Bold, this latest Curve is the smallest and slimmest yet. Some new features include an updated display, 5 megapixel camera, BlackBerry 7 OS and NFC. The 9350 is available with Sprint, while the identical 9360 is offered by T-Mobile. Included with the Curve 9350 you’ll get a 2GB memory card and microUSB data cable with AC adapter.

The Curve 9350 takes everything that made earlier Curves successful and packages it into a slimmer device. It measures 4.3 by 2.4 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.5 ounces. The 2.4-inch LCD sports an upgraded 360-by-480-pixel resolution. While it's not a touch screen, the trackpad makes it pretty easy to navigate the OS, and old BlackBerry hands will feel right at home. The four-row keyboard features raised keys and a gentle curve. I've always liked the keyboard on the Curve, and my hands aren't particularly small, but some may prefer the larger Bold instead. The Curve 9350 is a dual-band EV-DO Rev. A (850/1900 MHz) device with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. There's no 4G WiMAX support. Voice quality is fine; callers sound clear and warm in the earpiece, and transmissions are also clear. Reception is average; I'm still waiting for a Sprint BlackBerry to match the Pearl 8130's reception strength from several years ago. Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4 stars) and voice dialing worked well without training over Bluetooth. The speakerphone is excellent, with plenty of gain and a clear, undistorted tone. Battery life was good at 5 hours 50 minutes of talk time.

RIM's BlackBerry 7 OS may be new, but it's mostly more of the same. On the plus side, you get an upgraded 800MHz processor, BlackBerry 7's new icon groups, and a good selection of preloaded software, including Slacker, Facebook, and Twitter apps, RIM's Social Feeds aggregator, and a vastly more capable WebKit browser than what earlier BlackBerrys came with. You also get all the usual BlackBerry-related benefits, such as push email for up to 10 accounts and plenty of remote management tie-ins for enterprise. But there's a serious lack of third-party apps in BlackBerry App World, and the ones that are there are no match for their Android and iOS counterparts.

The overall feel of the Curve 9350 is good, but a bit chintzy. The plastic keys and housing don’t quite make the device feel cheap, but at the same time we wouldn’t exactly call the phone solid. The phonealmost feels like a toy, and as one person who picked up the Curve 9350 put it, “this doesn’t feel real.” Those with smaller hands will appreciate the minute dimensions, but for those with large hands the phone will feel miniscule and the keys are probably too close for comfortable typing.