The new BlackBerry Curve 9380 is RIM’s first ever BlackBerry curve smartphone with a touch screen. With the release of BlackBerry Curve 9380, RIM has indicated that it is focusing on the touch screen phone market. In the last few months RIM has added touch screen to the Bold and Torch line inform of BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Torch 9860. Now it is time of Curve family to welcome a touch screen member which aims to attract customers looking for a budgetary device offering complete BlackBerry OS 7 experience. Check out the extensive BlackBerry Curve 9380 review to know more about this smartphone.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Looks And Design

The form factor of Curve 9380 is very much the same as that of BlackBerry Torch 9860. In fact Curve 9380 looks like the smaller version of BlackBerry Torch 9860. With dimensions standing at 109x60x11.2mm, Torch 9860 is quite a pocket friendly device. It is very light weighing just 98 grams. The light weight of the phone is because of the fact that it is made out of plastic. The plastic is glossy in nature which easily attracts unpleasant marks on the device. BlackBerry Curve 9380 is a compact and pocket-friendly device. The design has nothing new to boast about and the materials used are also not unique. We felt that the design could have been made better. Anyways most of the mid-rangers will find the design of Curve 9380 cool.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Display

The front of the phone is dominated by a 3.2 inches HVGA capacitive touch screen with a 188ppi pixel density. The display is quite good. The colors are quite vibrant, sharp and crisp. The contrast is quite good and the viewing angles are also quite good. Sunlight legibility is quite good and once again we were disappointed to find that the touch screen lacked haptic feedback. Beneath the display you will find the call, menu and back buttons which are large and comfortable to use. The volume keys are on the right side, while the lock button is placed at the top.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 User Interface

BlackBerry Curve 9380 runs on BlackBerry OS 7 which has improvements over OS 6. OS 7 is more friendly and colorful than the previous versions. There is a speaker symbol on the top left by tapping which you can switch profiles quite quickly and you can also perform voice searches. The track pad is quite sharp and the control is quite precise. Users get to know about the missed events by pressing the bar between the search and profile icons.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Features And Apps

When it comes to apps on BlackBerry phones, OS 7 does not have much to offer. However still you get dedicated Facebook and Twitter clients. Apart from it, you get the calendar application which integrates Facebook and Google calendars. RIM however, has a long way to go before it can catch up with Android Market and Apple App store in terms of apps. The phone is quite similar to that of previous BlackBerry devices and the contacts get listed alphabetically and the phone allows you to put contacts in two categories namely and personal and business. The phone handles all kinds of messages and there are few IMs installed in the phone. The memory of the phone can be extended up to 32GB.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Keyboard

Curve 9380 does not have a physical QWERTY keyboard which is the hallmark and one of the major USPs of BlackBerry devices. Curve 9380 has a virtual QWERTY keyboard which does a good job in landscape mode, but in portrait mode, we encountered some problems because of lack of space. So while using the keyboard in portrait mode, you need to be extra careful while typing messages or composing mails.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Camera Quality

BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone is equipped with a 5MP fixed focus camera which is the highest you get in a RIM smartphone. The camera has a single LED flash and the image quality is quite average. Though there is good amount of resolved details, yet we felt that it could have been made better. The contrast is good but noise levels are way above average. Though the shutter key is a bit unusually shaped yet it is quite comfortable. The phone allows you to choose from a wide range of scene modes such as portrait, landscape, night etc.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Video Recording

The phone is not capable of recording HD videos. The best it can capture is to capture VGA clips at 30fps which surprisingly is good. The frame rate is good and the resolved details are quite good. The colors are quite accurate and the contrast is also fine.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Connectivity

Curve 9380 offers you a broad range of connectivity options which is expected out of a smartphone. You get a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G. There is dual band Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi hotspot is also a nice addition. Connectivity of the device is also enhanced by the presence of NFC which means that you can pair Curve 9380 with other enabled devices. You also get a micro-USB port which is enabled for both charging and data connections.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Multimedia

Users get new Music player icons and you can quickly search tracks by artists, album or genres. The video playing capabilities are quite good and the screen is quite good for decent video playback. Youtube videos played quite well on Curve 9380. The video player is quite capable of playing videos of DivX, XviD, H.264, MPEG 4 and WMV formats up to 720p. The audio output is also not good and we were highly disappointed to find that the phone lacks FM radio.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Release Date

The phone has been released in December 2011.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Accessories

The phone is stuffed with the following accessories:

• USB cable
• Charger
• Headphones
• 2GB MicroSD card
• User Manual

Download BlackBerry Curve 9380 user manual.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Battery Life

The battery life of curve 9380 is pretty good. The battery gave us a runtime of approximately 5 hours.

BlackBerry Curve 9380 Price

Price of BlackBerry Curve 9380 in India is approximately Rs 20,000.

Curve will surly attract you with its good quality screen and decent set of features. There is an uncanny resemblance between Curve 9380 and Torch 9860. If you are a BlackBerry lover, then you can give a look to Curve 9380.