BlackBerry unveils Curve 8900

RIM is set to complete the refresh of its entire BlackBerry line with the release of the Curve 8900.

Previously codenamed Javelin, the new Curve melds the form factor and mid-market positioning of the original 8300 series with the design and technology of the Bold 9000, but with one exception – like its predecessor, the Curve 8900 remains a quad-band GSM device.

That aside, the 8900 enjoys a facelift which is more than skin deep.

It retains the keyboard layout of the 8300 with a pronounced gap between each key, although the primary buttons control buttons and trackball have the same oversized and flush-set approach as the Bold.

GPS and Wi-Fi are both built-in, while the Bold-derived OS 4.6 includes everything from the slicker UI to support for HTML email, the enhanced media player with iTunes synchronisation plus Documents to Go for viewing and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The Curve 8900 also gets the improved BlackBerry micro browser, although this won’t get much use over a simple GSM connection.

The powerplant for all this is now a 512MHz Xscale processor, up from the 8300’s 312MHz chip. Battery life also gets a boost, from the 1000mAhr cell of the Curve 8300 to a 1400 mAhr battery which RIM rates at a peak 5.5 hours of talk time and 15 days on standby.

In some areas the Curve 8900 even bests the Bold. The 2.4 inch 480 × 360 HVGA+ display is not only larger than the 8300’s 320 x 240 panel, it has higher resolution than the Bold’s 480 x 320 pixel display. Ditto the digital camera, which packs a 3.2 megapixel lens over the 2.0 megapixel sensor of the Bold and the Curve 8300.

The Curve 8900 has little on-board RAM, however, so storing music and video will fall to a microSD memory card of up to 16GB capacity.

While the first shipments have gone to Canadian carrier Rogers, a RIM spokeswoman told APC that there was currently no local release date for the Curve 8900. RIM’s reliance on carriers to sell and support the BlackBerry means that the process has to be driven by one of the mobile telcos, and the 8900’s GSM-only status would most likely see the device limited to Optus and Vodafone (3 is of course 3G only, and Telstra’s primary push it for its own Next G network).

First reports are that the Curve 8900 is indeed an impressive device in just about every respect – head over to CrackBerry.com for a detailed hands-on review.