Vodafone has come out of the traps as the first UK-based provider to offer the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 to its customers.
The Curve 8520 is a wide format device that comes with a QWERTY keyboard and with a recommended retail price of £185 is presented as “the most affordable” BlackBerry smartphone. For consumers and small business customers, the 8520 is available from £25 a month with a two-year Vodafone contract.
Unlike older BlackBerry models, the 8520 doesn’t have a trackball, but an optical trackpad. It can take memory cards up to 16GB capacity and has a mini-headphone socket for those who want to use it as a media player. It also has a 2 megapixel camera.
While Vodafone launched the device exclusively in the UK, manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) supplies the Curve 8520 through T-mobile in the US.