The BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone is the latest BlackBerry® smartphone in the Vodafone UK range, which includes the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9500 smartphone – an exclusive to Vodafone.

Priced from free on selected price plans, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone is ideal for consumers and businesses and of all sizes. Its full QWERTY keyboard features a new touch-sensitive trackpad that makes scrolling through messages and navigating web pages fast and easy. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone also comes with:

* A 2-megapixel camera with zoom and video recording
* Dedicated keys for music and video
* Built- in Wi-Fi®
* Support for business and consumer mobile email
* Advanced media player
* 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and BlackBerry Media Sync
* MicroSD card slot with support for up to 16GB
* A 2GB memory card

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone is available at www.shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-phone/blackberry-curve-8520 for consumers, www.vodafone.co.uk/curve8520 for small business customers and through Vodafone Account Managers for Corporate and Public Sector customers.

* For consumer and small business the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone is free on a 24 month contract at £25 a month.
* For Corporate and Public Sector customers, the smartphone is priced at £185.
* The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.

Source: Vodafone Press Centre

Orange had similar problems with the device in October and decided to stop shipping it. It had hoped the issues had been ironed out with a batch of software fixes, but the Bold is still confounding some customers.

The news will be a blow to the device’s maker, Research In Motion (RIM), which has also experienced problems with the Bold’s successor, the Storm.

After initial enthusiasm about the look and feel of the device – it is RIM’s first full touchscreen phone – the Storm has faced a barrage of criticism because of a number of software glitches that make it painfully slow to execute certain tasks that other smartphones, such as Apple’s iPhone, carry out with ease.

Complaints include the phone’s built-in camera taking far too long to focus, poor sound quality and the overall slowness of the device. The problems were summed up succinctly by Stephen Fry, a self-­confessed gadget freak. “Been playing with the BB Storm,” he wrote on the social-networking service Twitter. “Shockingly bad. I mean embarrassingly awful. Such a disappointment. Rushed out unfinished. What a pity. iPhone killer? Ha!”

The phone was produced in co-­operation with Vodafone, which has exclusive rights to supply it to its customers. The mobile phone operator missed out on the exclusive deal to stock the iPhone in the US and the key European markets of the UK, France and Germany to bitter rivals AT&T, O2, Orange and T-Mobile, and is hoping the Storm will give it a much-needed boost in the fight for high-end gadget-obsessed customers.

But the Storm is proving a headache. Vodafone’s US joint venture, Verizon Wireless, has already been forced to issue a number of software patches for the device. The fact that the earlier device, the Bold, is still experiencing problems does not bode well for a swift turnaround in the fortunes of the Storm.

There is also talk that RIM is planning a touchscreen variant of the BlackBerry Bold with rumours that the phone – code-named Pluto – could be revealed in the first half of this year.

A spokesman for Orange refused to comment. RIM, meanwhile, produced a joint official statement saying: “The BlackBerry Bold 9000 smartphone is available to Orange customers both in-store and online via its website.”

Source Guardian.co.uk

You can also enter a competition to win this handset, simply enter your details here, and you will be entered into prize draw. Vodafone will give 20 of this handsets away, so waste no time and register your name!

Storm has impressive list of features and capabilities:

* 7.2 mbps HSDPA/UMTS (2100/1900/850 MHz)
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
* 1GB of memory, 192MB RAM
* 1400 mAhr battery. Standby time: 528 hours
* MicroUSB port
* MicroSD and MicroSDHC expandable up to 8GB
* 3.2 megapixel camera with flash
* Video capture. Normal mode (480×320) and MMS mode (176×144)
* Assisted GPS

Device lacks Wi-Fi, which is a little dissappointment, but should be compensated if you get it with unlimited data tariff and have strong signal where you live.

 The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip provides power of a BlackBerry smartphone in a fun and familiar design. Phone has impressive Internet and multimedia capabilities, all in one powerful yet approachable smartphone. RIM promises that you can send a message to your friends or family, make a call, browse the web, snap a picture, watch a video or listen to your favorite song. It’s all in your control with a simple flip.

BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone presents a sophisticated look with a sleek design and a chrome-finished frame surrounding its smooth, luminescent face. Featuring two high-resolution, light-sensing color displays, the external LCD makes it easy to preview incoming emails, text messages and phone calls without opening the handset, while the large, 240 x 320 internal LCD displays messages, videos and web pages with impressive detail and contrast.

An enhanced HTML browser displays web pages in either “Column View” or “Page View” and different emulation settings allow users to choose between desktop-style HTML content and the mobile version of web pages. The browser also supports RTSP for watching online streaming video from sites like m.youtube.com. In addition, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone features built-in Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g) with support for UMA (unlicensed mobile access), extending wireless email and data coverage and supporting carrier enabled voice calls over home Wi-Fi networks, enterprise wireless deployments and Wi-Fi hotspots.

RIM only says that this device will be available from network providers this autumn. Prices and details will be announced later.

RIM via Good Morning Silicon Valley.

This is what you need to do:

- Send pictures to blackberrycontest at boygeniusreport dot com
- You can enter as many times are you like, just make sure they are different BlackBerrys
- *Highly damaged BlackBerrys are a plus*

The 5 blackBerry Bolds will be given away in following countries and networks: AT&T US, T-Mobile Germany, Rogers, Orange UK, and PCCW HK.

For more information see The Boy Genius Report.