BlackBerry Curve 9360
Price: Dh1,399 | Available at all leading retailers
The new BlackBerry is flat and way slimmer than its predecessor, the 9300. It was hard trying to resist the urge to chuck it off the floating bridge and watch it skip its way down the creek — and it would have done a good job too thanks to its aerodynamic and light-weight body. You can call the new 9360 anything but curvy with its flat and sleek demeanour.
The skipping stone sports a five-megapixel camera, with an LED flash and 512 on-board memory — compared to the old Curve's two-megapixel and 256 memory. Camera features have been upgraded to support geotagging, face detection and image stabilisation. Unlike its colleague, the Bold, the 9360 isn't a touch screen and navigation is through its optical trackpad. RIM didn't feel the need to include the old music and lock buttons on the top of this Curve. Instead, they have swapped them for a single Bold-like lock button. However, it is a small price to pay when you consider the other specifications available. The phone feels quite tiny and would fit snugly into small hands while separate keys, similar to other Curves and unlike the Bolds, makes typing with small hands a breeze.
The phone is sleek and rather feminine, a decent upgrade from the 9300 — if your only requirement was a sleeker phone. If not, then there are not many differences between the two and the whole ‘new-phone transition period' could wait until the next Curve.
