The Price: $130 w/ 2-year contract and rebate from T-Mobile, or $48.88 with the same strings attached from Walmart

The Verdict: Was this co-designed by Fisher Price?

It's not that it's poorly built—the construction is plenty sturdy, like all good Fisher Price toys. But it's like RIM took the excellent Curve 8900 (which is also on T-Mobile for $30 more) and re-designed it for a very sophisticated 6-year-old.

You can feel and see the corners cut—well, more like rounded—to get to this budget BlackBerry all over the place. The lower resolution (320x240) screen is flat-out depressing compared to every other BlackBerry display in the last year (just look). Instead of the great latch mechanism for the battery door from the Tour, Storm and 8900, it's a plain slab of plastic you pop out with a fingernail. It's also lacking GPS (though Google Maps will triangulate your position via cell towers), and the camera's only 2 megapixels. Bizarrely, T-Mobile isn't shipping it with BlackBerry App World—which got better with the recent 1.1 update—you've gotta go download it yourself.

Hey, it's got the future of BlackBerry stuck in the middle of its face: The trackpad. Swipe your finger over it, and the cursor moves. It's about 90 percent as good as the trusty trackball. The missing 10 percent is that on the occasions the phone lags, the lack of tactile feedback somehow makes it more jarring when the phone fails to respond. But otherwise, it pretty tightly approximates the control of the trackball, so you won't miss it, especially when you realize pocket lint is no longer your phone's mortal enemy. Also new are a triplet of media keys on top of the phone, but I kinda prefer a dedicated lock button.

Even though the BlackBerry platform is starting to feel a little creaky compared to Android, iPhone and webOS, it's still fairly usable, and while the 8520 might have shaved off some hardware features, RIM didn't gimp anything that would cramp performance, so it felt about the same in that regard as the 8900.

Overall, I don't think you should pay more than $100 for the Curve 8520. For $50, it's a solid deal, but if you can spare the extra $50 bucks, the screen alone on the 8900 is worth it.

A BlackBerry for $50, if you buy it at the right spot

Trackpad just as good as trackball (almost)

Keyboard is great (if you like peppy keyboards)

Every new BlackBerry makes BlackBerry OS feel a bit more tired

Feels kinda cheap, like a $50 faux smartphone

Worst BlackBerry screen in a long time—dim, text looks bad

[BlackBerry Curve 8520]

Users of the Pearl, Curve and 88xx phones, despite being highly capable devices, are getting it from all angles; on one front, RIM left these handsets behind for OS 4.6, and the touchscreen Storm looks like it's from a different planet. Other phone makers are moving into exciting new territory, releasing totally new hardware and software at steady clip. In short, it can be rough to own a last-gen 'Berry, not to mention one of the older 7000 series handsets. But the theory here is the same as before—just because your handset is technically last-gen device doesn't mean it has to feel like one.

Ditch the BlackBerry Browser for Good
RIM's newest browser, bundled with 4.6x and 4.7x handsets, is good. It renders like a modern mobile phone should. NOT SO for the 4.5 and earlier browsers. They might be fine in the exciting world of WAP, but that's yesterday's mobile web.

Opera Mini: This feisty little browser has been backing up RIM's stock software for years, and with good reason. It'll run on almost any BlackBerry, with (old version) support spanning back to the ancient, black-and-white 5810, which was released in 2002. Opera uses server-side optimization to speed things up, but the end result is an experience that at least resembles browsing as we know it today.

Bolt Browser: Bolt, which I made note of a while ago for "not looking horrible", is now available to the public, and it's quite good. It uses server-side compression just like Opera Mini, but generally achieves more faithful results in a shorter time. Most of its magic lies in its rendering engine, the same soon-to-be-ubiquitous WebKit found in Mobile Safari, Mobile Chrome and the Pre's new browser.

Dress Your Interface Up Like a New BlackBerry, Or Pretty Much Anything Else
Pre-4.6 BlackBerry OSes share the same awkward aesthetic. It's at once dry and businesslike, pastel and cartoonish. A relic for sure, but one that takes customization quite well. Plenty of themes are floating around on the internet, but loads of them cost money and nearly all reside in horrible, spammy website. Oh, and 95% of them are terrible. But that means that a few aren't—here they are:

Go to Themes4BB. Seriously. Registration is required to access the forums, but once you're done you have access to a huge number of free, occasionally decent BlackBerry themes for almost any model. The obvious iPhone, Mac OS and Windows skins litter the message boards, but the best will give your interface a near-full conversion. If feeling left behind is your problem, there are high-contrast 4.6-inspired skins for most models.

Fill Out Your App List:
While you've got a prime messaging device in your pocket, there are areas where the standard BlackBerry apps are lacking. We've covered browsers, but there are other apps that can have an equally transformative effect on your handset.

Google Apps: Aside from plethora of mobile web apps offered by Google, there are a few native ones as well. Google Mobile provides access to Gmail (possibly a bit redundant), GPS-compatible Maps (a must-have) and Google Sync, which will keep your contacts and calendars neatly paired with Google Apps.

VoIP: BlackBerrys have been sadly neglected by Skype, but that doesn't mean VoIP is out of the question. iSkoot is a surprisingly functional 3rd-party app which uses Skype's network and is able to make and receive relatively clear Skype voice calls, even over 2G networks. Truphone is a simple app that'll route international calls at local call rates. Gizmo5 is one of the better of the sea of second-tier Skypes out there, and their VoIP app, which offers not just free calls to other Gizmo5 users, but instant messaging on a range of popular networks, is worth a download.

WebMessenger Multi-Protocol IM: Some BlackBerrys are blessed with a bundled AIM app; most aren't. WebMessenger does a handy job of combining most popular messaging protocols into an easy interface. And honestly, what is your BlackBerry good for if not furiously typing short messages to all your friends through as many channels as possible?

TwitterBerry: Further facilitating the aforementioned HAVE QWERTY, MUST COMMUNICATE ethos is TwitterBerry, the preeminent Twitter app for any BlackBerry. The iPhone may have seized the attention of the Twitterati, but any BlackBerry, new or old, is better suited to the service that the Apple's buttonless handset. TwitterBerry has the potential to bring upon the world heretofore unseen levels of oversharing, courtesy of you, last-gen BlackBerry users.

Viigo RSS Reader: Viigo is a fantastic RSS reader, able to consolidate any number of feeds—website content, Google Alerts, social networking sites—into a friendly, simple interface.

Dealzmodo Hacks are intended to help you sustain your crippling gadget addiction through tighter times. If you come across any on your own that are particularly useful, send it to our tips line (Subject: Dealzmodo Hack). Check back every other Thursday for free DIY tricks to breathe new life into hardware that you already own.

We liked what we saw of the new Curve, and it will be on AT&T later this year. It's not the $150 sweetspot that was previously rumored, but still not bad for an overall solid B-Berry. [T-Mobile Store via Crackberry]

Update: As is their wont, Amazon has a nice $100 rebate, bringing the price down to $99. Thanks ALCie.

This review has been over a month in the making. Let me explain. While the S9 comes packaged with proprietary PC-only iTunesish software, I planned to mount the S9 like a USB drive and drag and drop my music and videos. While a firmware update and the actual file transfers seemed to go fine, when I started opening folders within the S9 itself (yes, you have to deal with folders), I'd get endless lists of gibberish, often followed by a system freeze that only a hard reset would fix.

I dealt with tech support (who of course had never seen the problem), and it was finally determined that I should get a new one. I was shipped another unit and the same thing happened. I have no doubt that somewhere along the line I was doing something wrong (though it's hard to fathom given the dragging and dropping), but no one could spot it. That's disconcerting.

I was finally shipped an updated, promised-to-be-working S9, and it really did finally work. It plays XviD and WMV movies, but no generic MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 content (you can forget about h.264). Also, like other players, if the file has too great a resolution, it fails—my high definition .wmv of The Dark Knight just wouldn't play, nor would a high definition XviD that I tested. Music-wise, the S9 plays MP3, WMA, and a bunch of others, but no DRM-free AAC. (Again, possibly an MPEG-4 codec issue.)

On the plus side, audio reproduction seemed good and the system is very quick with video media—I could skip around a one-hour, standard def XviD of Mad Men instantly. And I should add, clips really pop off the S9's 3.3-inch OLED screen with smooth framerate reproduction.

Recording audio with the integrated microphone worked fine—functional but not stellar—which is to be expected: The mic is but a tiny hole in the case. You can also conveniently one-button record the radio, the quality of which is only limited by the generally decent reception. Plus, after bootlegging the radio, you can drag the created WMA files from the S9 right onto your computer's hard drive, no questions asked.
Despite many of these functions being excellent, nothing about the UI is as fluid or intuitive as you'd hope to make the experience fun or fulfilling.

For instance, you want to listen to music, so you click the "Music" icon. Easy! But your music isn't necessarily there. You actually have to follow a green, animated arrow that leads you to a submenu of subfolders. That's where you actually find your content. Once you're within these folders, you can actually skip album to album smoothly (just hitting the track forward button), as the system remembers where your content is and even sets up other virtual folders for organizing by genre or year (depending on your meta data information). But why did we mess with this green arrow garbage? If you know where my music is, just skip the maze of clicks and take me to it.

The problems are beyond mere organization. Following the well-designed home screen, the entire OS is driven by icons that are only identifiable by trial and error. It's frustrating, and I could never just hand this player to one of my parents to use.

It's not just that I'm an Apple fanboy. I loved the Clix—remember the Clix? The Clix was great! Its interface made sense and was pretty to boot. And other devices from Samsung, SanDisk and Creative have had decent showings in spite of the iPod's success. It's just that the S9's interface is alright-looking, but nowhere as quick and convenient to navigate as you'd hope.

But here's the thing—to me, the fatal flaw with the S9 wasn't that strange series of bugs I was able to duplicate on two units, nor was it the confusing directory system. It was that when I held the S9, a pretty decent-looking device, it felt cheap.
It's too light for its size, almost hollow. In the above shot you can see that the S9 is thicker than an iPhone (and way thicker than an iPod touch). And touching a plastic screen (OK, apparently it's glass but it sure as heck feels like plastic) that's not lightning responsive —there's a micro delay after each button press—is simply a second rate experience to the iPhone/iTouch super-responsive glass.
At $240 for 16GB, maybe you thought that the Cowon S9 would be a tempting device to play your Bittorrent collection of movies without conversions. But given limitations with resolutions/format, a disappointing UI and the subpar build, it's hard to know why the S9 makes a solid alternative to the iPod touch. [Cowon]

The press release doesn't get any more specific than that, but seems to lend authority to the previous leak, which indicated that the 18th would be the day. [BGR]

Forum moderator Godzilla posted the roadmap, which offers minimal details actual specs. It only says that the touchscreen Bold (9900, codename "Pluto") will maintain the same form factor and keyboard, and that the Storm slider is unconfirmed and targeted towards Europeans. which in addition to the aforementioned phones, also makes reference to HSPA and EV-DO versions of the 8900 (referred to as the 9220 and 8930, respectively), a 3G Kickstart, as well as an EV-DO/HSPA Bold. There was also talk of a refreshed line of Pearls with the new UI. The EV-DO products are due for a release in the first half of 2009, while the potential heavy hitters are slated for a release at the end of 2009. [TmoNews Forums]

1. Nintendo Wii: 2,056,866 related items sold
2. Microsoft Xbox360: 1,297,903 related items sold
3. Sony PSP: 350,591 related items sold
4. iPod Touch: 281,361 related items sold
5. Nintendo Wii Fit: 266,584 related items sold
6. Apple iPhone 3G: 212,837 related items sold
7. BlackBerry Pearl: 207,688 related items sold
8. BlackBerry Curve: 193,788 related items sold
9. Sony Playstation 3: 103,333 related items sold
10. Guitar Hero III: 98,159 related items sold

Nothing all that surprising here—apparently people like to yack and sit around playing video games. If you're interested in reading beyond the top 10, head on over to the link. [CrunchGear]

Instead of building out from the user interfaces found in their larger PMPs, Cowon seems to have gone for something fresh. And by "fresh", I mean "variously lifted from popular PMP interfaces, including that one that you don't want to lift from, because everyone will call you on it immediately." This is the second day of not-so-great news for teetery player, as yesterday its US release was pushed back to a murky "early 2009."

A few pictures don't tell the whole story though—despite the lack of a browser, the Curve still has the potential to give most available PMPs—iPod Touch included—a run for their money. Furthermore, prospective Curve owners should count themselves lucky; early Cowon players didn't have GUIs. [Digihunter]

Body
It's a solid evolution of the Curve form factor. Slightly thinner, it's also tighter, with less wasted space around the screen and keys. The lines are much cleaner, making it sleeker and more modern, like a sports car compared to a Toyota Corolla. (It's very similar to the Storm.) The refined form has some function, too, since it feels better in your hand. It also has the Storm's dedicated lock key on the roof—no more menu-digging!

Screen
Even though the Curve is RIM's mass market smarty (the Pearl doesn't really count), they didn't scrimp on the screen compared to the Bold. It's fantastic. Colors pop, contrast is great, resolution is solid and the viewing angle is nice and wide. For nitpickers, he colors are noticeably warmer than the Bold—kind of like the iPhone 3G vs. the iPhone—but it's totally fine.

Keyboard and Trackball
The keyboard feels almost exactly the same as the old Curve—punchiness and layout are essentially identical, though the keys now slope ever so slightly, like the Bold, but to a lesser degree. Most people probably won't even notice. The new "atomic trackball" doesn't feel too different compared to the one you're used to, just more robust and less hangin' loose.

Battery Life
We haven't done any formal tests—it'd be unfair since this isn't a final build and the software optimizations can make it even better—but it seems to be comparable to the old Curve (i.e., well over a day), even with the beefier hardware.

OS and Software
Again, this isn't a final unit, so really digging into the OS and software like it's a production model isn't quite fair, but so far, it's a really stable version of the BlackBerry 4.6 OS we've seen on the Bold and Pearl Flip. And obviously, that's where a lot of the improvement is over the old Curve. It's prettier, smoother, and just a better overall user experience, with major enhancements in the look and feel of the entire BlackBerry experience.

The Curve 8900 is fairly nimble getting around the OS, though not quite as zippy as the Bold—but that's expected since the Bold has more monstrous hardware powering it. You can kinda see this in the browser, which lagged behind the Bold in our tests even though both were on Wi-Fi. There will probably be tuneups in the final build to make it snappier, though the Bold will always have a hardware advantage.

Conclusion
What's interesting is that even though the Curve 8900 borrows heavily from the Bold in terms of design and in no way feels cheap (well the plastic-y chrome is a little cheap), it's more clearly differentiated from it than the old Curve was from the 8800. It's very much a Curve still, and clearly the consumer model to the Bold's pro position. So what looked to be a hard choice from leaked shots, isn't quite as difficult as it appeared.

The Bold is more substantial, exuding "executive" to the Curve 8900's "middle manager" or "normal person." It's clearly more powerful, and has a bigger screen. The keyboards are way different, too—personally, I prefer the Bold's larger, squishier keys to the Curve's smaller, stiffer ones. But obviously, the biggest thing is 3G. The Bold has it, the Curve 8900 doesn't, and we missed it sorely.

All that said, this thing will sell like a mother, and justifiably so. It pushes the BlackBerry you see in most people's hands (if they're carrying a BlackBerry) into 2008, exceeding the original Curve in every way.