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BlackBerry Curve 9380 unveiled - first Curve with a touchscreen

This will keep the kids happy

BlackBerry Curve 9380 unveiled - first Curve with a touchscreen
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RIM has today introduced its first Curve smartphone with a touchscreen, and it has really gone to town this time by ditching the keyboard completely!

The Curve 9380 has a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, with on-screen QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry 7 OS and a 5-megapixel camera with flash and VGA video recording. Connectivity wise, it has 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi.

It also has NFC support, for reading SmartPoster tags (no more holding a camera to a QR-code in a dark room) or transferring files quickly between other NFC-enabled devices, plus - in the future - the ability to make secure mobile payments.

With the Curve models particularly popular with kids addicted to BBM, it's no surprise that you'll also be able to enjoy BlackBerry Music here too, allowing users to discover and share new music with other BBM contacts. The more friends you have, the bigger your music library becomes.

You can also also keep up to date with all of your social networking contacts using the Social Feeds app, as well as the native Facebook and Twitter apps that fully integrate with your inbox.

The phone also comes with the Wikitude Augmented Reality app, letting users find nearby BBM contacts in real-time. read reviews on nearby restaurants or find out details about landmarks and points of interest.

RIM expects the Curve 9380 to be available in the coming weeks, meaning it will be out in time for Christmas.

Jonathan Morris
Jonathan Morris
From starting out as a games tester for Mastertronic, Virgin and Sega in the late 1980s, it may seem odd to then ditch everything to write about mobile phones that, at the time, lasted 20 minutes between charges. He always had a hunch mobiles would become quite popular, but possibly didn't realise how powerful (and, ironically, returning to 20 minutes between charges). Jonathan's job is to continue advising on the best hardware to buy, in order to enjoy games that have advanced considerably since those long days and nights testing Double Dragon on the C64.