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We groused about the BlackBerry Pearl's 1.3-megapixel camera and its fuzzy pictures (see our review). Research in Motion (RIM) fixed that (sort of) in the Curve, the new BlackBerry 8300, the company's latest foray into the consumer/business space. The Curve's camera is 2.0 megapixels.

We also groused about the Pearl's lack of stereo headphones and the use of a mini-stereo jack that wouldn't take standard headphones. RIM fixed that in the Curve as well, shipping it with a hands-free headset that includes stereo earbuds and that plugs into a standard 3.5mm jack.

And we groused about slow typing on the Pearl's 20-key SureType keyboard. RIM has fixed that too, replacing the SureType keyboard (artificial intelligence-based auto-completion typing) with a full 35-key QWERTY keyboard.

Much else remains the same as in the Pearl, which is no bad thing.

The Curve, a quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM phone that works in roaming mode across North America and in 190 countries (for voice - 130 for data), is arguably the Pearl refined, albeit with a more PDAish form factor. It's shorter and thinner, but wider, with, as noted, some improved features and functionality. It's not perfect and it may not be right for everyone, but it's pretty darn good.

AT&T Wireless sells the Curve online for $200 with a two-year contract (with mail-in rebate) or $500 with a one-year contract. Data plans range from $35 to $95 a month. Voice is extra. In Canada, Rogers has the Curve for $350 (three-year plan), $450 (two years) or $500 (one year - all prices in Canadian dollars). Voice/data plans range from $45 to $110 a month.

RIM claims the Curve is the smallest smartphone available with a full QWERTY keyboard, which sounds plausible. It measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches (107x15.5mm) and weighs about 3.9 ounces (111g), a few grams more than the Pearl. That means it easily fits in a shirt pocket, without the saggy bulge. It's also one of the nicest feeling smartphones I've tried—well, since the Pearl.

The Curve's screen is excellent—a backlit TFT LCD (240 x 320 pixels, 65,000 colors). Like the Pearl, this BlackBerry includes a microSD card slot (in the battery compartment). No card is included, however, just the 64MB of device memory. This means you will have to invest in a card if you want to use the Curve as a media player—very little device memory remains for data. (You can now purchase 4GB microSD cards for about $100.)

The e-mail experience is, as always, excellent. You can receive mail from up to 10 accounts, including a mix of corporate and POP (ISP hosted) accounts. Nothing new there. Battery life is, also as always, excellent - four hours talk time, 17 days standby, according to RIM.

As a phone, the Curve sounded very good. (I tested it on the Rogers Wireless network in Canada.) RIM says this is partly thanks to superior noise cancellation technology. Like the Pearl and other recent BlackBerries, it also includes a surprisingly good, relatively distortion-free speaker phone. And you can use it with Bluetooth hands-free headsets. Bluetooth set-up is similar to the Pearl and worked well.

You can also use the Curve (and other recent BlackBerries) as a modem to connect a laptop over the cellular network. None of the documentation for the Curve, including the online User Manual, mention anything about this feature, however. I found a BlackBerry forum posting that explained the somewhat involved process of setting it up.

According to the forum poster, it hasn't worked successfully for all carriers, but does for most of the majors, including Rogers. I was able to connect on the Rogers EDGE network at 115 Kbps. (This was according to Windows. It actually seemed faster, especially for cached sites such as Google.)

The application suite includes the usual: personal information management (address book, calendar, tasks, memos etc.), instant messaging (BlackBerry, Yahoo and Google), standard and WAP browsers, plus the Media player (music, video, ringtones, pictures) and online Maps applications introduced with the Pearl. The TeleNav maps are only available as a 30-day trial, though. Then you have to pay.

Aside from the full QWERTY keyboard, the physical user interface is similar to the Pearl's. The front face features the same tiny trackball in place of the traditional BlackBerry thumb wheel—it works as well or better in my opinion—plus dedicated Start, End, Back and Menu keys. The number pad is embedded in the keyboard, the number keys set off from others with two-tone black and silver coloring. In most applications, you have to hold the ALT key while pressing a number key to get a number. In phone mode, you get numbers without pressing ALT.