A Closer Look at the Blackberry 8520 Purple

The Blackberry 8520 Purple underlines Blackberrys attempts to make their handsets appeal to a broader spectrum of consumers.

For a long time, the word Blackberry has been synonymous with phones with excellent connectivity options, and this is still the case with the 8520 Purple despite the downscaling. The most attractive example of this is the inclusion of WIFI on the phone, enabling the user instant connection to the internet as long as they are in a WIFI hotspot or connected to a router. Although not offering a 3G facility, the WIFI inclusion goes some way to compensate for this. Bluetooth is also catered for as you would expect as is a micro USB port. When it comes to using the internet, the Blackberry handles the task very well. Navigation is achieved via the new touch sensitive trackpad. The trackball which was included on many of this handsets predecessors was not without fault, mainly that sometimes it didn't respond. This new Trackball is a welcomed upgrade and seems to work very well. Blackberrys own internet browser interface is installed on the phone to make navigation easy. Also pre installed is the Blackberry App World, offering the user access to a whole range of various applications.

The Blackberry 8520 Purple does impress with its battery life. The supplied Lithium ion battery offers up to 17 days in standby and 4.5 hours of talktime. A 3.5mm headphone jack is also a welcome addition on the handset, allowing the user to use their own choice of headphone when listrening to their audio files. On the subject of music, the Blackberrys media player as ever works very well. A range of audio formats including MP3, AAC and WMA. On top of the phone you will find 3 dedicated music buttons, designed to make using the phone as an audio player an altogether pleasent and easy experience. Video playback is also supported with MPEG4 and WMV files catered for.

The 2.46" screen displays characters very clearly thanks to its 320 x 240 resolution, despite this being lower than the 480 x 360 that the 8900 featured. This screen covers about half of the front of the handset, the trademark qwerty keypad taking up the other half. This keypad is what attracts many Blackberry users to the device due to the ease of composing messages. Sandwiched between the screen and the keypad is where the touchpad is located. Overall the unit weights just 106 grammes.

The Blackberry 8520 Purple features everything you would expect of such a handset, great connectivity, easy to use keypad and stylish looks. This phone will appeal to the average phone user who wants just a little bit more from their handset, and at an attractive price.

The Blackberry 8520 Purple and the Huawei U7510 are available now.