BlackBerry Throws iPhone a Curve

Research In Motion (RIMM) has served up a fantastic BlackBerry Curve just before Apple's (AAPL) iPhone's grand slam.

The latest of RIM's new, sleeker line-up, the 8300 Curve, offered by AT&T (T) this month, is easily the best BlackBerry of the bunch.

The slim Curve does many things much better than its predecessors, and for the moment, better than the competition as well.

BlackBerry cracked the consumer market last year with its popular Pearl phone.

And even with Pearl's shortcomings -- a small keypad, poor camera and weak music player -- it was still a dramatic breakthrough for the previously all-business email phonemaker.

RIM's follow-up pretty much nails it. The BlackBerry designers seem to have been working from Pearl users' wish list when they put together the Curve, which goes for $150 with a two-year contract.

Unlike the Pearl, the Curve has a full qwerty-style keyboard, a very good 2-megapixel camera, a significantly revamped and upgraded media player, TeleNav maps and rubberized sides for a firmer grip.

But don't be tricked by the name; there's really not much curvature here. Despite all the not-so-straight-laced features, the Curve is still a BlackBerry, and it stays well within the familiar lines.

In other words, it's not likely to win any smartphone beauty contests.

The Curve is the shortest and one of the lightest of the current crop of smartphones. It's nearly an ounce lighter than the slim BlackBerry 8800 and fits easily in a shirt pocket. The polished chrome-colored plastic gives the Curve a look similar to a rival phone, the HTC Dash.

To view Scott Moritz' video take of today's Good Life segment, click here.