However, frills like a lit-up border for the trackpad are missing, and that’s understandable on a low-end smartphone. It’s the same trackpad too, but which performs just as well on the 9220 as on any BlackBerry, making navigation a breeze. Is that a dedicated BBM buton or just the same old shortcut key? It’s the same low-end 2.44-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 240, that Shayne Rana, the Tech2 reviewer who reviewed the 8520 said was “ quite mundane” way back in 2009.

Like car makers who announce a ‘new’ edition of an old car by tweaking the headlamps or adding a dash of chrome, RIM has made the 9220 sleeker, which is primarily because it is 1.2 mm thinner than the 8520. If you’re familiar with the 8520, the 9220 won’t take you by surprise. To say it in a line, the 9220 is a thinner, slightly sleeker 8520 with the new BlackBerry OS 7.1 it is the first BlackBerry to boast of FM radio and in what few will focus on but is perhaps the most important aspect in my opinion-has the best battery on any BlackBerry smartphone available today.

Fast forward to circa 2012 and RIM is launching the Curve 9220, the successor to the 8520 with some incremental changes, and seems to be relying on the same business philosophy that made the 8520 a success, and the jury is now out on whether the same mantra will work almost three years later.

XenDerapp for BlAckBerry curve. 9220