An exciting development in the much-loved BlackBerry Curve range, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 is the first in the series to replace the traditional QWERTY keypad with a touchscreen. It’s a ground-breaking move for BlackBerry in a device that’s expected to hit the UK market by the end of 2011 – just in time for Santa’s little elves.

The QWERTY keypad is gone, replaced by a bright HVGA touchscreen with a crystal-clear screen resolution of 480mm by 360mm and 188ppi (pixels per inch). At 3.2” (81.28mm), the touchscreen covers almost the whole of the face of the BlackBerry Curve 9380, leaving space at the bottom for the five necessary push buttons: call, terminate, menu, back and optical track pad, all backlit – a nice touch. As the BlackBerry Curve 9380 runs on the reliable and speedy BlackBerry 7 operating system, the touchscreen, like the rest of the phone, responds swiftly to your requests. Its shape and size fit comfortably in the palm and makes navigating the screen, even with one hand, a snap – the drop-down notifications menus can be activated with a swipe without needing to readjust the phone’s position in your hand.

The BlackBerry Curve 9380 is a handsome device, with its glossy black finish coming as a refreshing change to the matte finish seen on many smartphones such as the BlackBerry Bold 7970. With dimensions of 109mm by 60mm by 11.2mm, it’s thin, and its sturdy and strong body is hardy enough not to need further protection from a sleeve. Weighing just 98g, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 is a very pocketable smartphone.

From the back, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 looks comparable to its older sister, the BlackBerry Curve 9360 – only true BlackBerry experts would notice that the microUSB port on the BlackBerry Curve 9380 is on the left, a little lower than on the BlackBerry Curve 9360.

The BlackBerry Curve 9380 comes pre-loaded with apps to make browsing the internet and keeping up to date with your mates easier than ever. Of course, there’s BBM – and lots of new BBM-connected applications which will let you chat to friends while you play a game or listen to BBM Music. Now the BlackBerry Curve 9380 also comes with the nifty Social Feeds application – a one-stop shop for all your social media needs, it allows you to update all your social media feeds at once, and see messages from your friends the second they arrive. And of course, you can browse the internet with ease on the BlackBerry Curve 9380 with the updated and improved web browser – it has a new state-of-the-art JavaScript compiler to improve the load time speed of web pages for a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience. Page loads are 40% quicker than on the Blackberry 6.0 OS. 3G connectivity and WiFi are standard on the BlackBerry Curve 9380, for internet on the move, and the new optimised HTML5 adds a new dimension to gaming and video. And if you really need information on the go, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 has a smart new update to BlackBerry’s popular Universal Search feature – just say your search terms out loud and its voice-activated search will find whatever you’re looking for.

Of course, a smartphone isn’t smart without a camera, and the BlackBerry Curve 9380 has an excellent built-in 5-megapixel camera with a bright LED flash, x4 zoom capabilities and a handy dedicated button – perfect for quick snaps. It’s a VGA video camera too. Save your pictures on the 512MB built-in memory, or augment the memory capability using the microSD slot – the BlackBerry Curve 9380 can support memory cards of up to 32GB.

And the BlackBerry Curve 9380 camera supports the amazing Augmented Reality technology. What’s that? Well, imagine you’re standing in front of a famous building. Using the Wikitude app, you can point your camera at the building, and the app will tell you all about it. Augmented Reality technology even links in with BlackBerry favourite BBM – hold it up in a crowd and it will recognise the faces of your BBM friends.

Packed with space-age features, fast and good looking, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 truly is a super-smart smartphone that you’re sure to love.