BlackBerry Curve

All morning we’ve heard nothing but muffled growling from two fresh boxes that just landed in our office. The new BlackBerry 8330 Curves from Sprint ($179 with two-year contract and rebates) and Verizon Wireless ($169 with two-year contract and rebates) are finally here and they are eager to do battle.

Each 8330 has its own unique features, and both offer EV-DO connectivity and GPS, but only one will emerge as the winner. We’ll be bringing you our full reviews soon, but here are our first hands-on impressions of these eagerly awaited smart phones. Check out how the Curves fare, round by round…

Update: The full review of the Sprint Curve has been posted.

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Like many other Sprint customers, I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the BlackBerry Curve 8330. Today it finally became available. However, I just purchased a new phone with a two-year contract from Sprint last year, long before the original Curve for AT&T was even released. As a result, I was only eligible for $75 off a new device when I signed up for another two-year contract, which makes the Curve an unattractive $524.

If I was a new Sprint customer, I could purchase it with multiple discounts and rebates for $179.99, but by staying loyal to Sprint for the last eight years, I was screwed. Or was I?

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Verizon Wireless customers, rejoice! Our favorite smart phone (no hard feelings, iPhone) is coming your way in just one short month. The BlackBerry Curve 8330 delivers everything we loved about the AT&T version—sleek design, silky smooth trackball, 3.5mm headphone jack, and sharp 2-MP camera—but now you can add lightening fast EV-DO data and GPS capability (courtesy of VZ Navigator) to the mix.

A few other features further add to the 8330’s appeal, including the ability to stream from m.youtube.com and easy access to apps like Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa. The HTML browser is also supposedly improved, and you can add an 8GB microSD card and fill it up with your favorite tunes.

Of course, RIM’s addictive push e-mail goodness comes standard with access to up to 10 POP3 and IMAP personal and corporate e-mail accounts. You can pre-order the Curve 8330 from Verizon for a reasonable $169 (after discounts). Stay tuned for hands-on impressions.

Here are the complete specs.

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