BlackBerry Curve 9320 review: Coach class

Display

Unfortunately for the Curve 9320, RIM has decided to go back to a QVGA screen, and one with only 56K colors at that. It's a disappointment considering the BlackBerry Curve 9360 released last August featured a HVGA+ screen with 16M colors. Nevertheless, what's basically a rather poor screen in terms of resolution and contrast managed above average viewing angles and outdoor legibility.

The display is sub-par, but gets the job done

You can check out its performance in our traditional display tests in the below. More information on our display test is available here.

Sunlight contrast ratio

• Nokia 808 PureView
  4.698
• Motorola RAZR MAXX
  3.420
• Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III
  3.419
• Samsung Omnia W
  3.301
• Samsung Galaxy S
  3.155
• Nokia N9
  3.069
• Samsung Galaxy Note
  2.970
• HTC One S
  2.901
• Samsung Galaxy S II
  2.832
• Huawei Ascend P1
  2.655
• Nokia Lumia 900
  2.562
• Apple iPhone 4S
  2.269
• HTC One X
  2.158
• Nokia N8
  2.144
• Apple iPhone 4
  2.016
• Sony Ericsson Xperia ray
  1.955
• Sony Xperia U
  1.758
• LG Optimus 4X HD
  1.691
• HTC One V
  1.685
• LG Optimus Vu
  1.680
• Sony Xperia go
  1.577
• LG Optimus 3D
  1.542
• Nokia Asha 302
  1.537
• BlackBerry Curve 9320
  1.488
• Nokia Lumia 610
  1.432
• Gigabyte GSmart G1355
  1.361
• HTC Desire C
  1.300
• LG Optimus L7
  1.269
• Meizu MX
  1.221
• Samsung Galaxy Pocket
  1.180
• Nokia Asha 305
  1.178
• Sony Xperia neo L
  1.169
• Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos
  1.148
• Samsung Galaxy mini 2
  1.114

We took a closer look at the pixels on the 9320 screen with our digital microscope. Check it out:

The BlackBerry Curve 9320 under a microscope

Handling

The Curve 9320 is a nice phone to look at and handle. Ergonomically, it is sized right, and texting can be done comfortably with either one or both hands. If you have larger fingers, then it might not be as easy for you to hit the keys, as they use relatively limited space on a fairly compact handset. That being said, their tactile response is very good, so you definitely know when you're pressing something. Apart from the smudge-prone back panel, the phone is excellently compact and business-like.

BlackBerry Curve 9320 held in hand

On the next page, we take a look at the BlackBerry OS 7.1 software package on the Curve 9320.