BlackBerry Curve 8900: Small, smart, smooth

If the BlackBerry Bold is a little too much 'Berry for you to lug around all day long, RIM has the very fellow for you -- the BlackBerry Curve 8900. The 8900 borrows elements of its design from both the original Curve and the Bold, but comes in a surprisingly tiny package.

Measuring only 14mm thick, the 8900 fits easily in a pocket and packs a large, bright, sharp screen. The keypad, albeit smaller than other BlackBerry keypads, is very useful. There's GPS that you can use with Google Maps, for example, and Wi-Fi for browsing the Web and downloading emails quickly.

Joy of joys: RIM has included a 3.5mm headphone jack on the side of the 8900 so you can plug in a pair of standard headphones, and on the back there's a 3.2-megapixel camera. There's no 3G, which we think is an incredible shame, but we'll need to do more road-testing to see how it performs overall.

If you fancy getting involved with some compact BlackBerry action, the 8900 will go on sale soon for free on a monthly contract from several major networks, including T-Mobile and O2. Expect a full review soon.