RIM Intros Social-Oriented BlackBerry Curve 9320

It's the same old BlackBerry Curve, but now peppered with social features and Mobile Hotspot connectivity.

Last Wednesday RIM introduced a new BlackBerry Curve smartphone aimed for the socially-connected customer. The overall appearance hasn't changed much, sporting a curvy chassis and an on-board 35-key backlit QWERTY keyboard mounted under a rectangular qVGA (320 x 240) screen. But the new Curve features a built-in FM radio for listening to local stations data-free while strolling through the park, so that's a plus.

"The new BlackBerry Curve 9320 is designed to make it incredibly easy for users to stay socially-connected," said Carlo Chiarello, EVP, Smartphone Business at Research In Motion. "The new BlackBerry Curve 9320 will be especially popular with customers upgrading to a smartphone for the first time and existing Curve customers looking for a step up in speed and functionality."

On the social front, the new BlackBerry Curve 9320 comes with pre-loaded apps for Facebook and Twitter. There's also the Social Feeds 2.0 app for posting updates on multiple social networks simultaneously, and capturing updates from news sources (RSS), social apps and instant messaging apps all in one consolidated view.

On the hardware front, the new Curve sports a 3.2MP camera on the back, 512 MB of RAM, 512 MB for app installation, and a microSD card slot for up to 32 GB of additional storage. There's also a 1450 mAh removable/rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 3G, 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity, and more. All of this is powered by BlackBerry 7.1 OS which supports Mobile Hotspot, Wi-Fi calling and parental controls.

RIM didn't reveal any pricing or when the phone will actually be available -- that's left for the distribution partners to announce. Until then, more info can be found on the BlackBerry Curve 9320 page.