Sprint's version of the new BlackBerry Curve 8330 takes Verizon's version and improves on it in several ways: by adding mobile TV, over-the-air music downloads, more robust instant-messaging options, and a powerful information aggregator. In fact, the BlackBerry Curve 8330 is a top-notch smartphone—and our new Editors' Choice for Sprint, taking the title away from last year's BlackBerry 8830. The new Curve 8330's power, along with a wide array of capabilities, makes it ideal for both work and play.

Like all Curves, the Sprint BlackBerry 8330 looks smooth and professional; it's charcoal gray with black rubber sides. The left-hand side of the Curve 8330 contains a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack, a miniature USB port, and a voice-dialing activation button. On the right-hand side you'll find hardware volume controls and a camera button.

The star of the front panel is the beautiful 320-by-240-pixel, 2.5-inch screen, which features a light sensor to adapt to dimmer ambient lighting. There's also RIM's trademark backlit trackball, along with Send, Menu, Back, and End Call buttons, and a sublime, well-spaced QWERTY keyboard with plastic backlit keys that offer well-balanced resistance. The Curve 8330 measures 4.2 by 2.4 by 0.6 inches and weighs just 4 ounces, a hair more than the 3.9-ounce BlackBerry Curve 8310 on AT&T. That's still an impressive feat for a phone with such an excellent keyboard. (By comparison, the diminutive Palm Centro weighs about the same at 4.2 ounces but is a nightmare to type on, given its cramped, tiny keys.)

The Curve features the usual RIM lineup of hardware specs: a 312-MHz CPU and 32MB of internal RAM, along with the aforementioned LCD screen. BlackBerry OS is just as good as always: It responds quickly to commands and makes getting around the 8330 very easy. (If you want a real bump in performance, you'll have to wait for the BlackBerry Bold 9000, but that model will be available on Verizon.)

Sounding virtually identical to the Verizon model, this Curve exhibited clear, punchy voice quality. If anything, the Sprint version had a slight amount of choppiness, but I'll chalk that up to the remote area of Massachusetts in which I tested the two phones. Both the Sprint and Verizon versions were able to hold onto high-speed EV-DO connections. The phone paired well with the Plantronics Voyager 520 and the Aliph New Jawbone headsets. Also, the speakerphone was loud and clear enough for outdoor use.

Since this is a BlackBerry, you get oodles of messaging options, including a built-in POP/IMAP/Web client that supports up to ten accounts using BlackBerry Internet Solution (BIS). It's also compatible with BlackBerry Enterprise Solution (BES) for remote address-book lookup and single mailbox integration, and works with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, and Novell GroupWise. You can also run Java applications such as Gmail for Mobile, and you can check messages using the full Web browser. While the third-party app market for BlackBerrys is improving, it's still not as robust as those for Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and Symbian devices.

That's okay, though, because Sprint really loads up this Curve with applications. You get a lot more than with the Verizon version, including IM clients for AIM, Google Talk, and Yahoo! Messenger in addition to BlackBerry Messenger. The optional MobiTV-powered Sprint TV gives you dozens of streamed television channels, while the Sprint Music Store lets you buy music over the air. You also get Handmark Pocket Express, an all-in-one information aggregator for news, sports, stock prices, 411, travel information, weather, and more. The only downside is that the Curve 8330 still can't edit Microsoft Office documents. RIM's new BlackBerry OS, version 4.5, announced in January, will add that capability, according to the company, but it's still MIA.

The built-in GPS radio works with both the free BlackBerry Maps app and Sprint's optional Sprint Navigation service (powered by TeleNav GPS Navigator). The latter costs $9.99 per month but gives you step-by-step voice directions and real-time traffic information. It worked fine on my tests but wasn't as easy to use or as forthcoming with spoken directions as the Garmin nüvi 350 I had on hand for comparison purposes.

A 2-megapixel camera features autofocus and an enhanced LED flash but no optical zoom. Still, it takes nicely detailed pictures, but they have a slight orange tinge. It also captures decent-looking 240-by-176 videos at 14 frames per second.

The microSDHC card slot is still inconveniently located beneath the battery, but an 8GB SanDisk card worked fine. MP3 and AAC files sounded clear and punchy through a set of wired Creative Zen Aurvana earphones, as well as through the Bluetooth Etymotic Ety8. The 8330 displayed my Kanye West album art automatically.

Movies looked smooth and sharp on the handset's LCD—though stereo audio played only over the wired buds, not the Bluetooth ones. The included Roxio Media Manager desktop software makes transcoding video a snap. The Sprint 8330 lasted 5 hours 34 minutes on a talk-time rundown test—a spectacular result, though 25 minutes shorter than what the Verizon version achieved.

The Curve can also be used as a tethered modem for your laptop, though it will reach only EV-DO Rev 0 speeds, not the faster Rev A speeds that Sprint's dedicated laptop modems can hit.

Another option, Sprint's Motorola Q9c, is a shoo-in for Microsoft Outlook devotees. Like all Windows Mobile devices, it connects seamlessly to Microsoft Exchange servers, lets you synchronize your contacts and calendar, and offers robust Microsoft Word and Excel document editing (along with PowerPoint viewing). But its extended-life battery adds bulk, and Windows Mobile handsets have convoluted interfaces that require too many button presses for common tasks. And among BlackBerry models, the BlackBerry 8830 is still an excellent option for world travelers, particularly since (unlike the comparable Verizon version) its GSM slot is unlocked, meaning that you have plenty of carrier options when traveling overseas. But it's the BlackBerry Curve 8330 that sets the new standard, earning our Editors' Choice award for Sprint smartphones.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous talk time: 5 hours 34 minutes

Compare the BlackBerry Curve 8330 (Sprint) with several other mobile phones side by side.