Trackpad
The new trackpad on the BlackBerry 8520 is what everybody’s eyeballs are popping out for; if you lose the trackpad, all you really have is the old 8320 in a new casing and without camera flash. After my time with the trackpad, I can happily say optical is the future for BlackBerry. Its smooth, low profile makes for easy transitions to the soft keys and keyboard, the flush design eliminates the age-old problem of getting grit stuck on the sensor, the slight amount of tilt and noticeable clicking mechanism provide much-needed tactile feedback, and the precision is unmatched.
I found selecting text in particular much easier on the trackpad than trackball, for whatever reason… Maybe the wider contact area makes movement a little less finnicky. The only potential niggling problem I could find is some erratic behaviour when operating in direct light, but that’s a setback that will plague any optical mouse sensor out there. Even then, I didn’t have any issues with the 8520’s trackpad on a daily basis; in fact, it was something I had to go out of my way to really test out.