As you can see, the pictures are certainly passable, and, like the display, should do the job. Not all is terrible in the land of multimedia, however. One of the distinct design updates are the media shortcut keys on the top of the device. Functionally, they’re a little redundant; older BlackBerrys let you skip tracks by holding down the volume keys and pause/play music with the mute button. Personally, I found this shortcut an ingenious and efficient way of doubling up on key assignments, but the shortcuts are yet another one of those hidden treasures that you only find out after several months of owning a BlackBerry (presuming the likely scenario that you didn’t read the instruction booklet). Having the media keys displayed so prominently not only helps discoverability, but it also clearly brands BlackBerry as a music phone – a capability that isn’t necessarily clear to your average consumer. The speaker port just next to the music controls is remarkably high-quality; I would place it in the same ballpark as the N86, that is, just a slight notch below the BlackBerry Bold, but definitely not far behind.
Operating System
The lack of 3G doesn’t sting so much, since the majority of my high-speed downloading happens within a Wi-Fi zone (a tradeoff tried and tested on the older 8900 Curve), but the lack of GPS really, really hurts. Basic mobile navigation is something I’ve come to rely on since using the BlackBerry 8800, and without it, a smartphone feels extremely limited. At this point, the 8520 has taken just about all the acceptable losses for low price before it stops becoming worthwhile for the end consumer.
It’s worth mentioning the BlackBerry 8520 has 256 MB of application memory available, a new standard set with the BlackBerry Tour. Between the added wriggle room and the new SD card archiving capabilities in App World, application handling is seeing a lot of progress in the BlackBerry operating system.
Phone
The call quality is solid on EDGE, and the added flexibility of calling over Wi-Fi through a UMA plan makes the 8520 a perfectly capable home phone replacement. Also, the maximum volume on the speaker is pretty high, so you should never have issues hearing in noisy environments.