BlackBerry Curve 9380 review

A touchscreen BlackBerry Curve at last

BlackBerry Curve 9380
RIM's first touchscreen smartphone is reviewed

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BlackBerry curve 9380 review

The BlackBerry Curve 9380 is fitted with a five-megapixel camera, matching that of its two spiritual brothers, the Curve 9360 and the Torch 9860, complete with LED flash.

Face detection is built-in, as is geotagging thanks to the GPS chip in the phone. There's also a 4x digital zoom, not that these are ever really worth bothering with in phones if you care about image quality.

You can choose from a range of scene modes, including Portrait, Sports, Landscape, Night, the aforementioned Face Detection (which would be better as a part of the Auto setting) and others.

BlackBerry curve 9380 review

You can use the Convenience key on the handset as a shutter, or the on-screen button. Either works fine, thanks to the excellent lack of shutter lag - hit the button and the photo appears pretty much instantly.

There aren't any focus options, though. You can't half-depress the Convenience key to focus, and there's no tap-to-focus mode. You'll just have to trust the phone.

BlackBerry curve 9380

OUTDOORS: Eurgh. In the middle of the (admittedly quite overcast) afternoon, there's almost no detail or focus in this shot, and the whole picture is full of digital noise.

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BlackBerry curve 9380 review

LIGHTS: Despite the fast shutter speed, this shot has blurred because the camera just can't get enough light in. Again, this was the middle of the afternoon, but it could be evening judging by this image. And again, there's a huge amount of noise in the solid colours, such as the blue.

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BlackBerry curve 9380 review

COLOUR: This photo is better than the others, with the red poppies picked out well, and clear lines and detail stretching into the background, even though the plaque near the back has been overexposed as part of the camera's attempt to compensate for the light.

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BlackBerry curve 9380 review

DETAIL: This close-up was taken outside, and the flash kicked in, which helped. As a result, you can see plenty of details in the divots in the store. The image is still quite soft, and there's still digital noise in the areas of solid colour, however.

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BlackBerry curve 9380 review

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BlackBerry curve 9380 review

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INDOORS: Neither of these shots is worth much cop. The one without flash has more even lighting, but is absolutely filled with digital noise. The subject is brighter with the flash, but there's not really any more detail on show.

Matt Bolton
Managing Editor, Entertainment

Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Entertainment, meaning he's in charge of persuading our team of writers and reviewers to watch the latest TV shows and movies on gorgeous TVs and listen to fantastic speakers and headphones. It's a tough task, as you can imagine. Matt has over a decade of experience in tech publishing, and previously ran the TV & audio coverage for our colleagues at T3.com, and before that he edited T3 magazine. During his career, he's also contributed to places as varied as Creative Bloq, PC Gamer, PetsRadar, MacLife, and Edge. TV and movie nerdism is his speciality, and he goes to the cinema three times a week. He's always happy to explain the virtues of Dolby Vision over a drink, but he might need to use props, like he's explaining the offside rule.