The slim BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone provides easy mobile access to email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and popular social networking sites (including Facebook and MySpace) and features a highly tactile full-QWERTY keyboard for comfortable, accurate typing. It is also Wi-Fi enabled, features rich multimedia capabilities and easy access to music, games and other mobile apps for entertainment on the go - it is the first BlackBerry smartphone to feature dedicated media keys, smoothly integrated along the top of the handset, giving you an easy, convenient way to control your music and videos.

Key features of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone include:
- Easy-to-use full-QWERTY keyboard and touch-sensitive trackpad for reliable, responsive typing and navigation.
- 256MB Flash memory and a 512Mhz next generation processor for enhanced performance.
- Premium phone features including voice activated dialing, and Bluetooth (2.0) support for hands-free headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals.
- 2 MP digital camera with zoom and video recording.
- Advanced media player for music, pictures and videos, with dedicated media keys and a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, plus BlackBerry Media Sync, which makes it easy to quickly sync music from iTunes or Windows Media Player with the smartphone.
- BlackBerry Internet Service support for access to up to 10 supported email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo!, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL and Gmail; and  BlackBerry Enterprise Server support, which provides advanced security and IT administration features for corporate deployments.
- Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting up to 16GB cards today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available; a 2GB card is included.
- Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) for faster browsing and extended data coverage.
- Quad-band world phone: EGDE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz).