The carrier is selling the new BlackBerry for $270 with a two-year agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate. When you sign up for a qualifying voice and data plan the price drops $100 further.

Like AT&T's BlackBerry Curve, Verizon's version integrates GPS to support location-based services, such as the operator's own VZ Navigator mapping service.

It also sports a QWERTY thumb-keyboard, a 2 megapixel camera for picture and video, QVGA screen, and Bluetooth 2.0. High-capacity microSDHC memory cards and Verizon's 3G EV-DO cellular-wireless data network are also supported.

The Curve 8330 weighs 4 ounces and measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches.

Its battery, a 1150 mAH type, is supposed to last for 260 minutes talk and 264 hours standby time.