Finally: a worthy replacement for my venerable Curve from Big Red:

Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Curve 8530

I was so happy with my Curve, and so disappointed with my Storm. So when I heard on Engadget that the 8530 was coming to Big Red, I was delighted–I’d seriously envied the fact that AT&T and T-Moble were enjoying the GSM version of this phone and I, a Verizon CDMA user, was out on the cold.

The 8530 has a faster processor than my old Curve and a real keyboard (SurePress was neat, but I do so much mobile texting and e-mailing that I really need a physical keyboard). But I think the most noteworthy change is that RIM has replaced the trackball with a capacative trackpad with no moving parts–it can never get gummed up or dirty, except from the odd fingerprint or two.

And the phone is all black and sexy, too–which never hurts.

I had been eyeing with some interest the Droid and the Storm 2, but after having a chance yesterday to fiddle with both at very great length, I found that they were both let-downs. The Storm 2’s SurePress is markedly improved, but not enough for me to eschew a real keyboard in its favor; besides, the rumor that it was a Mifi access point turned out to be disappointingly false. The Droid is an impressive phone, but a few little touches here and there indicated to me that someone, either at Motorola or Google, had forgotten that this thing was a phone first and a computer second, something that Apple had kept clearly in mind when designing the interface for the iPhone. And I really didn’t care for its physical keyboard. Flat and featureless, it was scarcely better than the SurePress on the Storm 2.

The real kicker is that the Droid would set me back $200; Storm 2, $179. The Curve 8530: only $99.

Everything I need at a great price. Who could ask for more?

I just have to be patient until November 20th, when it finally hit’s Big Red’s shelves.