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Popgadget was invited to the swanky U.S. launch party for the new BlackBerry Curve from AT&T Thursday night in Beverly Hills. Ray told us about the Curve earlier, but this time I got to play with one for the duration of the party (and got one autographed for some lucky Popgadget reader, but more on that later).

The BlackBerry Curve has a full QWERTY keyboard, enhanced multimedia features, and a 2-megapixel camera with a 5x zoom lens, and comes in a sleek liquid silver package. Besides the faster web browsing and improved phone function, my favorite new addition is spell check for e-mail. It's about time.

By comparison, my 8700 looked awkward and heavy when side-by-side with the Curve, which weighs approximately 3.9 oz.

I can personally attest that it takes a pretty good photo too. I made myself completely obnoxious by taking pictures of the stars, for research purposes only of course - Eva Longoria, Fred Willard , Apolo Ohno, Adrian Grenier (Entourage), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), Kevin Connolly (Entourage), Donald Sutherland, Ian Ziering, Jessica Alba - but redeemed myself later by showing some of the stars how to use their new toy. (Everyone was gifted one in a glossy black bag.)

Some celebs needed no help figuring out their new Curve -- such as Ian Ziering who already has TWO BlackBerrys.