Research In Motion unveiled on Thursday its latest smallest and lightest full QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone dubbed, the “BlackBerry Curve” 8300, a new sleek and friendly design surrounding a large display, easy-to-use keyboard and intuitive trackball navigation system.

The BlackBerry Curve features a liquid silver finish, chrome highlights, smooth edges and soft curves. It is a full-featured smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard and large display and yet it boasts an impressively small and lightweight design at 4.2” x 2.4” x 0.6” and approximately 3.9 oz.

The ultra-bright 320×240 display brings images and video to life and includes RIM’s light sensing technology that automatically adjusts backlighting levels for indoor, outdoor and dark environments.

The handset also features RIM’s trackball navigation system that makes scrolling and selecting fast and easy.

The BlackBerry Curve comes with a 2 megapixel camera, complete with 5x digital zoom, built-in flash, self-portrait mirror and full screen viewfinder.

The camera can capture images in up to three picture quality and size resolutions that can be shared instantly by email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger and transferred over Bluetooth or USB cable.

Photos can also be immediately set as a unique caller ID or Home Screen image.

The audio system is crisp and clear, playing music and videos through the handset’s integrated speaker or through the 3.5 mm stereo jack.

The Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP) is supported, and dedicated volume controls are conveniently located on the side of the handset.

A new desktop media manager is also included with the BlackBerry Curve. The Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry, which was developed with Sonic® and based on the award-winning Roxio Easy Media Creator 9, which allow users to easily search for media files on their computer, view and organize them, create MP3 music files from CDs, add audio tags, create playlists and automatically copy or convert pictures, music and videos for optimal playback on the BlackBerry Curve.

The media manager also includes Roxio Photosuite 9 LE, a comprehensive tool that makes it easy to edit pictures and create photo albums.

With the PhotoSuite, pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, and flaws can be fixed by removing redeye or changing the brightness, contrast and saturation levels. Pictures can even be enhanced with color filters and special effects.

The media player on the BlackBerry Curve has been polished, allowing users to search for music by simply typing the title, genre, artist or album name. Videos can also be played in full screen mode.

The BlackBerry Curve also comes with a microSD expansion slot., which supports up to 2GB cards that are available today and will automatically support 4GB cards that are expected to become available later this year.

It also features a browser that can download and display HTML web pages. Users can bookmark their favorite sites and set up RSS feeds to stay connected to the timely news and information that matters most during their day. The highly responsive browser, large and vivid screen and super-easy trackball navigation provides an exceptional mobile experience.

RIM’s new smartphone also features Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Bluetooth 2.0 support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits and Bluetooth peripherals, quad-band operation for global roaming, dedicated ’send’, ‘end’, and ‘mute’ keys, smart dialing, speed dialing, conference calling, call forwarding, noise cancellation technology to offset background noise, a low-distortion speakerphone for hands-free conversations and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.

The BlackBerry Curve 8300 is expected to be available through wireless carriers around the world, including AT&T in the U.S., beginning this spring.