Oh wow ... forgot about this thread.
I found a pretty nice solution a few weeks back, and it's pretty similar to cybric's solution, but adds one more step.
I found that with the dialer keypad, I can either start typing in a number or a name. So, if I want to call 'Steve Smith', I start dialing 78383 and it brings up all the steve's I have in my address book. If I want to narrow it down even more, I hold the # key for a second to insert a space, and start typing the last name.
The next challenge was getting to the dialer quick, with one, maybe two key-presses, from no matter where I was in the phone. I wanted to keep the double-tap home screen shortcut for voice commands, so that was out. If I long-pressed a dock icon, I could make one the dialer app, but it would always open to the last used state (dialer, recent, contacts, or favorites), requiring another key-press to get to the dialer.
But I found that I can add the dialer as a shortcut to any of the home screens (using the method cybric describes above). Then, I can long-press the icon and drag it down to the dock. Now, the default shortcut to the dialer app has been replaced with the shortcut directly to the dialer so that, whenever I press it, I get the number keypad.
Feels like a pretty goofy work around to get something so simple (and something my old BB curve did right out of the box), but it works :biggrin:
Here's a screen grab of what my home screen looks like now.
View attachment 46115