Blackberry Phones

Unboxing videos. Love em or hate em, you know we gotta do them! The BlackBerry Curve 3G  is available on Rogers now, and coming to other carriers soon, so it’s time to tear open the box and see what’s inside. The BlackBerry Curve 3G is RIM’s entry level smartphone, so while it gets decent internals (the same 624MHZ processor that’s in the Pearl 3G and Bold 9700), it skimps on other hardware – the low resolution 320 by 240 display is the same as the old Curve 8300 / 8800 series devices used to have and the camera is 2 megapixels without a flash (note, in the video I accidentally say that video recording resolution is the same as the Pearl 3G’s thanks to the update to the chipset, but it’s not… vid recording on the Curve 3G is still a lowly 320×240).

If you’re not feeling the BlackBerry Torch and just want a straight up, no frills BlackBerry; Rogers  will gladly offer you a BlackBerry Curve 3G. Previously only available via their website, the BlackBerry Curve 3G has now arrived at most retailers and can be picked up in store. Traditional Curve style exactly like the BlackBerry Curve 8520, preloaded with OS 5.0.0.832 for which, will eventually be replaced by BlackBerry 6.

As BBCool notes though, no case or holster is offered with the new BlackBerry Curve 3G so you may wish to consider picking one up. As it stands, you can grab the BlackBerry Curve 3G from Rogers on a 3yr contract for $79.99, 2yr for $299.99 and 1yr or no contract for $399.99.

No surprise here considering Rogers in Canada already announced  the new BlackBerry Curve last week, but this morning it became official on a Research In Motion level. Like the Pearl 3G, the new BlackBerry Curve will be known as the BlackBerry Curve 3G. It’s the next generation of the 8500 series, which basically remains the same entry level device as the 85xxx, but now has 3G. Also, while the device is shipping with BlackBerry OS 5.0 to start, it is labeled at 6 ready. That’s a nice suprise that I wasn’t totally expecting. So it looks like you’ll be able to stick with 5 or upgrade to BlackBerry 6 on the Curve 3G as you see fit. We’ve seen the Curve 85xx series be extremely successful in the marketplace, and this one looks like a nice little followup that should do big sales for RIM. Stay tuned for more details – we’ll have a full BlackBerry Curve 3G review up soon.

Press Release
RIM Introduces the New BlackBerry Curve 3G Smartphone

New addition to the globally popular BlackBerry Curve series is fast, easy-to-use, richly-featured and BlackBerry 6 ready

WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – Aug. 9, 2010) -

Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced the new BlackBerry(R) Curve(TM) 3G, an exciting addition to the globally popular BlackBerry Curve series of smartphones. Designed to provide the growing mass of smartphone purchasers with a distinctly powerful, approachable and affordable choice, the BlackBerry Curve 3G supports high-speed 3G (HSDPA) networks around the world and gives users the exceptional communications features they need to accomplish more than ever, when they’re at home, at work and everywhere in-between.

“The majority of people in the worldwide mobile phone market have yet to buy their first smartphone and the BlackBerry Curve 3G is designed to provide an extremely attractive and accessible choice that will help convince many of them to make the leap,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The new BlackBerry Curve 3G is a perfect choice for happily busy people who are looking for a user-friendly 3G smartphone to help them make the most of their day and to stay connected with their friends, family and co-workers.”

The BlackBerry Curve 3G smartphone features a comfortable full-QWERTY keyboard for fast, accurate typing, optical trackpad for fluid navigation, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi(R), as well as dedicated media keys, so music lovers can easily access their tunes while on the go. The new smartphone also features a camera that can record video and a microSD/SDHC slot that supports up to 32 GB memory cards for media storage. Support for 3G networks makes browsing faster, streaming music smoother, and gives users the ability to talk on the phone while they browse the web, instant message with BlackBerry(R) Messenger (BBM(TM)) or share their location with friends on popular social networking sites.

The BlackBerry Curve 3G ships with BlackBerry 5 and is BlackBerry 6 ready. BlackBerry 6 is a new operating system for BlackBerry(R) smartphones that was announced last week. It retains the trusted features that distinguish the BlackBerry brand while delivering a fresh and engaging experience that is both powerful and easy to use. BlackBerry 6 is expected to be available for the BlackBerry Curve 3G, subject to carrier certifications, in the coming months.

The new BlackBerry Curve 3G smartphone (model 9300) will be available from various carriers and distribution partners around the world beginning in August. Check with local carriers for details about availability and pricing.

It looks like Bell Mobility is all set for the release of the upcoming BlackBerry Curve 3G (Curve 9300). The carrier is ready to drop the HSPA device on August 12th and should be getting units in stock as early as next week. We did see this coming a few days ago, and the “Curve 3G” name looks to be the winning moniker for release as well. The device will carry the standard features including 256MB flash memory, a full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth and the fleet of native apps. No word if the Curve 3G is headed to any other carriers just yet, but it’s safe to assume it won’t be long before it lands elsewhere.

The folks over at BBGeeks have brought us all another quick look at the BlackBerry Curve 9300. All in all, not a whole lot of new information has come about for the BlackBerry Curve 9300 but, we pretty much know all there is to know about it anyways. The specs have been known for a while now and we’ve even got the majority of carriers that will be taking it on, ie: T-Mobile, Bell, Rogers etc.

Some rather new information to come from the article over at BBGeeks though is that according to some of their sources, there is still a chance for those of you out there that pick up the BlackBerry 9300 to get at least a taste of BlackBerry 6 with this device. According to what BBGeeks has been hearing, there is still a slight chance (70/30) we’ll see the WebKit browser placed into this device. So while it’ll not be a full blown version of the media-centric BlackBerry 6 we’ve seen of late, it will have the updated browser.

All things considered, it really doesn’t make sense to put a full blown version of BlackBerry 6 on the BlackBerry Curve 9300. It was not designed for that purpose. it was designed to be a cost effective communication tool and not a mediacentric workhorse that we’ve come to expect from say the BlackBerry 9800. Personally, if I was concerned about device cost yet, still wanted to have a functional BlackBerry device on hand there is no reason to not pick up the BlackBerry 9300 when it arrives across carriers. All too often we forget, some folks don’t need the latest and greatest. Some folks just need something that just works.

We’ve already seen what’s purported to be the BlackBerry Curve 9300 out in the wild a few  times, but Vietnamese site Mainguyen has now gotten its hands on a unit as well, and given us our most detailed look at the phone yet. That includes a better look at the slightly higher-end elements more reminiscent of the now-discontinued Curve 8900 than the Curve 8500 series it’s apparently replacing, and confirmation of at least a few specs (including a 3.2-megapixel camera). Head on past the break for a video, and hit up the source link below

*UPDATE – Looks like grey and violet will be the colors*

Information regarding the BlackBerry Curve 9300 has been in excess today. The latest piece of information to come to us via the CrackBerry tips hotline is that Rogers will be releasing the device as well Q3. While clearly, from the Bell post today the BlackBerry Curve 9300 will not be an exclusive to any one carrier, carriers do have their own way of requesting a sort of exclusivity when it comes to device color choice.

This came from a recent q3 2010 training at Rogers… it appears bb 9300 is confirmed for Q3 in exclusive color.

Not a whole lot of detail there of course but, it’s still nice to know Rogers will be adding the device to their line up. I’m sure it’s one of many to come in the next months. Sadly, this piece of information leaves me to wonder what color exactly? Red, purple, white? Guess we’ll just have to hold out for more information there. Thanks Mike!

Well, this is a nice surprise. Seems the folks over at TechnoBuffalo have gotten their hands on a prerelease, prototype BlackBerry Curve 9300 and have given it a little bit of a run through for us all to enjoy. Yes, it may be not that exciting of a device for some out there but for others, this may be just what they have been waiting for. The interesting thing here is that it is currently T-Mobile branded and when things are branded that typically means they are close to production. Hit the jump, check out the video and feel free to comment.

First look at the next generation of low-cost BlackBerry Curve, the 9300…

Back on April 8th we outted a new BlackBerry device model by finding it’s UAProf xml document up on BlackBerry’s website, and now we’ve got the first solid photos of it here for you to enjoy. What you’re looking at (more images below) is the next-generation of the BlackBerry Curve 8520/8530, the BlackBerry Curve 9300 (and we’re sure a Curve 9330 CDMA variation is in the works too).

As you can tell from the photos and from what we gathered previously from the UAProf doc, the BlackBerry Curve 9300 is really a refresh to the 8500 series, adding 3G and the WiFi n standard on top of the existing 8500′s specs (9300 retains the lower res 320×240 display). While we just received the photos today on the ‘ole CrackBerry tip line, we’re not totally sure on how new/old the hardware/software being displayed actually is. This unit is showing off OS 5.0 (while leaked photos of the 9800 and 9670 have been running BlackBerry 6) and only 256MB of memory vs. the 512MB newer devices are getting. I would **hope** by the time the Curve 9300s hit the market that they’d be running BlackBerry 6 and 512MB of memory, though it is possible that in a plan to further differentiate the lower end of the BlackBerry lineup from the higher end that RIM would keep the Curve platform on BlackBerry 5.0 and the 256MB of memory for the time being. You can just taste this one coming to AT&T and being promoted with their new $15/mo. data plans (especially if they leave WebKit off of it which will make it that much easier to stay under 200MB of data usage). We’ll just have to wait and see how this one pans out. More photos below!