Research In Motion (RIM) has shown off its first ever flip phone - the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone. The quad-band EDGE and Wi-Fi based BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone features two color displays, and the external LCD makes it easy to preview incoming emails, text messages and phone calls without opening the handset, while the large, 240 x 320 internal LCD displays messages, videos and web pages.
"The popularity of BlackBerry smartphones has grown tremendously around the world and the introduction of this exciting new flip phone will help extend the reach of the BlackBerry platform even further," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. "The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is a full-featured smartphone with a unique and friendly design and it is a natural choice for flip phone users who want to start doing more with their phone than just talk."
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone comes with Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), support for MP3 ring tones, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing, call forwarding, voicemail attachment playback and enhanced background noise cancellation. It also features a speakerphone and Bluetooth 2.0 for use with hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals such as a GPS receiver. The removable/rechargeable 900 mAhr battery provides four hours of talk time and over 14 days of standby time.
The DataViz Documents to Go software suite is also preloaded, allowing users to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset.
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone will be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this autumn, and will be exlcusive to T-Mobile in the USA. Specific availability and pricing details will be announced at a later date.
