RIM officially announces Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry 8820

Bonnie Cha | Jul 18, 2007

Editors' note:

At press time, RIM was not able to confirm the availability of the 8820 in Asia Pacific. The following article first appeared on Crave, CNET, and references made about operators are based on information in the US.

After getting the green light from the FCC just a couple of weeks ago, Research in Motion today officially took the wraps off the RIM BlackBerry 8820, the company's first smart phone with integrated Wi-Fi.

Available through AT&T Wireless later this summer, the 8820 supports 802.11a/b/g standards and is compliant with Wi-Fi security protocols, including WEP and WPA. In addition, the BlackBerry 8820 is the company's thinnest full QWERTY device to date (beat it, BlackBerry Curve), and has built-in GPS for out-of-the-box support for location-based services such as TeleNav GPS Navigator.

Other highlights of this quad-band phone include EDGE support (no 3G, though--boo hiss!) Bluetooth 2.0, and an expansion slot that accepts both microSD and microSDHC memory cards.

Those are just some quick hits. We're still trying to nail down some more details, such as pricing and exact release date, but wanted to share the good news with you in the meantime. Check back soon for updates.

Filed under: Mobile Phones, Handhelds
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