BlackBerry users who have been waiting for a smartphone model with Wi-Fi capabilities can end their protracted wait. The Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry 8820 smartphone has been introduced for users who have AT&T; as their service provider and it is the first BlackBerry model to have integrated Wi-Fi. The RIM BlackBerry 8820 offers a wealth of features, some of which veteran BlackBerry users have come to expect. It offers Bluetooth, GPS, and push e-mail capabilities.
It is similar in design to the other two models in the 8800 series, the 8800 and the 8820. The smartphone has other powerful features such as the push-to-talk, BlackBerry Maps, and multimedia functions such as a media player. The media player will work with MP3, WMA, AAC, and MIDI music files.
It supports the MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 video formats. You can also access the AT&T; Mobile Music subscription service, which has a number of features such as music videos, music purchasing, song identification, and XM radio access. The XM radio and Music ID services require additional paid subscriptions.
The RIM BlackBerry 8820 smartphone is very compact and its sleek design still allows it to have a full QWERTY keyboard. It has a trackball that allows you easy navigation through the various functions and it has dedicated keys to send, mute, and end.
The user-definable convenience keys allow you to assign functions to the keys of your choice. The device comes with 64 MB of memory and has expandable memory via a microSD card. Another great feature of the RIM BlackBerry 8820 is the long battery life that provides 5 hours of talk time and 22 hours of standby time.
Unfortunately, the RIM BlackBerry 8820 still does have support for 3G network but with the wireless capabilities, that meet the 802.11 a/b/g standards, it does give the user the access to the Internet. It will also work with the EDGE networks.
According to ATT’s news release, customers can also use the BlackBerry 8820 to make or receive wireless phone calls in more than 190 countries. Like the other 8800 series Blackberry products, it comes with a speakerphone and voice dialing.
Since the RIM BlackBerry 8820 smartphone is geared towards the business professional, it does not include a camera and does not even offer a camera option. This may be a limitation to some buyers who may want to purchase the RIM BlackBerry 8820 to use beyond business purposes.
It will support the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution to provide enterprise class functionality, such as advanced security features, push delivery of data from corporate applications, remote address look-up, single mailbox integration, and wireless synchronization with corporate PIM tools.
The enterprise capabilities give support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise to deliver corporate e-mail in real time. With the Wi-Fi capability, you can access corporate networks through the wireless connection, if your organization allows this type of access.
The bottom line is that the RIM BlackBerry 8820 smartphone offers BlackBerry devotees a step up with the integrated wireless capabilities and other features that have made Blackberry devices very successful.
