First BlackBerry Smartphone with Wi-Fi Will Debut Shortly

RIM recently took the wraps off the first BlackBerry smartphone with integrated Wi-Fi, but so far this device is not available. According to an unconfirmed report, though, it will be released in less than two weeks.

The BlackBerry 8820 will be introduced by AT&T in the middle of August, according to The Boy Genius Report. Although this is unconfirmed information, it's quite likely to be true; RIM itself has said this model will be launched by AT&T before the end of this summer.

BlackBerry 8820 (view large image)

There's no word yet on pricing.

Other models in the 8800 series without Wi-Fi have been available for several months from a variety of carriers.

More About the BlackBerry 8800 Series

All models in the BlackBerry 8800 series include a full QWERTY/AZERTY/QWERTZ keyboard, a QVGA screen, and a built-in GPS receiver.

They are also one of RIM's latest generation of models that include significant support for multimedia, including playing video and MP3 files.

For storing large audio and video files, their microSD card slot will support SDHC, allowing it to use cards that are as large as 32 GB, when these come on the market. microSD cards with 8 GB of storage are expected later this year.

These BlackBerries also sport Bluetooth 2.0 and a trackball in place of the traditional jog dial.

Related Articles

• RIM Blackberry 8800 Review
• RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Edition Review