T-Mobile's BlackBerry Bold 9900 Now Available to Everyone

Business users could buy the BlackBerry Bold 9900 from T-Mobile starting a few weeks ago, but it wasn't until today that anyone could go to this company's website and purchase it.

This is the first in the Bold series with a touchscreen, and it's the first BlackBerry with support for T-Mobile's 4G network. In addition, it is one of the first handsets with NFC (Near Field Communications). It is part of RIM's new lineup of smartphones running BlackBerry OS 7.

The Bold 9900 can now be purchased from T-Mobile's website for $300 with a two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate. This price has caused some complaints from potential customers, as smartphones typically sell for $200 with contract.

More BlackBerry 9900 Details
Despite all the new features, RIM stuck with the design BlackBerry users are familiar with. This handset sports a 2.8-inch, VGA (640 x 480) 287 dpi capacitive display set above a small thumb-keyboard and optical trackpad. Other features include a 5MP camera, 8GB of internal memory, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, plus a GPS

BlackBerry OS 7 isn't a dramatic improvement over the previous version, but it includes a significantly improved web browser, support for 720p HD video recording, and an augmented reality app. The Bold 9900 also has a new version of BlackBerry Messenger and an updated Social Feeds app.

AT&T is also going to offer this smartphone, while Verizon and Sprint are going to carry the CDMA equivalent, the BlackBerry Bold 9930.