14 DAY TRIAL // Rogers Wireless has finally announced the official release date for BlackBerry Bold in Canada: August 21 - meaning no later than tomorrow. Although the Bold was initially said to be available starting the end of July, this obviously did not happen, and rumors were going around saying that the new smartphone would not be out before September.
Luckily, these rumors turned out not to be true. All those who have subscribed on Rogers' website in order to be informed about the Bold's availability have received an email from the Canadian carrier, which confirms the August 21 release. Thus, Canadian users who have been waiting for the mighty Bold can get it as of tomorrow, but for this, they must pay a visit to a Rogers store.
The price of BalckBerry Bold was not announced in an official way, but according to recently leaked details, RIM's new and good looking smartphone will be available for purchase starting at 399 Canadian dollars (376 USD or 255 Euros), with the signing of a three-year contract agreement. Of course, lots of customers will say that this is a bit too much, especially since they'll also be paying monthly fees for no less than three years, besides the 399 CAD initial price.
Hefty price aside, there is also good news from Rogers: the red carrier has come up with a contest that offers ten BlackBerry Bold handsets to ten lucky users. To enter the contest, you must be among the customers who have received the above-mentioned mail from Rogers. Also, you must live in Canada - but not in the province of Quebec, as its residents can't participate in the contest, for reasons that Rogers doesn't mention.
The features of BlackBerry Bold, in case there are users who don't know them yet, include: a 480 x 320 pixels TFT display, Wi-Fi, GPS with BlackBerry Maps, document viewer and editor, full HTML browser, Music and Video players, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA connectivity, a 2 Megapixel camera and 1GB of internal memory, expandable via a microSD/microSDHC card of up to 8GB. Plus, the Bold is obviously equipped with what every RIM-made smartphone has: a QWERTY keypad, trackball navigation and advanced email capabilities.
Now we can only hope that, tomorrow, Rogers will surprise users with a lower Bold price than the rumored one.