BlackBerry Curve 8520 Comes to AT&T

AT&T's smartphone lineup will soon see a new addition, in the form of BlackBerry Curve 8520, the wireless carrier announced recently. The new device will be added to the operator's BlackBerry smartphone portfolio, proving to be the best value for both consumer and business customers, stated AT&T. The new handset comes with a stylish design, which includes a full QWERTY keyboard and touch-sensitive trackpad.

The specifications list of the new handset includes built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, an advanced media player, dedicated music controls, global connectivity options, phone, email, text, IM, picture messaging and social networking capabilities, with pre-loaded Facebook and My Space applications, a 2 megapixel photo snapper with video recording capabilities, a 512 MHz processor and 256 MB of Flash memory, as well as a display that boasts a 320 x 240 pixel resolution.

“AT&T was the first choice for BlackBerry in the U.S. and we continue to expand our offering of BlackBerry products to suit the different needs of business and personal users,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “The BlackBerry Curve 8520 offers the best value by combining the essential features of a BlackBerry smartphone with access to AT&T's network, which includes best coverage worldwide, as well as the nation's largest Wi-Fi network.”

According to AT&T, those users who will opt for the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will benefit from connectivity to a Wi-Fi network that includes more than 20,000 U.S. Hotspots. Moreover, users with a qualifying data plan (a BlackBerry unlimited data plan, that is), will enjoy unlimited access to Wi-Fi at no additional cost. Not to mention that they will also be able to access a number of up to ten personal email addresses, while benefiting from support for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files with DataViz Documents to Go suite.

“The new BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a great choice for first-time smartphone users and offers easy-to-use messaging, social networking and multimedia features with a full-QWERTY keyboard that makes typing fast and comfortable,” said Carlo Chiarello, vice president, product management, Research In Motion. AT&T also announced that the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone was expected to become available for purchase within the following weeks, sporting a price tag of $99.99, upon the signing of a two-year contract agreement and after a $100 mail-in rebate.