14 DAY TRIAL // Today, wireless carrier Sprint announced the launch of a new smartphone from Research In Motion on its airwaves, the BlackBerry Curve 3G (model 9330), which should prove a nice addition to the popular Curve family of devices the carrier already has on sale for its users.
According to Sprint, the new device is expected to become available for purchase on Sunday, September 26th, via all Sprint direct ship sales channels, while sporting a price tag of $49.99 with a new two-year service agreement, after a $100 mail-in rebate.
All other Sprint channels are expected to get the new BlackBerry Curve 3G starting with Sunday, October 10th, the company added.
The new device comes with a wide range of smartphone features, including a sleek and professional look, or a lightweight form factor. The new device sports a chrome-like finish in Graphite Gray or Royal Purple.
The specifications list of the new mobile phone includes 512MB of Flash memory, complemented by a MicroSD/SDHC memory card slot with support for up to 32GB of additional storage space.
Some other popular features of BlackBerry Curve 3G include:
- Convenient trackpad interface with full QWERTY keyboard - 2.0 MP camera with support for video recording - Dedicated media keys to play, pause and skip songs - Wi-Fi: 802-11 B/G and GPS - Visual Voicemail
The new handset comes to the market with a nice range of multimedia applications, including Sprint Music Store, Sprint TV and Pandora, not to mention dedicated applications for accessing social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Flickr. The BlackBerry Curve 3G runs under RIM's BlackBerry 5 OS, but it includes support for the new BlackBerry 6 OS.
According to Sprint, the smartphone should be upgraded to the new OS version sometime in 2011.
“The BlackBerry Curve series continues to be a tremendous success. We are excited to offer this new model and then bring the new BlackBerry 6 operating system to it in 2011,” said David Owens, vice president of Marketing for Sprint.
“BlackBerry Curve 3G offers the same value and form factor our customers have come to expect but it also provides key enhancements to stay productive and entertained with email messaging and the latest multimedia and social media features.”
Sprint also announced that BlackBerry Curve 3G requires the purchase of an Everything Data plan or a Business Advantage Messaging and Data plan. The carrier's Everything Data plans start at $69.99 per month.
