The handheld will not have a camera.

Sep 25, 2006 09:10 GMT  ·  By

Finally something new from Research In Motion that will get us over the Pearl craze. Their new handheld will have the usual full QWERTY keyboard, a trackball, Wi-Fi connectivity, Push-to-Talk technology (that suggests us the handheld will probably be released on Cingular, given the fact this is a service provided only by them), Voice Notes, MP3 player and a microSD expansion memory card slot.

Even if the 8800 looks quite impressive, RIM has made a serious mistake, in my opinion, by not including a camera. This is a thing that will make it an almost sure victim of other handheld competitors on the market. Maybe RIM doesn't realize people can get over the infamous Blackberry addiction made possible by the ability to receive and read e-mail in real time, if they aren't provided with all the means to enrich their wireless handheld device experience, means already provided by other handheld manufacturers at the moment.

Other missing, but necessary, features are the voice commands and voice activated dialing, a must be in handhelds for many users these days.

Even if the Blackberry 8800 seems to be bad news for now, we still expect the official launch of the handset, and hope for the best (that RIM will change their mind on this one and offer us a much desirable device).