14 DAY TRIAL // Cricket just revealed on its website the Blackberry Curve 8530 smartphone, which is now available online for pre-order. The device can be bought together with the newly launched Unlimited plan, which offers unlimited calls, text and data for a reasonable price. Those interested can pre-order the Curve 8530 online to benefit from the $20 USD discount offered by the carrier. The smartphone is supposed to be shipped by August 6th.
Blackberry Curve 8530 is the CDMA version of Curve 8520 and was officially released last year in August. Curve 8530 is a medium sized smartphone, which measures 109 x 60 x 13.9 mm and weighs 106g (including battery). It comes with a 2.46-inch TFT, 65K colors display (320x240 pixels resolution), full QWERTY keyboard, tTouch-sensitive optical trackpad, dedicated music keys, 3.5mm audio jack port, and 2-megapixel camera with video recording (QVGA) capabilities.
The smartphone is powered by a 512MHz processor and runs on a Blackberry OS platform. Other highlights of the phone include: quadband EDGE compatibility, 256 MB internal memory, microSD slot for memory card (up to 32GB), Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, microUSB, music and video players. The device also features a 1150mAh Li-ion battery, with an official standby time of 252h and 4h and 30 minutes talk time.
Cricket also said that the next handset from the “Coming Soon” page, that will be available through the carrier's retail stores and online, will be Kyocera's Zio. The affordable Android smartphone has been enlisted by the US-based carrier only last week and should make a fine addition to Cricket's portfolio.
Blackberry Curve 8530 can be bought for $279.99 USD after a $20 discount, but only if you pre-order the smartphone online. The only drawback might be the fact that the device requires a 60$/per month Unlimited plan, which might be expensive for some people.
