BlackBerry 8820
Discontinued 18th July 2007
Identical in appearance to the BlackBerry
8800 and black variant of the 8830,
the RIM BlackBerry 8820 takes the 8800 configuration
and adds WiFi capabilities.
The basic specifications are the same
- the BlackBerry 8820 is a quad-band GSM device with
GPRS and EDGE data, but no 3G. It has a bright 320x240
pixel display and it comes with integrated GPS for location
based services and mapping. The 8820 supports Bluetooth.
The software includes the famous BlackBerry push email
client (but it can also use standard internet protocols
for POP3/SMTP mail), a web browser and a host of applications
including a multimedia player. There's no camera on
the 8820.
The memory slot on the BlackBerry 8820
supports microSD cards (up to 2GB) and also microSDHC
(high capacity) cards which can theoretically hold up
to 32GB.
WiFi is the big addition to the 8820
- unusually for a phone it supports 802.11a (5GHz) as
well as 802.11b and g (2.4GHz) variants. The 8820's
WiFi implementation supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption
plus a variety of VPN clients. It is possible
to use WiFi with a corporate BlackBerry server, although
this depends on the carrier supporting it and probably
some reconfiguration will be required.
The
BlackBerry 8820 also supports UMA VOIP (Voice Over IP)
-so there's the potential for low-cost internet based
calls, and also many corporates are rolling out wired
VOIP already so this is an interesting migration path
for users "in the office".
There's no word on battery life and
weight - using WiFi will inevitably drain the battery
quite quickly. Expect the 8820 to be a little heavier
than the 138gram BlackBerry 8800 too as there are additional
components inside.
BlackBerry say that the 8820 should
be available in a few weeks time from "selected
carriers". We know that AT&T will make it available
later in the summer.
All-in-all, the addition of WiFi is
a useful enhancement to the 8800 series (and it is RIM's
first WiFi BlackBerry device). However, yet again this
device doesn't support 3G and it seems a strange omission
when the 8820 comes with virtually everything else.
|
RIM
BlackBerry 8800 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q3
2007
|
Network:
|
GSM
850/900/1800/1900
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + WiFi
|
Screen:
|
320x240
pixels
|
Camera:
|
No
|
Size:
|
Messaging
device 114 x 66 x 14mm
/ 140 grams approx
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
/ microSDHC
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
5 hours talk / 22 days standby
approx
|
|
|