The voice of the BlackBerry community.
The press releases have gone out and the AT&T BlackBerry Curve 8520 has just been announced. The device will be available “in the coming weeks” and it will cost $99.99 on a 2 year agreement.
The press release doesn’t mention whether or not App World will come preloaded on the device, but it does say to expect Facebook and MySpace preloaded.
More of the usual details from the press release.
Congratulations on buying your BlackBerry Curve 8520! Now you might be wondering what to do with your new phone. I’ll take you walk you through the basic features of your device and what you can do with it. BlackBerry is a powerful platform and if this is your first smartphone, your going to be amazed at what it can do.
Click through for the BlackBerry Cool guide to the BlackBerry Curve 8520
It looks like the BlackBerry Curve 8520 will start off at a very reasonable rate at Walmart. The device will sell for $48.88 with a two year T-Mobile service contract. T-Mobile stores will be selling the device for $129.99, therefore charging their own customers a fee of $100 for using the retail outlet.
Starting at around $50 on a 2 year contract is a fairly clear indication that we’ll see this device being offered for free within the year. Not a bad device for that price.
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The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a turning point for RIM. They have clearly realized that they have parts on their devices that can still remain perfectly functional while reducing their replacement and repair costs, as well as those of their customers. The 8520 is also a lower end device as noted by the cheap battery panel that pulls off without requiring a slider or a button. Since you’ve likely experienced the Curve 8900 at some point, I’ll use it as a point of reference.
Lets go through the new features with the BlackBerry 8520, and get a discussion going about the device. We want to hear your thoughts!
Click though for a breakdown of the major talking points surrounding the BlackBerry 8520
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 has been announced in both the UK and North America today. The latest device in the Curve series is an evolutionary step for devices with a new trackpad and a rubber bezel.
The device should be available for purchase in the UK at the beginning of August and T-Mobile has set a launch date at August 5th. Just over a week away!
The BlackBerry 8520 features:
Personally, I thought the lack of a flash on the camera was strange. Why go all this way to build a consumer device, and leave out a key feature that consumers like?
Will you be trading in your BlackBerry Curve 83xx for the 8520?
The T-Mobile BlackBerry Gemini 8520 is slated as a low-end BlackBerry Curve, and it will definitely suit the intended market. While Power Users are going to yawn, early Pearl owners are going to want to upgrade to this device, especially because we’ve heard it’s going to come in some beautiful colors.
Before reading this review, as usual it’s not a commercially available device and therefore may not be the device you pick up from T-Mobile.
The 85xx Series Devices
The BlackBerry 8520 is a new-generation Curve and while the xx20 is the only device in the series so far, it surely won’t be the last. In the coming months (year), we can expect a rollout similar to that of other BlackBerry devices. The BlackBerry 8510 will have GPS and the 8530 will be CDMA.
About the OS
The 8520 that I’m using is running OS 4.6.1.227, which seems to be the consensus around other sites who have got their hands on the device. While OS 4.6.1 is decent, it isn’t the OS 5 that we’ve all been waiting to use. Because this is a pre-release device, it could possibly ship with OS 5, which would be a dream come true.
Click through to continue reading a review of the BlackBerry Gemini 8520
The BlackBerry Onyx has been spotted with a trackpad. Although the Tour 9630 does not have a trackpad, the BlackBerry Gemini 8520 does. This could mean that RIM is thinking of making all devices post 9630 come with a trackpad.
Is this the death of the trackball? I hope so. BlackBerry users have had to replace a ton of trackballs because they get dust/sand in them or they just simply wear out. This new strategy could mean longer lasting devices.
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Ronen from BerryReview picked up the news that the upcoming BlackBerry Gemini 8520 will be shipping from T-Mobile in both black and white.
Back when I bought the iPhone 3G (don’t give me that look), I made sure to get the white version. Not because I thought it necessarily looked better, but because they made white the limited edition. It would be great to see more limited edition BlackBerry colors and cases being released.
The 8520 is shaping up to be an interesting device. With a cool new optical trackpad, it don’t matter if you’re black or white.
Stay tuned for the full review of the 8520.
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I’ve been trying out the BlackBerry Gemini 8520 and I cannot for the life of me open the battery casing.
It may be that I don’t have enough calcium in my diet or it could also be that this battery casing is blogger-proof. Either way, my fingers are crossed that this changes before the device hits the market.
On a side note, don’t bother complaining about the video quality. I use a BlackBerry to take all my video and device pictures. I refuse to use an extra device. This isn’t BlackBerryandaCamcorder Cool.
Stay tuned because I’ll have a full review of the device up soon.
The guys at PhoneArena put up a pretty lengthy review of the BlackBerry Gemini 8520. I’ll break down their review by section but if you want to read the full review, just head over to their site.
While the 8520 Gemini is one of the newest devices to be released by RIM, the only thing truly new about it is the design. The 8520 is slated as an introductory Curve model and comes with a 3.4” screen which sits above a full QWERTY keyboard. Two convenience keys adorn either side and a simplistic back with the 2 megapixel camera at the top. The unofficial size is 4.25”x2.3”x0.5”, which makes it even smaller than the Curve 8900, and perhaps a touch lighter.
Click through to learn more about the BlackBerry Gemini 8520
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