Our friends over in India now have one more BlackBerry device to get their hands on this new year. Vodafone has announced the release of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip in India. Available now, the Pearl Flip 8220 will run Rs. 21,990 (around $450 USD) at select Vodafone stores around the country. Should be interesting to see how the Flip does in the Indian market. I'm not a huge fan of the Flip myself, but man that product shot looks good!
Full press release after the jump >
BlackBerry Pearl Flip: The power of a BlackBerry smartphone in a new, sleek, stylish and fun design
Mumbai, India - Vodafone and Research In Motion today launched the BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220 smartphone in India - the first smartphone within RIM’s portfolio to come in the popular clamshell format.
The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone maintains the popular features and benefits of the BlackBerry Pearl smartphone; plus it packs
numerous enhancements into its sleek flip design. The spacious SureType keyboard allows easy typing and dialing while the flip design helps protect the large, vibrant internal screen and provides the satisfying finality of ending a call by closing the phone. Customers will also appreciate the external display for previewing calendar reminders, email, text messages and phone calls at a glance.
A simple flip of the handset opens up a world of possibilities with the industry’s leading mobile messaging solution and a wide range of impressive Internet and multimedia capabilities, all in one powerful yet approachable smartphone.
“We are delighted with the opportunity to introduce the BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone to Vodafone customers in India. BlackBerry smartphones have been well-received in the Indian market and the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip will help expand the appeal of the BlackBerry® platform to an even wider range of customers,” said Ms. Frenny Bawa, Vice President, India, Research In Motion.
“Vodafone has long been a partner of RIM, bringing various BlackBerry smartphones to India. The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip is ideal for people who want a uniquely powerful and sophisticated clamshell smartphone, delivering the full capabilities of the BlackBerry solution as well as access to various mobile business and lifestyle applications,” said Mr. Harit Nagpal, Director - Marketing and New Business, Vodafone Essar.
Priced at Rs. 21,990 the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone is expected to be available in the first week of January, 2009 at select Vodafone Stores across the country.
The BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone provides an advanced multimedia experience including a 2 megapixel camera with digital zoom, flash and video recording, stereo Bluetooth® support, and an easily accessible expandable memory card slot for up to 16GB of additional storage per card.
Key features of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip from Vodafone includes the following:
- First BlackBerry smartphone to come in the popular flip design
- Built-in Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g) supporting extended data coverage and fast Web browsing
- Enhanced SureType keyboard for easy text entry and phone dialing
- Support for text messaging, picture messaging, popular instant
messaging services, personal email (access up to 10 supported email
accounts), and corporate email - 2 megapixel camera with digital zoom, built-in flash and video recording
- Advanced media player for music, video and pictures with full-screen video playback
- Stereo Bluetooth® support (A2DP/AVRCP) and 3.5mm stereo headset jack
- Media management software including the new BlackBerry® Media Sync
application making it quick and easy to sync iTunes digital music onto
the handset - Enhanced HTML browser for high-performance browsing with desktop-style depiction
- Internal QVGA 2.4-inch diagonal display, 320 x 240 pixels and supports 65,000 colors
- 1 GB microSD card included
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE/Wi-Fi network support including support for international roaming
- Dimensions (LxWxD): 101mm x 50 mm x 17.5 mm
- Weight (including removable battery): Approximately 102 grams
* Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.
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