Canadian wireless giant Research In Motion (RIM) Wednesday unveiled its new BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone - the first device in the popular flip version.
Weighing only 3.6 ounce, the quad-band EDGE-based BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone packs an impressive range of features into its compact design, including phone, email, messaging, organiser, browser and multimedia applications.
In a statement, RIM said: 'You can send a message to your friends or family, make a call, browse the web, snap a picture, watch a video or listen to your favourite song. It's all in your control with a simple flip.'
The new device features a two megapixel camera with flash, zoom and video recording to capture memories while on the move, and includes BlackBerry Maps to deliver maps and step-by-step driving directions quickly and easily.
Its browser supports Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) for watching online streaming video on sites like youtube.com.
The smartphone delivers exceptional voice quality and includes many premium phone features, including speaker independent voice recognition (SIVR) for voice activated dialing (VAD), support for mp3 ring tones, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing, call forwarding, voicemail attachment playback and enhanced background noise cancellation.
It also features a speakerphone and Bluetooth for use with hand-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals such as a GPS receiver.
Its removable/rechargeable 900 mAhr battery provides four hours of talk time and over 14 days of standby time.
The large keyboard will make typing messages and dialing numbers fast and easy. With an advanced media player, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip is the perfect on-the-go entertainment centre, the RIM statement said.
'The popularity of BlackBerry smartphones has grown tremendously around the world and the introduction of this exciting new flip phone will help extend the reach of the BlackBerry platform even further,' said RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.
Without giving price details, the RIM statement said the smartphone would be available around the world in the autumn.