RIM Announces its First BlackBerry Flip Phone

Research In Motion (RIM), has unveiled the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone, the first BlackBerry phone to come in the flip form factor. The quad-band EDGE-based BlackBerry weighs 3.6 ounces and measures approximately 3.9 x 1.9 x 0.7-inch. Featuring two high-resolution, light-sensing color displays, the external LCD makes it easy to preview incoming emails, text messages and phone calls without opening the handset, while the large, 240 x 320 internal LCD displays messages, videos and web pages.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone includes features like 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 2.0 for use with hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals such as a GPS receiver.

It features a large SureType QWERTY keyboard, plus provides access to up to 10 supported personal and work email accounts. The DataViz Documents to Go software suite is also preloaded, allowing users to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip is supported on BlackBerry Internet Service, BlackBerry Unite!, BlackBerry Professional Software and BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which provides tight integration with corporate email systems and the security and IT policy controls that enterprise customers require to allow smartphones in their organization.

It features a 2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom and video recording, and includes BlackBerry Maps to deliver maps and step-by-step driving directions. An enhanced HTML browser displays web pages in either "Column View" or "Page View" and different emulation settings allow users to choose between desktop-style HTML content and the mobile version of web pages. The browser also supports RTSP for watching online streaming video from sites like m.youtube.com. 

In addition, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone features built-in Wi-fi (802.11 b/g) with support for UMA (unlicensed mobile access), extending wireless email and data coverage and supporting carrier enabled voice calls over home Wi-Fi networks, enterprise wireless deployments and Wi-Fi hotspots. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone will be available from wireless carriers around the world beginning this fall. 
Specific availability and pricing details will be announced at a later date.