BlackBerry Curve 8900 lands on O2 on 5th January

Miffed that the BlackBerry Storm is only on Vodafone? Well, miff no more, because RIM's other new baby, the Curve 8900 (aka the Javelin) is about to come to O2. The network's just announced it'll be taking "pre-registrations" for the QWERTY emailer from tomorrow, pre-orders from the 22nd, and finally, will be making deliveries on 5th January.

As well as going back to traditional keys, the Curve sports just about the sharpest display in existence, with a 480x360 resolution squeezed into a 2.4in screen. Squint on for more.

Also on board is a 3.2mp autofocus camera and (take note Vodafone) Wi-Fi, although in the spirit of always omitting one bog standard feature, RIM has left off 3G. Ah well.

It'll cost from free up to £234 depending on tariff, although O2 hasn't said where the starting point for a free Curve 8900 will be. If you want one before January, a little bird has also told us that Carphone Warehouse will be getting the 8900 in on 20th December. We'll bring you more on that when we get it.

Press release:

O2 to Launch BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone in the UK

O2 today announces that the new BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 smartphone will be available for pre-registration in the UK from December 10th and pre-order from December 22nd from the O2 website: www.o2.co.uk/blackberry. The BlackBerry Curve 8900 will be available to customers from 5th January 2009.

A sleek, new twist on a classic style, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is the thinnest BlackBerry® smartphone yet. With its powerful communications functionality and rich multimedia capabilities, the smartphone enables people to remain productive and entertained while on the move.

The new BlackBerry Curve 8900, as well as being an exceptional phone with email, messaging, organizer, web browser and multimedia applications, also features built-in Wi-Fi®, GPS including BlackBerry® Maps, a fast processor and a dazzling hi-resolution display that gives users an enjoyable and exceptional communications experience.

The stylish new BlackBerry Curve 8900 has a full featured media player that supports media streaming and can play all your favourite songs and videos. With a 3.2 megapixel camera, auto focus, digital zoom and flash, you can take sharp, print quality pictures that you can send straight to friends or post directly onto the Internet.

Steve Alder, General Manager Group and UK Devices for Telefónica O2 UK said “The BlackBerry Curve 8310 was one of our fastest selling handsets and we are pleased to offer our customers yet another fantastic smartphone from RIM, the BlackBerry Curve 8900. It is ideal for both business customers and consumers who want the functionality of a smartphone in a sleek, slim form that feels great in your hand.”

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is approximately 110 grams and 109 x 60 13.5 mm. Its large, striking, 2.4 inch HVGA+ display projects vivid colour and makes information easier to read.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 will range from free to £234 depending on tariffs and is supported by O2 for BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and BlackBerry® Internet Service.

For corporate users BlackBerry Enterprise Server tightly integrates with IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novell® GroupWise® and uses advanced encryption and IT policy controls to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

BlackBerry Internet Service is designed for smaller businesses and individuals. It allows customers to access up to 10 supported corporate and personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts such as, Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail) from a single device.

Notes to Editors:

Technical Data

• Preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® allows users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset

• A sleek, new twist on a classic style with a large 2.4-inch, HGVA+, 480x360-pixel display with light sensor

• 3.2 megapixel camera, with variable zoom, auto focus, image stabilization and a powerful flash that also provides continuous lighting when recording video

• Built-in assisted and autonomous GPS

• 256MB Flash memory and a microSD®/microSDHC® memory card slot that supports up to 16 GB of additional storage

• A 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, support for Bluetooth® 2.0 stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP) and dedicated volume controls

• Quad band support for GSM/GPRS/EDGE on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

• 512 MHz processor

• It features a full QWERTY keyboard and is the thinnest full QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone

• Extend your wideband coverage with its built-in Wi-Fi support (802.11 b/g)

• 1400 mAh removable/rechargeable battery with 5.5 hours of talk time and 356 hours/15 days of standby time