Airtel launches BlackBerry 8800

New Delhi: Research In Motion (RIM) along with Airtel has introduced the sleek and elegant BlackBerry 8800, a powerful, feature-rich smartphone that is the successor to BlackBerry Pearl.

At only 14mm deep, the BlackBerry 8800 is the thinnest BlackBerry handset yet. Priced at Rs 31,990, it is now available with services bundled from Airtel.

The quad-band and EDGE-enabled BlackBerry 8800 incorporates built-in GPS (Global Positioning System), a first-of-its-kind for BlackBerry smartphones in India. Besides, it has a full QWERTY keyboard, RIM’s new trackball system has been persisted with for fast and intuitive navigation, a media player, and a microSD expandable memory slot for storing music, videos and download more applications.

BlackBerry 8800 also offers proven, popular features such as support for phone, email, text and instant messaging, web browser, organiser, multimedia, corporate data applications and more.

"We are very excited to bring the innovative and feature-rich BlackBerry 8800 to India for our high-end customers,” said Sanjay Kapoor, President, Mobile Services, Bharti Airtel.

“They will get an opportunity to experience a world-class product which is elegant, stylish and equipped to deliver a power packed performance. This exceptional device reinforces our commitment to bringing the latest and best communication experience for Airtel’s business customers.”

"The new BlackBerry 8800 is as stylish as it is powerful," said Norm Lo, vice-president of RIM's Asia-Pacific operations.
"It is the ideal mobile communications tool for India’s dynamic business environment and we are very pleased to introduce this impressive smartphone together with Airtel."

The new BlackBerry 8800 from Airtel also offers an ultra-bright, high resolution (320 x 240) landscape colour display making images appear vivid and crisp; an innovative light-sensing technology that automatically optimizes the screen, trackball and keyboard lighting for indoor, outdoor and dark environments; an intuitive user interface with an easy-to-use trackball; dedicated 'menu' and 'escape' keys, and context-sensitive menus that make navigation feel instinctive and fast 64MB built-in flash memory, expandable through microSD expansion slot.

An ultra-thin high-capacity battery apart; premium phone features include noise cancellation for enhanced audio performance; speaker-independent voice recognition (SIVR) for voice-activated dialing, dedicated 'send', 'end', and 'mute' keys, low-distortion speakerphone, and Bluetooth for hands-free use with headsets, car kits and Bluetooth peripherals; intuitive call management features such as smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing and call forwarding.