'Cheapest ever' BlackBerry coming to the UK

RIM has announced UK release details for its new entry-level BlackBerry, the Curve 8520.

The device, which RIM expects to be available at a lower price than any of its predecessors, will go on sale from August, the company said on Monday. However, a spokesman for RIM would not confirm the price as UK carriers for the handset have not yet been announced.

The Curve 8520 is the first of RIM's smartphones to use a touch-sensitive optical trackpad, rather than a rollerball, as its primary input mechanism. It is also the first BlackBerry to have dedicated media keys for controlling the playback of music and videos.

The device comes with 256MB of flash memory - its storage is also expandable through microSD cards - and uses a 512MHz processor. It has a two-megapixel camera and a 3.5mm stereo headset jack.

As the quad-band handset is entry-level, it lacks 3G connectivity. Instead, users can surf the web using 802.11b/g wi-fi.

Original article: Entry-level BlackBerry to make UK debut from ZDNet UK