RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8220 Flip Phone: The Next Great Consumer Smartphone?

Al Sacco has laid his hands on the newest BlackBerry mobile device, meant for non-business mobile phone users. The problem isn't the phone, he says; it's the phone companies who need to get their pricing act together.

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That's especially so since the Pearl 8220 looks and feels rather flimsy; it's lighter than any other BlackBerry I've seen, and it's made of a different sort of rough, thin plastic. That can't be good for durability. I would not pay $150 for the device with a one-year contract, let alone a three year deal.

But RIM's announcement at CTIA relates to the T-Mobile Pearl 8220, which will be the first RIM flip phone smartphone to hit the United States. It's expected "this fall," according to the company, and rumors suggest that T-Mobile will sell the Pearl 8220 for as little as US$49.99 with a two-year contract. Now that's more like it, and if this information proves to be accurate, RIM and T-Mobile are going to have a real winner on their hands, the consumer smartphone space will see another major player and RIM will have cranked up the competition between it and Apple another notch.

Oh yeah, it's also worth mentioning that reports of a BlackBerry Pearl 8210 suggest a sibling device with GPS instead of Wi-Fi will also hit the market in near future, likely on AT&T.

What's your take? First of all, would you pay US$150 with a three year contract for the new BlackBerry flip phone? How about US$50 with a two-year contract?

For the curious: additional BlackBerry Pearl 8220 images can be found on RIM's website, along with a video of the Pearl 8220 phone in action.