Official shots of AT&T’s BlackBerry 8320 Curve
Another day, another delayed BlackBerry for AT&T. It’s been a while since we last posted about AT&T’s 8320 and the scheduled release has come and gone. We all know it was slated for launch toward the end of September but AT&T and RIM seem to be like oil and water these days when it comes to getting a product out to market. Here we are with October almost behind us and still no 8320. Whatever the cause of the delay might be, it looks like we’re getting closer to go time as a little birdy just dropped some official AT&T shots on our doorstep. If you’re on AT&T and the pricing on the Bold is enough to scare you off but WiFi is a must, hopefully you’ll soon have a decent backup option in the Sapphire Blue 8320 Curve. Hit the jump for more poses.
[Thanks Omie]
No, AT&T doesn’t have 4 curves currently. AT&T sells the 8310, which replaced the 8300 approximately one year ago. So the 8320 would be the second one. T-Mobile also sells the 8320, and Verizon and Sprint both sell the 8330. Furthermore, Sprint also sells the 8350i (iDen, Nextel).
I know it may just be psychological, but I see a lot of difference between surfing using WiFi and EDGE. I much prefer using WiFi as it seems to go much faster.
In any case, WiFi really is first and foremost for data. It’s not fair to say that a phone with WiFi but not UMA is worth nothing–it just happens that UMA is a nice addition–A very nice and clear addition.
Btw, is it true that when using UMA overseas, it won’t count as an international call because it can’t decipher where you are??
Well, either the (alleged) speed difference on an 8320 Blackberry is real or it’s not. When it was measured about a year ago, they couldn’t detect any. I guess that was with a flawless EDGE signal. I can imagine that, of course, a weak EDGE signal can’t compete with WiFi, for obvious reasons. WiFi performance OUGHT of course to be 10-100x higher than EDGE, but didn’t measure accordingly. As for using UMA abroad, yes it works and it’s “free” insofar as it’s just like using it at home. Major plus!
I received an AT&T branded 8230 from T-Mobile as a handset replacement a couple months back. It wasn’t working at all and I had them swap it out again… I knew I should have taken pics!
no video camera? what the hell? screw this. i’m over at&t. verizon here i come!!
Yes, video camera. Version 4.5 and up includes video capture. The 4.5 upgrade for T-Mobile’s 8320 became available some 3-4 days ago. I would be very surprised if the AT&T version of the 8320 didn’t ship with 4.5 from Day 1.
still loving my 8320 from tmo. gold n black. New Orleans stand up!!! and i love the update, i cant stay off my phone for nothing!!!!
Having Wifi on a laptop is a must. Having Wifi on any smartphone that supports UMA is great. Having wifi on a none Blackberry smartphone is nice. Having Wifi on a Blackberry without UMA support is lame.
I have been telling people this ever since ATT released the 8820. People still don’t get it. If it wasn’t for T-Mobile adopting UMA, Rim would have no reason to add Wifi to a blackblackberry. The 8320 was Rims first Wifi/Uma Blackberry and is still a T-Mobile exclusive item. Not all smartphones are created the equal.
Unlike the apple or windows smatphone platform RIM doesn’t use any type of embedded email client on their blackberry’s so all email and data permission are set on their servers. Let’s compare how a non blackberry smartphone uses a mobile network and wifi to access the internet to send email. The phone uses cell signal to connect to the mobile network, the mobile network connects to the internet. The phone uses this connection at browse and use email. When using wifi the phone uses wifi to connect their ISP. The ISP connects to the internet and once again the phone can browse and use email.
Now the Blackberry works like this. Phone uses cell or UMA signal to connect to the mobile network. The mobile network connects to RIMs data servers. The servers connects to the internet and phone uses those servers to get email and internet access. The RIM data servers can’t be accessed by using wifi and your ISP. A blackberry just using Wifi to connect to an ISP is limited just to wifi web browsing. Emails, blackberry maps, wap browser, wireless sinc, blackberry messaging, pin messaging, IM and any other application that uses blackberry data such as any of the google aps can’t be accessed by wifi alone.
If you don’t believe me that wifi on a blackberry without UMA support is lame, just turn off your mobile network and connect to wifi only and try to using email.
WiFi on a BB would fix the “no coverage” problem at our firm. We are 24+ stories high and coverage is shoddy at best even in perimeter offices. Go into an interior office or conf. room and you get no coverage. We would love to fix that with WiFi and the 8320.
We are getting some Bolds but if the price is right for the Curve I could see us getting these in place of the 8310.
Netposer,
That’s what make using blackberry with UMA so great but if youre not using T-mobile Wifi is will only be good for browsing not email. Check my prev post.
Jdslim,
I’ll have to check to see if WiFi enabled BB’s can connect directly to the BES/Exchange that’s on the same network (LAN).
It is def the best color the curve has come in so far. The titanium and red are getting a little (a lot) old. Like I’ve said a million times already, the Bold is coming in November for certain, so hang in there!
wrong. my bes service works just fine on my 8820 wifi without cellular coverage or with the gsm radio off.
How do we know this is an 8320 and not an 8310
Jdslim, thanks for the explanation. That makes sense. However, were I looking for a Curve on ATT, I would buy this one. Why? I don’t need GPS, and the only thing I want to take advantage of WiFi for is browsing anyway. E-mail is plenty fast with edge anyway, especially on a BB, which has no HTML email. But when I travel to Vermont and lose my cell signal, I could still use the browser over wifi to check weather, news etc. It’s still useful.
I have to admit I might of been a little off about using wifi to connect to the mail servers. I am not a BES admin so my training with bes is very limited. As I said before a blackberry can use wifi to connect to its ISP. I am sorry I forgot about using wifi to connect to your local LAN. I havn’t tested this yet but I would have to assume if you house the BES exchange on your local LAN all BES sevices should work using just wifi.
Theyre most likely to release it when the 8310’s run out
@ Basehead, its not the 8310 and if you look at the picture it has the WiFi logo
But I know for a FACT that this is the 8320
Well its about darn time, I hope…
I need a new phone yesterday and I’ve been impatiently awaiting this one. Next week maybe?
Any thoughts on the cost? The BB Pearl for ATT with WiFi is 200 after rebate and the bold is supposed to be 300… so somewhere in the middle? I really hope not. They should cut pearls price down and shift this price to around 200ish– because for 50 bucks more why not get a bold