RIM has (finally) officially announced the BlackBerry Flip Pearl 8220 in a press release. This is the first BlackBerry with the clamshell form factor.

We are already aware of the specifications that were leaked in adverts and even reviews, but here they are again:

• Quad-band EDGE
• Chrome finished frame
• Dimensions: 3.9” x 1.9” x 0.7”
• Weight: 3.6 ounces
• Internal display with 240×320 pixels of resolution
• External display
• Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing
• Bluetooth
• 900mAh battery
• SureType® QWERTY* keyboard
• microSD memory card support for up to 16GB
• 2 megapixel camera with flash
• WiFi b/g

Press release after the jump.

[via IntoMobile]

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It wasn’t much long that the first BlackBerry clamshell leaked, that Crackberry got their hands on the device. The Kickstart is the first clamshell BlackBerry, and one of the few business phones of this form factor.

The device was supposed to have the 9100 model, but it changed to 8220. There is also a 8210 which is a clamshell device as well. The 8220 will have WiFi, while the 8210 will have GPS. The launch is rumoured to happen with T-Mobile on September, as low as 50US$ on a 24 month contract. It’s clearly a low-mid-end smartphone, and the features confirm that:

• Clamshell / flip phone form factor
• Quad-band radios: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (no 3G)
• 240 x 320 internal LCD (think Curve/8800 display flipped to portrait)
• 160 x 128 external display
• 2 megapixel camera
• 3.5mm headset jack
• externally accessible microSD card slot
• OS version 4.6
• “Next Gen” SureType keyboard
• 8220 will feature WiFi; 8210 will feature GPS

I advise you to read on the first part of the review, there are a lot of attractive images and content. What we are really waiting or is the Thunder/Storm to arrive on to our screens. I added few more pictures that I found interesting, after the jump.

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There are no specifications available for Blackberry’s first clamshell device, but there are quite a lot of pictures available on this phone.

The only part that looks good in this phone is the back part, or the phone when it is closed. In these live pictures of the 9100 Kickstart, the inside part looks really ugly, hopefully the press images will prove us wrong.

Source: CrackBerry via IntoMobile