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The BlackBerry 8820 also supports UMA VOIP (Voice Over IP)-so there’s the potential for low-cost internet based calls, and also many corporates are rolling out VOIP already wired so this is an interesting migration path for users “in the office”.

Identical in appearance to the BlackBerry 8800 and black variant of the 8830, the RIM BlackBerry 8820 takes the 8800 configuration and adds WiFi capabilities.

The memory slot on the BlackBerry 8820 supports microSD cards (up to 2GB) and also microSDHC (high capacity) cards which can theoretically hold up to 32GB.

All-in-all, the addition of WiFi is a useful enhancement to the 8800 series (and it is first RIM’s BlackBerry wireless device). However, yet again this device does not support 3G and it seems a strange omission when the 8820 comes with virtually everything else.

The basic specifications are the same the BlackBerry 8820 is a quad-band GSM device with GPRS and EDGE data, but no 3G. It has a bright 320×240 pixel display and it comes with integrated GPS for location based services and mapping. The 8820 supports Bluetooth. The software includes the famous BlackBerry push email client (but it can also use standard Internet protocols for POP3/SMTP mail), a web browser and a host of applications including a multimedia player. There’s no camera on the 8820.

BlackBerry say that the 8820 should be available in a few weeks time from “selected carriers.” We know that AT & T will make it available later in the summer.

The memory slot on the BlackBerry 8820 supports microSD cards (up to 2GB) and also microSDHC (high capacity) cards which can theoretically hold up to 32GB.

There’s no word on battery life and weight - using WiFi will inevitably drain the battery quite quickly. Expect the 8820 to be a little heavier than the 138gram BlackBerry 8800 too as there are additional components inside.

WiFi is the big addition to the 8820 - unusually for a phone it supports 802.11a (5GHz) as well as 802.11b and g (2.4GHz) variants. The 8820’s WiFi implementation supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption plus a variety of VPN clients. It is possible to use WiFi with a corporate BlackBerry server, although this depends on the carrier supporting it and probably some reconfiguration will be required.

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