Rogers Wireless Announces the BlackBerry Curve 8520

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What does Rogers Wireless do when main competitors Bell and Telus announce iPhone plans? It announces a new BlackBerry phone, the Curve 8520 also known as the Onyx in some markets. Yes, you’re not mistaking, this phone is already available in the USA. In fact it has been available all summer long so we’ll completely understand if Canadians decide to wait for the 9700 Bold 2 or the Storm 2 to arrive instead of going for the Onyx.

Don’t get me wrong here, the 8520 is a great smartphone that comes with plenty of features ready to serve you faithfully whether you choose make this Curve a professional or a business phone. But Rogers is simply a little late to launch it considering that hotter RIM phones are about to be launched south of the border by at least three of the Big Four: AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

So what does Rogers have to offer? The Canadian carrier will sell the Curve 8520 for $99.99 provided that you choose a new 3-year voice and data contract of at least $45 per month. A simple math calculation says that you’ll be paying at least $1,720 for the Curve 8520 over the next three years. Are you prepared for that?

Rogers is also offering you support for the Rogers TalkSpot service. For $15 per month you’ll be able to make unlimited calls in Canada over Wi-Fi which is a great feature that will save to some money on the long run.

Last, but not least, here are some of the most important features of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 just in case you’re not familiar with it yet:

• 320 x 240 display
• Full-QWERTY keyboard
• optical touchpad
• 2-megapixel digital camera with video recording
• 512MHz processor
• 256MB Flash memory
• 3.5mm stereo headset jack
• microSD/SDHC memory card slot support for up to 16GB cards
• Wi-Fi support

I didn’t forget to mention 3G support! The Curve 8520 simply doesn’t come with 3G capabilities. You should really consider this aspect of the matter in case you’re about to get into a 3-year new contract from Rogers. You’ll want to have a phone with at least 3G capabilities in two years from now when others will play with LTE handsets!