RIM's BlackBerry 8300 received, photographed

You know there's nothing we adore more than snapshots of our favorite gear that we sadly can't touch just yet, and the BoyGenius himself has snapped up the elusive BlackBerry 8300 just days after codename "Daytona" first hit the 'net as a plainly labeled evaluation unit. Reportedly, the 8300 is a hair slimmer / smaller than the 8800, features an "outstanding" integrated speaker, and touts a much more manageable and responsive keyboard to boot. Interestingly, his unit didn't seem to sport video recording nor WiFi (bummer), and it was constructed primarily of plastic and soft rubber accents, which apparently added up to a fairly stylish device. The built-in OS was AT&T branded, but did feature a spell checker, fullscreen mode for playing back videos, and the ability to "create your own folders on the home screen and move any applications in and out of those folders." Not much nitty gritty beyond that, but be sure to click on through for a few closeups, and hit the read link for the full rundown of snapshots.

[rener @ Mar 10th 2007 3:52PM]

When did Blackberry start making Treo????

[Kevlar @ Mar 10th 2007 4:18PM]

The moment RIM thought you might not notice.

[Revrant2394 @ Mar 10th 2007 11:48PM]

When they started fretting over another NTP reaming using their own product.

[DaMaDo @ Mar 10th 2007 4:39PM]

Pics next to an 8800?

[Eamon @ Mar 10th 2007 4:49PM]

I love BlackBerries, but I can't imagine moving to a non-touchscreen device. It's a totally underrated feature.

[chazzzzy @ Mar 10th 2007 5:41PM]

Eamon, a well designed operating system allows you to operate without touching the screen.. which is why the Blackberries are so much better than other PDA's.

Why on earth would you want to have to use 2 hands to operate a device and you can use one with the trackball, etc.

I don't have a touchscreen computer, and I would hate it if I had to touch my computer screen when I wanted to do things.

[Andrew Hillman, Andrew Hillman @ Mar 10th 2007 6:04PM]

Looks cool however the newer blackberries are not as durable as the older ones the plastic is not very solid. So I don't understand why there not made to be more durable?

Andrew Hillman

[mike10010100 @ Mar 10th 2007 6:42PM]

pretty awesome! going to see if i can trade out my own. never knew that blackberry's had touchscreens.

[Craig @ Mar 10th 2007 7:01PM]

Agree with chazzzzy, touchscreens are entirely overrated. Phones need to be built for one-handed operation, if only to decrease the number of traffic fatalities.

[Muneer @ Mar 10th 2007 7:21PM]

Does he have some rare disease that causes purple spots to form on his pinky finger?

[nikster @ Mar 10th 2007 11:37PM]

dude! talk about sweaty little hands...

i would sweat too if i had my hands on such a hot device.

[JOkazaki @ Mar 11th 2007 8:41AM]

Come to Verizon!

[Miacol @ Mar 11th 2007 1:14PM]

I am not sure why RIM released the 8800, this is the device that should have hit the market 3G data, camera with flash, plus all the great things of BlackBerry. Now if they can only get ringtones to work properly and have the Blackjack Music ID feature, I would be so there, so for now the Motorola Q9. Chazzzy is right a great device does not require touchscreen, that's why I use the Smartphone Mobile edition instead of the full device. Oh by the way JOkazzaki, this is a GSM phone, tell Verizon to go GSM and u might get it.

Let see who can do better the Morotola Q9 vs. the BlackBerry 8300, I am definitely getting one of these two great device.

[Eric @ Mar 22nd 2007 2:57PM]

Boy Genius has a video demo of the 8300 over on his Brightcove channel.

http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=663791191&channel=626917614&lineup=-1

[xjonnXquestx @ May 14th 2007 8:00PM]

Does anyone have a clue when the Black Berry Curve 8300 might be coming out in the states?