Cingular and RIM announce BlackBerry 8700c

Today, Cingular Wireless and Research in Motion introduced the , the first EDGE-enabled and Intel-powered BlackBerry device. The 8700c will initially be available exclusively from Cingular starting on November 21, at a pricey $299.99 with a two-year contract (excluding monthly data plans). So what do you get for those three Benjamins? Well, obviously, you get the benefit of EDGE data speeds, which is complemented by the new 312MHz Intel PXA901 processor. In short, you should enjoy faster Web browsing, attachment downloads, and performance. The quad-band 8700c also sports 64MB of flash memory, 16MB of SRAM, a speakerphone, integrated Bluetooth, and a 65,000-color QVGA screen. And about the screen: The 8700c has autosensing technology that automatically adjusts both the LCD and the keyboard backlight, depending on your environment--outdoors, indoors, a dark room, and so forth. And what would a BlackBerry be without a QWERTY keyboard and e-mail support, from which you can access up to 10 accounts? All of this looks promising, and it could offer another fix for CrackBerry addicts, so check back soon for our coverage of the 8700c.