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The Carphone Warehouse and RIM Launch Sunset-Coloured BlackBerry Pearl 8120 Smartphone in the UK


WEBWIRE

London, UK and Waterloo, ON - The Carphone Warehouse, the world’s leading independent retailer of mobile phones and services in the UK, and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today announced availability of the BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8120 smartphone from The Carphone Warehouse stores across the UK, and online at www.carphonewarehouse.com.

A sleek, small and elegant smartphone, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 provides the powerful functionality users have come to expect from the BlackBerry wireless solution, coupled with rich, new multimedia features and Wi-Fi® connectivity support. Capturing video clips and still images is a breeze with the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone’s 2 megapixel camera. These images and video clips can also be easily shared with friends and family using email, web upload or MMS; alternatively users can save and store these files, together with their favourite music, on a microSD card that easily slides into the side of the smartphone. These new features, along with a large, bright high-resolution display add to the renowned BlackBerry® smartphone experience for email, phone, messaging (SMS, IM, MMS), web browsing, organiser and other mobile applications.

Sunset finish
Available from The Carphone Warehouse in a stylish sunset finish, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone maintains its ultra-sleek design, measuring only 107mm x 55mm x 14mm and weighing approximately 91g.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 provides an exceptional user experience through its intuitive trackball navigation system and RIM’s popular SureType® keyboard system. SureType -- which allows a narrower handset design while maintaining easy phone dialing and message typing -- has been enhanced with word completion, easier editing of misspelled words and a built-in spell checker.

Connectivity Options
In addition to quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support, The Carphone Warehouse customers can also enjoy the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 with faster web browsing and expanded wireless data coverage via Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) networks. To meet various security requirements for users accessing a Wi-Fi connection, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is compliant with Wi-Fi security protocols including WEP (Wireless Equivalency Protocol), WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA2.

Multimedia To Go
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 comes with a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom and enhanced flash. The new camera also supports video capture in two resolutions: 240x180 or 176x144 for sharing via MMS.

The media player now allows users to create and edit playlists right on the handset. Alternatively, users can manage their media files from their PC with the Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry®, which is included with the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software. The Roxio software was developed with Sonic® and is based on the award-winning Roxio Easy Media Creator® 9, making it easy for users to search for media files on their computer, view and organise them, create MP3 music files from CDs, add audio tags and album art, create playlists and convert files for optimal playback.

Roxio Photosuite® 9 LE is also included – this comprehensive tool makes it easy to create photo albums and edit pictures. Pictures can be cropped, rotated and straightened, redeye can be removed, and brightness, contrast and saturation levels can be adjusted.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 supports the Bluetooth® stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP) and comes with a standard 3.5 mm stereo headset jack so users can plug in their preferred headphones or speakers. The handset also provides the convenience of an externally accessible microSD/SDHC memory card slot for additional storage of music, videos and pictures.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 also supports high-speed USB for transferring files between the handset and a PC at data throughput rates of up to 10MB/sec.

Enhanced User Interface
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 features an enhanced user interface and integrates a new font rendering technology that displays characters beautifully, with greater legibility at even the smallest point sizes. The new technology is evident throughout the visual interface, complementing the new look of the BlackBerry email client, calendar, address book, task list, memo pad and web browser, while also enhancing other applications.

The BlackBerry® Browser is further improved with a new “Page View” option that displays a full web page on the screen along with a magnifying glass that allows the user to quickly and accurately point and zoom in on a specific area of the web page. Users can also press and hold the trackball to toggle between the “Column View” (which presents the web page in a continuous column for easy reading and scrolling on the go) and the “Page View.”

Advanced Phone Features
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 offers many convenient phone features including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Bluetooth® 2.0 support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits and Bluetooth peripherals, dedicated ’send’, ’end’, and ’mute’ keys, smart dialing, speed dialing, conference calling, call forwarding, a low-distortion speakerphone for hands-free conversations and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.

The smartphone also includes new features that enhance phone audio quality including enhanced background noise, wind and echo cancellation for better performance in loud environments like airports, restaurants or busy downtown streets. An ’enhance call audio’ feature also allows the user to boost the phone audio’s bass or treble while on a call.

Corporate and Personal Email Support
The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 is supported on BlackBerry® Internet Service, giving users access to up to 10 supported work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), as well as BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, enabling advanced security and IT administration within IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novell® GroupWise® environments.

Availability
The sunset coloured BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone is available from The Carphone Warehouse in the UK immediately. Customers may visit any one of the 785 stores in the UK or go online to www.carphonewarehouse.com



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