The BlackBerry 8980, code-named Atlas, is something we’ve been hearing about for nearly a year now without any official announcement, but has shown up recently bearing China Mobile branding. Considering the BlackBerry 8980 will be amounting to little more than a Bold 9700 with a Curve keyboard and minus the 3G, maybe it’s not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but for China Mobile, whose only recent device is the 8910, this could be a nice update.
The biggest addition will be Wi-Fi support, which was previously locked-down due to regulatory restrictions. Maybe RIM jumped through the right hoops for the Chinese government to allow them to sell a Wi-Fi enabled phone, which would be par for course considering RIM’s in the habit of co-operating with market gatekeepers.
The camera is labeled as 3.2 megapixels, and it stands to reason most of the specs will probably be similar to the 9700: HVGA display, GPS, 624 Mhz processor, and 256 MB of RAM. A lot of people have a soft spot for the Curve’s keyboard, and prefer it over the Bold’s fretted design; I almost wish the 9780 made the same keyboard switch, if only to mix things up a bit more from the 9700.
[via BerryCN]