The BlackBerry Electron (8703/8700/8707) is a discontinued

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

developed by Research In Motion Ltd and released in 2005.

Launch

The Blackberry Electron was announced in Q4 of 2004. It was formally launched in the fall of 2005. The gross profit reported by RIM's income statement, as of March 2006 (about four months after the release of the Electron), was US$1.37 billion.

Manufacturing

Most of the materials that make up the

Electron and other

devices, such as flexible circuit boards, were manufactured in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Hardware

Body

Dimensions: 110 x 69.5 x 19.5mm (4.33 x 2.74 x 0.77 in) Weight: 134 g (4.73oz) Keyboard: QWERTY

Display

Technology: LCD Display Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels Color Depth: 16-bit (65K colors)

Sound

Alert types: Vibration; Polyphonic, MP3 ringtones Loudspeaker: Yes 3.5 mm jack: No

Memory

Card slot: No Internal: 64 MB storage, 16 MB RAM

Battery

Battery type: Lithium-Ion 1100 mAh battery. Stand-by time: up to 450 hours Talk time: Up to 4 hours

Software

Interface

The BlackBerry Electron features a graphical interface and uses menus and icons for navigation.

Music and ringtones

All 8700 series phones come with MP3

ringtone A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...

support. Saved songs can be played by clicking on the media icon.

Network

The 3 versions of the Electron differed in network support the original (8700) model supported Quad-band GSM ( EDGE/

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Insti ...

). The 8707 (AKA "UMTS Electron") added 2100MHz UMTS 3G and the 8703 model was designed for US CDMA operators and supported both 850MHz and 1900MHz CDMA2K (EvDO/1xRTT) the 8703 also has A-GPS support, which was not present on the GSM/UMTS variants. All variants have

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

, and

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...

facilities. The quad-band network (on the 8700 and 8707, but not the 8703) gave it an edge over its competitors, such as the

Palm Treo The Palm Treo (stylized as Trēo) is a discontinued line of smartphones originally developed by Handspring, which was bought by Palm, Inc. They were then manufactured and maintained by Palm, Inc. Treos had a number of integrated features such as ...

, as it was the best network available for international travelers in 20052006. The Electron uses a mini-SIM.

References

External links

BlackBerry Smartphones

{{Research In Motion phones Mobile phones with an integrated hardware keyboard

Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...