The BlackBerry Electron (8703/8700/8707) is a discontinued
BlackBerry smartphone 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
BlackBerry Electron and other
BlackBerry 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, and
USB 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, 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