BlackBerry Curve 8520 announced by Airtel for India

Airtel, India’s largest mobile carrier (about 100 million customers) has announced the upcoming availability of RIM’s brand new BlackBerry Curve 8520 (also known as BlackBerry Gemini).

Indian customers will be able to buy the smartphone starting August 7, at the retail price of 15,990 INR (about $336).

The 8520 is the only (for now) BlackBerry Curve to have an optical trackpad instead of RIM’s traditional trackball.

The smartphone also features

* Full QWERTY keyboard
* Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity
* 2.46 inch QVGA display
* Wi-Fi
* Full HTML browser
* Advanced email capabilities
* 2MP camera
* 3.5mm headset jack
* 1150 mAh battery (providing up to 4.5 hours of talk time, or up to 17 days of standby time)

“We believe that the BlackBerry Curve 8520 will appeal to young professionals, students and a broad spectrum of retail customers who want the exceptional mobile experience for messaging, social networking, email, music and entertainment that you get from a BlackBerry smartphone,” declared Raghunath Mandava, Chief Marketing Officer, Mobile Services, Airtel.

Tomorrow, August 5 (two days before being released in India), the BlackBerry Curve 8520 will debut in the US, launched by T-Mobile.