The Blackberry 7200-series smartphones

Dublin Core

Title

The Blackberry 7200-series smartphones

Subject

hardware: smartphone

Description

Between 1996 and 2004, Research in Motion (RIM, Waterloo, Ontario) released several generations of wireless communications devices: the Inter@ctive 800, 900, 850, and 950 two-way pagers, the RIM Wireless Handsets 857 and 957 as well as the BlackBerry 5000- and 6000-series smartphones. By 2004, RIM was a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. By the end of that year, the Blackberry wireless platform (the Blackberry Enterprise Solution that featured integrated hardware, software, and service) was adopted by thousands of corporations and the company reported over two million subscribers worldwide.

The continuously intensifying competition in the smartphone market (from companies such as HP, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, and Sony-Ericcson) resulted in RIM's new lines of smartphones that incorporated more technically sophisticated solutions and offered more attractive industrial designs. Within a short period of time, starting from the mild-2003, RIM introduced the 7200-series and the 7100-series of smartphones, the latter featuring new sleek and stylish designs matching the ones offered by RIM's competitors.

The 7200-series of smartphones was initiated by the introduction of the Blackberry 7210 in the mid-2003. It delivered the same popular communications experience as the previous 6200 models with the added benefit of a high resolution color display. The 7210 was followed by the 7230, 7280, and 7290 smartphones. From the hardware and software point of view, they were mostly identical, but supported different connectivity bands (see Supported GSM/GPRS Networks and Coverage table below).

While the 7210 was supporting only two frequencies and single markets, the 7230 and 7280 were tri-band handhelds, and the 7290 was a quad-band phone designed for business customers who want to stay connected while travelling internationally enabling both domestic and international roaming in the majority of GSM markets worldwide.

Finally, in 2005, the 7200 family was further expanded with the introduction of the Blackberry 7250 for dual-band 800/1900 MHz CDMA2000 1X and cdmaOne networks, and the Blackberry 7270 for secure enterprise communication over a wireless local area network (WLAN).

Technical Specifications for the Blackberry 7210, 7230, 7280, and 7290:
  • processor: ARM 9EJ-S Core, 32 bit
  • memory: 16 MB flash and 2MB SRAM (32MB flash and 4MB SRAM in model 7290)
  • display: high-resolution full-color display, 240x160 pixels, 65,000 colors
  • keyboard and controls: 33-key QWERTY-style (backlit), mouse-type scroll wheel
  • ports: USB
  • SIM interface: support for 3V SIM cards
  • modem: embedded RIM modem
  • networks: see table below
  • battery: lithium ion, removable, rechargeable

External Design:
  • housing: palm-held, plastic
  • size: 11.3cm(L)x7.4cm(W)x2cm(D)
  • weight: 136g (139g for the 7290 model)

Main Features:
  • phone, email, SMS, browser, attachment viewer, and organizer applications
  • email account compatibility: integration with existing enterprise email account or up to 10 personal/business email accounts
  • designed to work with BlackBerry Enterprise Server supported by: v. 2.1 or higher for Microsoft Exchange, and  v. 2.0 with Service Pack 2 or higher from IBM Lotus Domino
  • user interface: icon and menu driven
  • notifications: tone, vibrate, on-screen, or LED indicator (user-configured)
  • configurable options
  • handheld security: password protection and keyboard lock
Software:
  • RIM BlackBerry OS, v. 4.0
  • RIM Blackberry Desktop Software 3.6 or higher
  • The BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE)

Supported GSM/GPRS Networks and Coverage:

7210 7230 7280 7290
850 MHz, Canada and US X X
900 MHz, Europe\Asia Pacific X X X
1800 MHz, Europe\Asia Pacific X X X
1900 MHz, Canada and US X X X X
The museum has a Blackberry 7230 and 7290 with manuals and Desktop Software.

Creator

Research in Motion

Date

2003--2005

Coverage

world, 2003-

Files

BB7290_small.jpg

Citation

Research in Motion , “The Blackberry 7200-series smartphones,” York University Computer Museum Canada, accessed March 29, 2024, https://museum.eecs.yorku.ca/items/show/316.

Output Formats