BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 Released by Virgin Mobile Canada

Are you looking to flip out over a brand new BlackBerry smartphone? Would you prefer to get said phone for zero dollars and zero cents. It looks like Virgin Mobile has you covered on both accounts.

Virgin Mobile Canada was recently acquired by Bell Mobility, so we could be seeing a greater number of handsets that will appear in both of their lineups. Starting this trend is the arrival of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 with Virgin Mobile Canada. This is the same Pearl Flip 8230 that I reviewed from Telus a short while ago.

As a quick refresher, this is the first (CDMA) BlackBerry smartphone that takes on the popular clamshell form factor. You get a SureType keyboard with keys slightly larger than the regular candybar Pearl, a 2.0 megapixel camera with video, internal 2.4-inch display, Bluetooth 2.0, microSD expansion, and the usual suite of BlackBerry productivity.

Lock yourself down to a three-year service agreement and Virgin will give you a Pearl Flip for free. Opt for a two-year, one-year, or 30-day agreement and the exact same phone will cost $299.99, $349.99, and $399.99, respectively. Can you tell that they’re pushing the three-year contract in anticipation of the upcoming competitors in the Canadian cellular market?