Want to get your hands on the hottest new smartphone coming out of Waterloo, Ontario? Want to try your hand at that new trackpad that replaces the iconic trackball? Want to do it for free? Vodafone sure thinks so and that’s why it’s ready to give you the BlackBerry 8520 for the whopping price of free.

We had already known that Vodafone UK would be picking up this new BlackBerry, but we didn’t know too much about pricing. Over the weekend, the BlackBerry 8520 hit the retail channels for Vodafone and it came with a very pleasant surprised for cash-strapped smartphone enthusiasts.

There is a catch, of course, because it’s not like they’re just throwing boxes of these things into the crowd and hoping that the recipients sign up for a plan with them. Instead, you’ll need to waltz over to a Vodafone UK location and sign up for a monthly plan of at least 25 GBP.

That’s still a relatively small price to pay to get your hands on the newest BlackBerry, even if it is a decidedly basic BlackBerry. Some features include the QVGA display, trackpad, QWERTY keyboard, microSD slot, WiFi, Bluetooth, and 2-megapixel camera.

Source: Crackberry