Any insight into the 7520?
 

does anyone have any info at all about this rumored model?

UPDATE: Have heard this model will be black and blue....metal around the LCD instead of plastic, AGPS enabled but overall the same..

Would you please inform me about the 7520. Is it a new model? Who carries it? etc

i think the carrier is NEXTEL, just going off of the model number 75**. I have been keenly awaiting for a new blackberry for nextel...930 is gonna be heavy and a small screen, not to mention the instability!!

Re: Any insight into the 7520?
 

There should be something in the works, I think Nextel is the last of the carriers to add an updated model to the BB line of products and their also over due for something new. If and when I sure hope they finally move the PTT button to the side of the where it belongs not the top...

Re: Any insight into the 7520?
 

I could not agree more. The placement of the PTT button, and the external antenna are the only complaints that I have with my 7510. Trying to DC someone is extremely awkward.

Rumor has it Nextel will be the next US carrier to get the 7100... Probably 7100N if the naming convention stays the same. That's per a meeting I attended here with RIM and Nextel last week.

im not one for the new keyboard..call me old school...but i would vote for the old style...just would like a few enhancements that are in the 7100 series added to the 7510...maybe im alone on this...

Its a Rumour or you actually heard it at a meeting between RIM and Nextel?

I seriously doubt Nextel will be the next to get it, it doesnt really make sense, specially since RIM relies on Motorola for most of the chips that go into BB Nexel devices - which would make customizing the case much harder - specially when they have to have an antenna. Oh, Nextel is more of a business and government oriented carrier -not something the 7100 is really egared toward

Per the RIM rep... he wasn't allowed to say who was getting it after tmobile but his words at that meeting were... "I can't say who is getting the 7100 next, but I can say that out of all the carrier reps in the room today, those NOT present will NOT be getting the 7100 next..." Which left only Nextel...

I think that rep must have been joking with you then, theres no way that the next 7100 will be a nextel product, tmo and vodafone only have a limited headstart over the other carriers and you can be certain that their main rivals will have their version or some generic version for sale as soon as possible, especially if they have a chance of getting it in the shops before xmas.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the next carrier to launch a 7100 device was rogers tbh, they are in a market without tmo or vodafone and thus probably won't be limited by those deals.

I seriously doubt he would have said something like that jokingly. We have a potential userbase (blackberry alone) of about 5000 in my section alone, plus am in contact with most of the BB admins on Capitol Hill. Regardless how many units they have with us, he wouldn't put out false info or jokingly say something like that, especially with a few of my bosses in the meeting and two of our long-time nextel reps present as well.

I think reasoning behind it is that Cingular is so busy with the ATT merger and trying to push out the 7290, TMO is focused on the 7100, and nextel is actually starting to see a surge in the consumer market. I know of about 20 people that have upgraded to nextel blackberries just for the pda functionality, regardless of the dataplan. So it's not out of the question they would develop a consumer-based product for Nextel.

We'll see though...

What does it matter what cingular and att are doing, that would only affect the possibility of nextel launching the next 7100 in the usa, in case you haven't noticed there are a lot more countries that rim sell devices.

Like I said in my previous post, rogers is the most likely candidate for the next 7100 since they don't compete with either tmo or vodafone, but following as quickly as those initial two deal allow i would expect some european carriers such as o2 and tmobile in europe to launch 7100 devices since they will be competing with vodafone over there.

Another early adoptor is likely to be TIM an italian carrier since it was the first one to actually start selling the 7230 purely as a phone, so they are bound to like a more phone-like blackberry and they will want to compete with vodafone italy as well.

7520
 

I hope that Nextel will keep the keyboard as is. I have had my fill of T9 text input, smart Input or any other way to enter data via pushing the same key 2,3,4 times! It just sucks if you want to get a message to someone that contains more than three words. If Nextel is reading this here is what us who work in the field really would like to see in the 7520. GPS, its a must, if my 7510 had it I would throw my i730(which is a piece of junk) in the ocean. It would be nice to use Tel-Nav on the BlackBerry. Mil. spec case for the 7520, does not have to bullet proof but a little beefing the case would be great. Antena, not a problem, make it so you can switch between a collaspe to rubber duck (the phone is a radio gang, it needs all the gain it can get!) Screen, really does the job and saves on power drain. Push to Talk Button, agree with the group it needs to be placed on the side of the unit. Wifi would be nice but power drain may be too great. Bluetooth, mmmmm that brings about security issues, maybe. If anything, Nextel take a poll of your BlackBerry users, you could make alot of BlackBerry users Happy :D

I never understood why Nextel needs the big ugly antenna anyway. I know they use the IDEN standard, but should that make such a difference?

Nextel antena
 

Every cell phone out there is really a radio, Walkie Talkie if you like, they just happen to have a face plate on the front that looks like a phone. Nextel operates in or around the 860Mhz band area. Most other carriers operate in the 1900Mhz band or other bands. Hence the external antena is more effective than a concealed in the phone body type. Why people are hung up about the antena I dont know, but if you like one of those without the antena then its time for you to switch carriers. And all carriers have their good and bad, none of them are perfect, read the forums and see if there is something that fits your needs, and even than there will be problems some where with the service, after all, they all use radio. Good Luck.. :D

I actually have a 7230, with no antenna. Plenty of operators operate on 850mhz without an antenna, e.g., AT&T. I was just asking if there was a real technical reason why the Nextell BB needs and antenna over the let's say the AT&T on the same frequency. My understanding is 850mhz pentrates buildings better then 1900mhz which Tmobile uses. By that logic I would think tmobile would require an antenna, not Nextell. To me the antenna isn't really a big a deal, just curious more then anything.

antena
 

yes, some of the other services do use the lower portion of 850mz and dont have an external antena, and usally if you get to far away from the coast line you get poor service. If you looked at the wave length of 850mhz and 1900mhz you would see that the wavelength of 850 mhz is much larger and longer than 1900 mhz, just do a google search, type in wave length and you will probly find a site that shows what different frequences wavelengths look like. Have heard the samething about better building penertration by the 850mhz stuff versus 1900mhz. not so sure that really holds water as when I go into a building with alot of concrete and steel the signal goes away, along with the ATT and Cingular and Tmobile stuff. The best way to think about a wave length just think about CB radio, 27mhz, remember to 102 inch whips? thats about the length of one 27mhz wavelength. Anyway good chatting with you on the site and time to pull the plug and hit the sack.. THE WORK comes early in the morning. :D

Well if anyone knows why nextell requires antenna's I would be sure interested to find out, I doubt it's a technical reason, unless they have less towers or something like a greater distance in between towers then other providers...

Nextel Antenna
 

From what I have read it seems that nextel added the external antenna to there vesion of the blackberry because they wanted to give their users the best possible signal. Also from a couple of tests that I read on the internet it seems that in the 850 vs 1900 mhz tests there was no big difference. 850 mhz will penetrate wall slightly very slightly more, but neither pentrates walls well.

Hope this helps some.