[radcamdvd]

Look for the 7290 to make it's debut with T-Mobile within the next 60 days.

[NJBlackBerry]

Hopefully sooner. Their engineering guys have been testing it on their network for some time now.

[sbagdan]

I have a 7290 running on T-Mobile!! Now I cheated, I bought the Cingular (which came UNLOCKED FROM CINGULAR!) and put my T-Mobile SIM into it! It works GREAT!!! I have been running it for about 3 weeks now with ZERO issues (except the ocasional need to reboot!).

I wonder if T-Mobile will change the 7290 at all?

[wariscoming]

Did the data work using a T-Mobile Sim?

[Mark Rejhon]

Yes, data works perfectly! Just make sure it's a BlackBerry-enabled SIM card.

Be warned, future 7290's might be locked to Cingular.

[wariscoming]

Just make sure it's a BlackBerry-enabled SIM card.

Well I had a T-Mobile 7230, sold it and got a Sidekick II (huge mistake, I know). Then I called T-Mobile and had them update my account to reflect that i now had a Sidekick. Can I get an unlocked 7290 and call T-Mobile back and go to a BB data plan?

[Mark Rejhon]

Yeah. You can just easily pretend you got a 7230.

Just make sure it's fully unlocked (IMEI unlocked, SIM unlocked, PIN unlocked). Cingular 7290's currently come unlocked, but they may come locked in the future. If you get a new unlocked 7290, you should be safe, but if you get a used 7290 that's unlocked, make sure the original @blackberry.net account is removed from the original system, or you'll get the "PIN lock" issue.

The same problem applies to all BlackBerries, not just the 7290. The 7290 just "looks" like yet another BlackBerry to T-Mobile's system, and it is typically not necessary to even let T-Mobile know which Blackberry you are using

[wariscoming]

This is very helpful. Two more questions: You say future 7290's might be locked. If I purchase a new 7290 today, how can I be certain that it will be unlocked? Also, what's the deal with OS 4.0 on the 7290's? Does the 7290 using 3.8 let you HTML browse w/ animated GIFs and send and receive picture attachements like 4.0 does?

[Mark Rejhon]

Locking is a Cingular specific issue. AT&T 7290 came locked, while Cingular 7290 came unlocked. But AT&T and Cingular have merged, so this could be a possible problem in the future. If you buy directly from Cingular, you just have to keep this in mind when buying a 7290, make sure you are able to return the 7290 if it ends up coming locked, or make sure that the 7290 is marketed as "unlocked".

OS 3.8 has most of the features of OS 4.0 so it should not be a problem. There is a new version of OS 4.0 for 7290 coming out later this month (or you can get the Hong Kong version of 4.0).

You cannot do picture attachments without BES, though you can do TXT/DOC/XLS/PDF attachments. You have to pay $10-$25 per month for Hosted BES 4.0 with BlackBerryOS 3.8/4.0 in order to view picture attachments. Alternatively, use a third party email viewer like Reqwireless EmailViewer to view HTML stuff in emails. HTML and Animated GIF's are supported in the BlackBerryOS 4.0 browser, even on BWC, from my tests.

Edit: New BWC upgrades now allows you to view JPG/GIF/TIFF attachments without upgrading to BES!

[Inphektion]

As of now and since they have been selling them all cingular 7290's are unlocked. So buy anyone you want you'll be fine dropping your tmo sim into it.

[wariscoming]

Will I have full HTML browsing capabilities on the 7290 using a T-Mobile SIM card? I had these capabilites using the "RBRO" trick on the 7230 so I am assuming the same for the 7290. Correct?

[Mark Rejhon]

RBRO is not a trick available on the 7290.

Fortunately, T-Mobile enabled the web browser if I remember correctly (right?), and if I am wrong, you can always download Reqwireless Webviewer from http://www.reqwireless.com ...

Note: New BWC upgrades now allows you to view JPG/GIF/TIFF attachments without upgrading to BES!

[mark.hogan]

I'm a T-Mobile 7230 / BWC user, with full web access...far as I can tell. I wish it were 4.0 so I could jav when needed, but I'll wait for tmo to release it.
So Mark ... I believe tmo is allowing full web browsing to their customers.

[DJJeffT]

Any new news on a 7290 wiht T-Mobile?

My current contract is up, so I am hoping this comes out soon and I can get a good deal somewhere.

Jeff

[MattBerry]

i was told mid march by data support

[rsun]

Our TMobile Rep told us that March 1st it should be available for purchase

[Bear]

Originally Posted by wariscoming

Just make sure it's a BlackBerry-enabled SIM card.

Well I had a T-Mobile 7230, sold it and got a Sidekick II (huge mistake, I know). Then I called T-Mobile and had them update my account to reflect that i now had a Sidekick. Can I get an unlocked 7290 and call T-Mobile back and go to a BB data plan?

That's kind of what I did.

When I moved to a data-centric device, I was sold the SKII as being the "best device for my needs".

I put up with it for about a month and then tossed it in favor of a 7230 (though had I known that the 7290 was coming...)

They were really good about switching me over and it only took about 30min. all told. I even got a service credit fort the month I had the SKII because the bloody thing just didn't work.

[Bear]

Originally Posted by rsun

Our TMobile Rep told us that March 1st it should be available for purchase

Don't suppose they mentioned a price, eh?