On the heels of AT&T's uninspiring BlackBerry 8820 comes what may be the hit BlackBerry— even the hit handheld—of the fall season. Today, T-Mobile announced the BlackBerry Curve 8320, which combines the popular BlackBerry Curve cameraphone with the ability to make calls over 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi networks.
The 8320's Wi-Fi calling feature is part of T-Mobile's Hotspot@Home system, which charges an extra $10 per month for unlimited calling from Wi-Fi areas. While you can use public unencrypted networks, call quality is much better at home using a specially-tweaked router that T-Mobile sells for $49 (with a $50 rebate, so it's essentially free). When I reviewed Hotspot@Home, I experienced trouble with handing off calls between Wi-Fi and cellular networks—but that was months ago, so I'm looking forward to seeing if handoffs have improved.