AT&T BlackBerry Curve 8900 on sale May 22nd

AT&T have announced that the BlackBerry Curve 8900 will go on sale in the US on Friday May 22nd.  Priced at $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, the Curve 8900 is the slimmest full-QWERTY BlackBerry to date, and packs quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE data, WiFi b/g and GPS, together with a 3.2-megapixel camera, 480 x 360 display and microSD/SDHC card slot (happy with cards up to 32GB).

The carrier first announced the upcoming 8900 back at the start of May, though did not confirm any specific release date beyond an "early Summer" launch.  May 22nd might be pushing that definition, but we won't argue with the Curve 8900 dropping earlier than expected.

While we're yet to try the AT&T Curve 8900, we did spend some hands-on time with the T-Mobile USA version of the smartphone back in January.  While it lacks 3G, it's nonetheless a very usable messaging phone, with an excellent hardware QWERTY keyboard and solid battery life; AT&T estimate roughly 5.5hrs of talktime or 15 days of standby.  Those buyers who choose an unlimited AT&T data plan will also get free WiFi hotspot access at nearly 20,000 locations across the US.