BlackBerry 8220, a flip phone, will officially debut this week

Research in Motion will officially unveil the BlackBerry 8220 at a CTIA trade show, which starts tomorrow.

Did you know that this new BlackBerry is a flip phone? That’s sorta unexpected from prim and proper RIM.

CrackBerry already has a pre-release model, and this video gives a brief overview of some of the smartphone’s key features. What’s unknown, though, are pesky things like price and release date.

The BlackBerry 8220, something of a Pearl successor (in spirit?), will first be on T-Mobile in the U.S., according to previous rumblings in this space.