Blackberry 95XX series: All the same hardware?

bajanbastard · #1 01-02-2009 -

I was just always under the impression that the 9500 and 9530 were two different phones. With the common belief that the 9530 is the 9500 with a CDMA radio added. With the news of the 9520 coming to Rogers sometime early this year i'm still toying with the idea of getting the Storm now or wait on the 9520.

So i was just browsing the Blackberry site and to my surprise the specs of the 9500 and 9530 are the same. (Scroll down and you'll see they both have the CDMA radio)

This begs the question is the 9520 just a Storm without the Wi-Fi lockdown? (Speculation) IIRC the Storm was supposed to have Wi-Fi. When you think about it, it would be WAY easier and profitable on RIM's part to build one Storm model the 95XX series with the Wi-Fi, CDMA, etc and then the carriers can use whatever software to disable the features they don't want in the phone.

Discuss.........

banthon · #2 01-02-2009 -

You were right with your original assumption

9500 and 9530 ARE different to each other when it comes to the supported radio standard:
9500 is for GSM based networks while 9530 is for CDMA

9520 will be the GSM-based Storm including WiFi (which wasn´t physically included in both 9500 , 9530)

You can tell what kind of device it is from the model number

xx00, xx10 and xx20 are GSM-devices
xx30 are CDMA-devices
xx50i are iDen devices

planneau · #3 01-02-2009 -

Quote:

Originally Posted by banthon

You were right with your original assumption

9500 and 9530 ARE different to each other when it comes to the supported radio standard:
9500 is for GSM based networks while 9530 is for CDMA

9520 will be the GSM-based Storm including WiFi (which wasn´t physically included in both 9500 , 9530)

You can tell what kind of device it is from the model number

xx00, xx10 and xx20 are GSM-devices
xx30 are CDMA-devices
xx50i are iDen devices

Yes I agree. Each new model number has something new or different than the other. Even thought the base components are the same, they are different.

For exampl: 8100 pearl; 8110 with Wifi, 8120 with wifi and the memory card slot on the outside than behind the battery.

banthon · #4 01-02-2009 -

Quote:

Originally Posted by planneau

Yes I agree. Each new model number has something new or different than the other. Even thought the base components are the same, they are different.

For exampl: 8100 pearl; 8110 with Wifi, 8120 with wifi and the memory card slot on the outside than behind the battery.

Yep.

But 8110/8120 /8130 were the follow Up (Next-gen) Device from Pearl 8100

8110 included GPS
8120 included WiFi
8130 included GPS with CDMA

besided those differences they are identical to each other

bajanbastard · #5 01-02-2009 -

Quote:

Originally Posted by banthon

You were right with your original assumption

9500 and 9530 ARE different to each other when it comes to the supported radio standard:
9500 is for GSM based networks while 9530 is for CDMA

9520 will be the GSM-based Storm including WiFi (which wasn´t physically included in both 9500 , 9530)

You can tell what kind of device it is from the model number

xx00, xx10 and xx20 are GSM-devices
xx30 are CDMA-devices
xx50i are iDen devices

Don't just take my word for it look at the specs. Both the 9500 and 9530 are GSM based and have the CDMA radio. The only difference is that the 9500 uses the SIM and the 9530 uses the CDMA radio on their respective networks.

I understand the XXXX layout for the devices but it doesn't look to be that way for both the 9500 and 9530. Its the same device just using different networks.

banthon · #6 01-02-2009 -

Quote:

Originally Posted by bajanbastard

Don't just take my word for it look at the specs. Both the 9500 and 9530 are GSM based and have the CDMA radio. The only difference is that the 9500 uses the SIM and the 9530 uses the CDMA radio on their respective networks.

I understand the XXXX layout for the devices but it doesn't look to be that way for both the 9500 and 9530. Its the same device just using different networks.

I know that the Specs for 9500 and 9530 are the same because they ARE the same in (lets say) 95% of the hardware. But the radio module including the wole software stack is different and that´s what´s important.

The 9520 is completely NEW hardware: a WiFi module is integrated into the 9500 core device

Are there and xx30 devices on the market which have WiFi integrated ? afaik not (I must confess I live in Europe and usually do not have to deal with other networks than GSM)

bajanbastard · #7 01-02-2009 -

Yes you're correct. The main question i'm asking is really can WiFi be carrier locked like people are claiming? I'm not even sure the software is different the OS for the 9500 and 9530 seem to be the same, sharing the same COD files etc. I saw pics of a 9500 that was updated with the .85 9530 OS the person just did some kind of tweaking to get it to work.

banthon · #8 01-02-2009 -

9530 und 9500 are the same except for the radio hardware module (if you open the devices you can see the difference)
9530 OS can´t be installed on 9500 without replacing the radio stack files with the ones from 9500 OS.
WiFi can´t be locked down by a carrier - if it´s physically included in the device you can actually see it by opening the device. And I can tell there is NO WiFi in 9500 and 9530 but there is in 9520.

Wifi could be hiddenby leaving out the wifi stack from the OS but why would a carrier do this ? I´d grab the OS from a different carrier and upgrade it.

bajanbastard · #9 01-02-2009 -

Ahhhh i see. So the specs on the site are incorrect? Ok i'll wait on the 9520. Thanks for the info :thumbsup:

**ranxoren** · #10 01-02-2009 -

Quote:

Originally Posted by banthon

9530 und 9500 are the same except for the radio hardware module (if you open the devices you can see the difference)
9530 OS can´t be installed on 9500 without replacing the radio stack files with the ones from 9500 OS.
WiFi can´t be locked down by a carrier - if it´s physically included in the device you can actually see it by opening the device. And I can tell there is NO WiFi in 9500 and 9530 but there is in 9520.

Wifi could be hiddenby leaving out the wifi stack from the OS but why would a carrier do this ? I´d grab the OS from a different carrier and upgrade it.

100% correct - great way to sum it up.

EricaJ1073 · #11 01-02-2009 -

I have both the 8100 and the 8120. Here's the break down:

8100: No WiFi, MicroSDHC is under the battery which can be a PITA to get out if you get a new card.

8120: WiFi, external MicroSDHC. The only real PITA for me is getting the SIM card out of the phone. I discovered this the day I got mine as I was needing to get stuff off the 8100 and had to move the SIM card back to the 8100. I almost broke the SIM card getting it out of the 8120. I have purposely switched back and forth between my 2 Pearls just to see if I could find a method for easier SIM card removal LOL

ldondysh · #12 02-08-2009 -

Quote:

Originally Posted by banthon

9530 und 9500 are the same except for the radio hardware module (if you open the devices you can see the difference)
9530 OS can´t be installed on 9500 without replacing the radio stack files with the ones from 9500 OS.
WiFi can´t be locked down by a carrier - if it´s physically included in the device you can actually see it by opening the device. And I can tell there is NO WiFi in 9500 and 9530 but there is in 9520.

Wifi could be hiddenby leaving out the wifi stack from the OS but why would a carrier do this ? I´d grab the OS from a different carrier and upgrade it.

And how would one edit the radio stack files on the 9530 to replace them with the 9500???