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Sprint started carrying Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry 7250 today, the third vendor (and second mobile operator after Verizon Wireless) to do so in the United States. ISP Earthlink, which began offering cellular services in September 2005, added the wireless handheld to its handset lineup back in April.

The CDMA BlackBerry 7250 offers identical features to the GSM/GPRS BlackBerry 7290 we reviewed a few months ago.

As with other recent RIM devices the BlackBerry 7250 includes a built-in phone and a QWERTY thumb keyboard. It adds Bluetooth for use with a wireless headset and hands-free calling for a car kit, a brighter 240 x 160 pixel resolution color screen, and more memory (32MB of flash memory and 4MB of SRAM ) to the mix.

Of course, you get RIM's famous push-based e-mail synchronization, plus HTML Web browsing and Personal Information Management (PIM) applications. E-mail attachment viewing includes support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, WordPerfect, ASCII, JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG and TIFF files.

The BlackBerry 7250's removable/rechargeable lithium battery powers the handheld for 3.3 hours talk and 8 days of standby time. It measures 4.5 x 2.9 x 0.9 inches and weighs 4.9 ounces.

Sprint's BlackBerry 7250 comes equipped with support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0. This enables it to tightly integrate with Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise and work with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based, wireless access to e-mail and other corporate data.

Hosted e-mail is available via the BlackBerry Internet Service for individuals and smaller businesses. The service enables users to access up to ten corporate and personal e-mail accounts from the BlackBerry 7250.

Sprint is selling the BlackBerry 7250 for $490.

There's a $150 rebate for those who sign up for a new line of service with a two-year contract. One year gets you a $100 discount. There's also a $98 ‘special discount’reduction for which some customers may qualify.

Keep in mind that you'll need a voice plan to use the BlackBerry 7250 as a phone and a data plan from Sprint for Internet and e-mail access.