Starting today, the new BlackBerry Bold is available in all AT&T stores through an exclusive partnership. The device can be bought for $299 under a two-year contract with the carrier. The smartphone was designed to provide cutting edge functionality and performance and also show off a great design.

"The BlackBerry Bold is the best BlackBerry smartphone ever," explained Jeff Bradley, Senior Vice President of AT&T, extremely enthusiastic about the release. "Customers can have a superior experience in accessing email, making a phone call, browsing the Web or performing myriad other data functions."

The phone, released by Research in Motion provides global 3G, a 2.0 megapixel camera with built-in flash, zoom and video recording, Wi-Fi, a built-in speakerphone, keyboard backlighting, a 480 x 320 (217 ppi) pixel screen and built-in GPS. It has a newly designed full QWERTY keyboard and offers 1 Giga Byte of on-board memory that can be expanded with a microSD up to 16 GB. It features an advanced media player for music and also a optimized Web-browser.

The new BlackBerry is pre-loaded with CV (Cellular Video), Mobile and AT&T Mobile Music service with XM Radio Mobile and MusicID, AT&T Navigator and YellowPages.com. Blackberry Maps will also be available for a $9.99 monthly fee.

AT&T announced that the free Wi-Fi access will include “Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and thousands of other locations.” The service targets more than 17,000 hot sport all across the nation and the BlackBerry Bold will be the second device to use it, after the iPhone.