By Chris Eckerdt
Before the iPhone, there was the BlackBerry. Text messaging was new, and while everyone else was pressing the "5" button three times just to type the letter "L," BlackBerry users were already on the dedicated and full QWERTY keyboards, along with enjoying large full color screens and eye-popping hardware. Research in Motion's BlackBerry was on top for a long time, and even though its market share has dipped, BlackBerry still remains a popular device because of its advanced security systems.
Naturally, because of its history, there are a lot of BlackBerry hanging around, and even though they come with names such as Curve, Tour, Bold and Pearl, there are a variety of model numbers to confuse owners as to which type they own. Examples include Curve's 8330, 9330, 8520 and 9350 models.
In order to correctly identify your BlackBerry device, all you need is the four-digit model number that is unique to each style. To find the model number, take off the battery back of your phone, and removed the battery. You will find a label underneath with some information that looks like this:
You can ignore most of the writing on the label. Scan to the top middle where it says "BlackBerry." To the right of it, there's a four-digit number. This is the model number.
Now that we have the model number, the only other piece we need to properly identify the Blackberry is the service carrier. While there are special codes within the model number that can clue you in to what the carrier is, they aren't definite, but there is an easier way. Just look at the front of the phone. Here's an example of where the carrier is commonly located:
In this image, we can clearly see that this is a BlackBerry made for Sprint. Once you have both the model number, and carrier of your BlackBerry device, accurately finding a value for your phone is a breeze!
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