BlackBerry Curve 9360 Has NFC Built In? (Pictures)

We mentioned when RIM announced the BlackBerry Torch 9810 & 9850/9860 that we were surprised they did not have NFC built in like the Bold 9900 and 9930. We just assumed that meant that previous reports of the BlackBerry Curve 9360 packing NFC were also incorrect. One of our new tipsters did some sleuthing and found that the BlackBerry Curve 9360 actually HAS NFC according to its OS. Odd right?

 

As you can see in these pictures the BlackBerry Curve 9360 reports back that it has NFC along with the same options as the Bold 9900. Also notice the little NFC lightning bolt style icons in the picture above. The main oddity is that it does not have the NFC antenna in the battery door like the Bold 9900. I am not sure what to make of that. Let us know what you think!

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NFC Only Coming in BlackBerry Bold 9900 & 9930 OS 7 Devices?

I am not sure how we all missed this before but previous spec leaks for the BlackBerry Torch 9810, 9850, and 9860 said that the device had NFC. I noticed in RIM’s announcement this morning that NFC was nowhere to be seen for these devices which had me wondering. So I checked back to the FCC filings for the 9900/9930, 9810, and 9850/9860 and noticed something interesting. When looking over the Test Report for all 3 only the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 had a logged Near Field Communications test performed. The product pages also only list the 9900 as having NFC for “accessory pairing and smart tag reading/writing.”

Check out the filings for yourself:

• BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 FCC Filing
• BlackBerry Torch 9810 FCC Filing
• BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860 FCC Filing

I am not sure why RIM would not want this feature to have parity across all next gen BlackBerry devices but it has me scratching my head wondering why. I know the NFC is built into the battery cover for the 9900 but I just assumed they managed to hide it better in the 9810 and 9850/9860. What do you think of this? I was planning on getting the 9900 (GodBerry) either way but now it makes it truly the flagship BlackBerry.

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