It seems as if the much anticipated launch of the Blackberry Pearl Flip is close at hand. Articles, rumors, unboxing videos and photos of the smartphone have started appearing on the Web, including those from the Boy Genius Report and PhoneDog.com, complete with T-Mobile packaging. Of course, the rumor that T-Mobile is going to launch the smartphone has been around for a while, its easy to assume that the launch will be sooner rather than later.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 was announced at CTIA Fall 2008 and is the first BlackBerry with a clamshell design. T-Mobile will be the first U.S. carrier to offer the model.