RIM’s torch lights up the way for more sliders
Research In Motion has announced today their BlackBerry Torch 9800 - their first device with a touch screen and a keyboard, that slides out from underneath the display. The new handset arrives with the latest BlackBerry 6.0 OS, which will first be seen on the 9800 along with a Webkit browser.
BlackBerry’s Torch has a 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen, along with a standard RIM Qwerty keyboard that’s accessible from sliding the screen upwards. On board is a 5 megapixel camera, with the phone having WIFI and quad-band GSM capabilities, in a 4.37-inch tall phone or 5.83-inches when opened up.
The BlackBerry 9800 also ships with OS 6.0, which brings a whole host of new features into the handset - most notably, universal search, social networking feeds, WIFI tethering, a Webkit browser with pinch-to-zoom-in features. The new OS will be made available for the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and also the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100 series.
The Torch first launches with AT&T in the USA, where future unveilings of UK and Europe networks will be announced over the next few weeks with the possibility of other slider handsets on the horizon.
New BlackBerry handsets could be on the way
Research In Motion and the American mobile phone network AT&T has jointly sent out an invite, to an event being held next week in New York where its rumoured the BlackBerry slider 9800 or even the 9300 will be announced.
One Mobile Ring has been in touch with RIM in the UK to see if such an event is being mirrored in Blighty, where no details of such an event can be disclosed at this time.
The BlackBerry 9800 has been leaked for some months now, with images and video cropping up on the Internet showing the large Storm sized touch screen being slid down vertically - to expose a keyboard, which almost has the appearance of the newest Bold 9700.
The other phone that might be unveiled could be their 9300 handset, which also has seen leaked images and video appearing online of late only with higher frequency. This handset appears to be a cross between their low budget BlackBerry Curve 9250 model from last year, with the size and feel of their BlackBerry Curve 8900 from a few years back.
We’ll bring you more news of the announcement next week, with a hope there will be a similar UK unveiling in much the same way as RIM has done before with the Storm 2 and more recently, the Pearl 3G.
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