The Bold 9900 is probably the phone that’s going to get the most attention, being the latest in probably the most successful series and is certainly going to draw some parallels to the iPhone 5:
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No change in style for the phone, which is no surprise, but more significantly, this is one of the thinnest Blackberrys ever at just 10.5mm thick. Big changes afoot in the screen as well. A 2.8″ screen hosting a resolution of 640×480 is incredible – over double of the first models and considering DPI, almost up there with the iPhone Retina Display.
The processor has been beefed up to 1.2Ghz, as well as the camera now going to 5MP to make tech-wise the best Bold yet. Release date is already confirmed at the end of August 2011, but we’d expect the price to have parity with the most expensive models out there, probably a smidge under £500 SIM-Free.
There were two Torch models announced too. This has been a product line that caters more towards leisure users, or those that haven’t got as much of a need for the QWERTY keypad. Two distinct models have been produced, and it could be said that they’re both pretty different, with each catering to a different market niche. First up is the Torch 8910.
Specs-wise, this is pretty much on a par with the BB 9900 – with the same processor, camera and OS, we can expect the performance to be similar. The only main difference is that in design – with the keypad recessed and operated by a slide. The effect of this is to give a little bit more room to the screen – but not too much – 3.2″ means that the phone still has a relatively small footprint. Rumours are that the screen resolution will be the same as the BB 9900, which gives a poorer DPI (but still above many phones now). Again, release date is set for the end August, but price is likely to be a little above the Bold, if past experience is anything to go by.
The last phone is fairly interesting too. The Torch 9860 probably comes closer to any of the Android-style phones like the Samsung Galaxy S than ever before, with the biggest screen seen yet (3.7″) on a Blackberry device:
Whilst admittedly, we aren’t crazy on the design for this, it’ll be interesting to see how this fares in the market, as it’s also based on similar tech to the two phones above. In a concession to the screen, the phone will be purely touchscreen only with no keypad, so it’s expected that some skinning will have to be done on the OS to make this more suitable for touch. As a result, this phone is scheduled to come out a little later – October 2011 to be precise. Pricing is interesting for this too. It’s arguable that RIM are the leaders in the QWERTY high-end market, but a phone such as this commands little advantage other than the BB OS – we’d expect a little cheaper pricing – perhaps sub £400 SIM-Free to get this moving.
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