Reasearch in Motion (RIM) is currently showcasing a range of exciting new developments with its BlackBerry brand. Just a minute ago RIM announced the BlackBerry Torch 9800, its first slider touch smartphone running the new BlackBerry 6 mobile operating system.
The Torch 9800 is RIM’s attempt at rivaling the iPhone and the emergence of Android and packs in quite a few features:
- Full-QWERTY keyboard and large touch screen display
- High resolution capacitive touch screen (480 x 360 pixels, 3.2″diagonal measurement) with accelerometer
- HSDPA support (3.6 Mbps)
- Built-in GPS and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)
- 5 MP camera with flash, autofocus, digital zoom, face recognition
- 512 MB Flash, 4 GB onboard memory, microSDHC memory card slot (up to 32 GB)
- 624 MHz processor
The specification isn’t bad for a modern smartphone, its a little underpowered when compared to the iPhone and the HTC Evo but RIM hope to tempt users with its new OS, named BlackBerry 6, which includes:
- Crisp, more immersive visuals, including new icons, graphics and animations
- New WebKit-based browser; high-fidelity and very efficient, with tabbed browsing
- Multi-touch support (e.g. pinch to zoom) while browsing, viewing photos, etc.
- Graphical, context-sensitive pop-up menus
- Redesigned core apps, plus a new multimedia UI and new apps for downloading podcasts, watching YouTube videos, and integrating RSS and social networking feeds
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 will launch exclusively with AT&T and will be available August 12th. Contract length will be 24 months and the handset will cost $199. Users can sign up for more information on the AT&T website, located here.
It certainly proves RIM isn’t going to allow Apple and Android to continue to steal away its customers, we wonder what the general public will make of the innovations coming out of the Canadian company.
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