Research in Motion has formally announced in a press release today the pending launch of the BlackBerry Bold 9000. Read More for complete details.
The BlackBerry Bold represents a massive undertaking by RIM regarding two long desired features in its line of smartphones, the combination of high-speed 3G W-CDMA access and a Wi-Fi radio. Previously, RIM would develop devices with Wi-Fi radios and slower GSM/EDGE access due to the previous throughput limitations found in older versions of the operating system and hardware.
The 3G radio found in the Bold also features triband access on the 850/1900/2100 bands with support for Japanese and Korean sub-frequencies, making this the first BlackBerry device with such support in the US. All of this was accomplished by the new version of the BlackBerry OS which has been refined and now sports version number 4.6 to reflect the major changes found in the device.
The Bold also represents a major change in terms of how multimedia is handled on BlackBerry devices. The device features a first in class HVGA (480×320) resolution landscape display which RIM describes as a “glass-fusion” LCD display to improve color saturation and brightness.
The device also features a 624Mhz processor 1GB of built-in storage with 128MB of RAM, and a microSDHC expansion slot, on top of stereo speakers, a 2.0 megapixel camera with video recorder and flash, Bluetooth 2.0 with stereo audio support, media player with equalizer, and a built-in GPS transceiver.
The last major change is the built in HTML web browser which has been rebuilt from the previous versions and now features desktop-style browsing and multiple layout options for the most convenience as well as built-in support for direct viewing of several media types within the application, as well as direct handling of downloads.
The BlackBerry Bold is expected to be available later this summer, and AT&T has been confirmed to be the exclusive carrier for the device in the US with no pricing information available at this time.
According to BoyGenius, this device will also sport the 1700 MHz 3G band for T-Mobile. Do your sources deny that?
Thanks.
Being that AT&T will have an exclusive on the device for the time being, I don’t doubt that there will be a version for T-Mobile featuring 1700Mhz support down the road. As of now however, unless RIM comes out with an official statement, I’d consider that a rumor for now until relevant FCC documents pop up.
As far as this version supporting 1700Mhz 3G, I didn’t see anything that alluded to it that supports the claim made by Boy Genius. If it wasn’t in the press release, its a pretty safe bet it’s not on the device