Research in Motion has announced two new BlackBerry devices today, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 and the BlackBerry Pearl 3G. The announcement comes a day before the company’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES), where it will show off further software and hardware developments. Both phones offer significant upgrades to their respective product lines.
The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a CDMA device that appears to be a bit of a souped-up BlackBerry Tour in both appearance and features. However, the phone trades the scroll ball for an optical trackpad, more device memory (512MB as opposed to 256MB) and the addition of Wi-Fi support for 802.11b/g networks.
Check out this video for the BlackBerry Bold 9650:
The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is an update to the immensely popular BlackBerry Pearl series, which combines BlackBerry functionality with a more traditional candy bar design. The new phone adds speed, more device memory (256MB), 3G support, GPS and an optical trackpad. The phone includes support for Wi-Fi 802.11.b/g/n networks and has a higher resolution 360×400 screen. The Pearl has always been marketed as a starter BlackBerry, or a BlackBerry for the non-business user. This is in part because the smaller size compresses the QWERTY keypad.
The BlackBerry Pearl 3G will be available in two models with different key layouts. The BlackBerry Pearl 9100 has the traditional 14-key layout while the Pearl 9105 has an expanded 20-key layout for an enhanced QWERTY experience.
This video showcases the new BlackBerry Pearl 9100 series. Is it just us or is this ad pretty similar to what Microsoft is doing for the Kin — sexting controversy aside?
Carriers and pricing details were not released, but thanks to press photos, we expect to see the BlackBerry Bold 9650 on Sprint for sure, and likely also on Verizon. The BlackBerry Pearl 3G series is a standard GSM-compatible phone, and thus we expect to see it on T-Mobile and AT&T in the U.S. and on most major carriers in Europe.
What do you think of the new BlackBerry phones? Does either model entice you to continue to use or switch to BlackBerry for your next phone purchase? Let us know
