On Tuesday RIM and AT&T formally announced the latest BlackBerry handset and it’s called the BlackBerry Torch. It’s BB’s first slider smartphone, and it comes with a full QWERTY keyboard BB users are accustomed to. Let’s run through the specs, shall we? The Torch packs a 3.2″ (360 x 480) capacitive touch screen display, 5.0MP camera with flash, auto focus, image stabilization and geo-tagging, built-in GPS and 802.11n WiFi, quadband 3G radio, and 512MB of Flash memory with 4GB on-board and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot for additional storage (up to 32GB supported). It measures 4.4″ x 2.4″ x 0.57″ when closed and 5.8″ x 2.4″ x 0.57″ when the slider keyboard is out. Face buttons include start/end calls, main menu, back, and an optical trackpad. The Torch will be the very first BB to run the just detailed BlackBerry 6 operating system. This means it will include the fast Webkit browser (for which it was named after–RIM recently bought a company named Torch Mobile), integrated social feeds, a new multimedia experience, and universal search. The phone will be made available to purchase on August 12 for $199.99 on a new two-year contract with AT&T at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, RadioShack, and AT&T stores.
The brand new form factor is extremely compelling. It’s the new OS, which seems to be following the pack and not making its own strides, that I am worried about. Look in the gallery below for press shots and after the break for the PR and two “launch videos”.
[Via Engadget]
