WES 2010, the biggest Blackberry event of the year, has already made some waves. Early today RIM announced the launch of the Blackberry Bold 9650 and the Blackberry Pearl 3G. A 3G Pearl, really? You would think that it was 2007, making an announcement of a 3G capable phone, but RIM is just now adding 3G support to its Pearl 9100 line. Actually its getting a little more than just 3G, its the first Blackberry to have 802.11 N WiFi support. RIM is launching two updated Pearl devices, the 9100 and 9105. Both devices will see the updated 3G support and the wireless N support, but also will have GPS, 256MB of flash memory and, microSDHC support. They will both be powered by a 624MHz processor.
The design behind the Pearl line-up was to make a Blackberry with all the bells and whistles in smaller, slim design. As you can see the Pearl is a lot slimmer than normal Blackberry, thanks to the SureType keypad, which is a 20 key design. It basically places two letters on one button. The 9100 will continue to use the SureType keypad, but the 9105 is getting a more traditional keypad. It’s almost a standard 14-key layout, with sort of a predictive text software incorporated into Blackberry’s OS. There is no word on any U.S carriers that will offer the new Pearl 3G line, but there was announcement that Canadian carriers Rogers and TELUS, will offer both Pearl handsets, in a variety of colors.
The long awaited Blackberry Bold 9650 is a perfect example of RIM ability to update it’s hardware wonderfully from generation to generation. Now that RIM has axed the Blackberry Tour, it seems that the 9650 will be taking its place. It’s almost identical to the Tour in respect to its hardware, but the 9650 will offer a nice new optical pad that replaces the troubled trackball that was in the Tour. That isn’t all the Blackberry Bold 9650 brings to the table, it will support 3G speeds, and WiFi capabilities. Just like the Tour it will have 2.4″ inch 480 x 360 resolution display, but it will be the first Blackberry to offer OpenGL support for 3D graphics. The Bold 9650 will also see its memory doubled from 256MB to 512MB.
The Blackberry Bold 9650 will be the first BlackBerry Bold for CDMA networks, as it also was announced today that Sprint (also some Verizon rumors) would be offering the new Bold 9650 on May 23rd, for $199.99 with a new two-year service agreement, after a $100 mail-in rebate. I’m sure both the Pearl 3G and Bold 9650 will make loyal Blackberry owners very happy. For more info you can head over to RIM’s product page for the Pearl and Bold series of phones. And stay tuned to BlogsDNA for any more major announcements from WES 2010.
[via RIM Newsroom]
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