Are you a fan of the touch and type combination of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 but fear it’s too pricey or wide for you? Fear not, as RIM has just announced a new BlackBerry Bold, the 9790, with a design more akin to the previous Bold 9700 devices.
You may recognise the look of this phone, and you’d be right to do so, as we have posted pictures of it before when it was codenamed the ‘Bellagio‘.
The Bold 9790 features the same style and form factor as the Bold 9700 from the front, though mixes in styles and features from several of RIM’s latest smartphones. For starters, this new Bold packs both the QWERTY keyboard you’ll find on all Bold models, and the touchscreen tech found in the 9900.
The four keys beneath the screen have also been changed, and now resemble those found on the Torch 9860, as single square buttons.
RIM have also utilised the same style as the Torch 9860 for the back of this new handset, with the same chrome accent running across the top of the camera. It looks very stylish, and is certainly one of the best design features of BlackBerry handsets recently.
“We are very excited to expand the BlackBerry 7 portfolio with the new BlackBerry Bold 9790,” said Carlo Chiarello, Senior Vice President, Handheld Product Management at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry smartphones offer a uniquely refined mobile communications experience that people love and we think many customers will be thrilled by the faster performance, beautiful touch displays and sleek designs available with these new BlackBerry 7 based models.”
Internally the new Bold 9790 isn’t too different from the recent flagship device, the Bold 9900. It packs a 1GHz processor, 8GB of internal storage, Micro SD card slot and NFC (Near Field Communications) Tech for wireless technologies.
As with all new BlackBerry smartphones of late, this one will run the latest BlackBerry OS 7 software.
Unfortunately the Bold 9790 won’t be making it into BBM-addicts’ hands until after Christmas, with a January 2012 release likely. We’re anticipating the handset to be offered free on contracts of £25 and up on most networks.
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