Blackberry 9800 - Release date - August 15th

HANDS-ON REVIEW @CNET.COM

))While this particular vid is not the best demonstration of the 9800, it is one of the first.  And it seems that this is a preproduction model.((

Research in Motion, Blackberry's parent company, is finally gracing us with a new touchscreen device on August 15 on AT&T, a stated by the BlackBerry Partners Fund’s co-managing partner, John Albright, who spoke at the paidContent Mobile Conference in New York:

Now what has been rumor for some time that RIM is readying a touchscreen BlackBerry device with a slide-out physical keyboard, gadget sites have been referring to the device as direct competition with Apple’s iPhone and Android smartphones.  Though there is no official surname as of yet, (ie Curve, Storm, Tour) the designation is Blackberry 9800 and some are calling it the Bold or a new name, Torch.

The new device will be the first to run on BB's new OS 6.  As you can see in the vid, there is an actual touchscreen and not what we were subjected to with the Storm.  The new OS 6 looks like it was designed avid BB users and customizers who like to streamline their device.  The integration of text message layering and multiple social net sharing has been something I personally have had to do through 3rd party applications.  So for someone to be able to pick up this phone and run with it in a manner that I do my own, I'm happy to see that happening.  What is also a standout point for me is the 5 active preferences system available on the 9800.  What this does is allow you to quickly setup your homescreen with "frequent", tagged or short cutted "favorites", "media" centric, "downloads" or "all" applications and programs.  This is really cool, because if I'm a users that's not proactively setting up my phone, I can put it to "frequent" and my 9800 will be smart enough o keep those programs on my homescreen.

Another new feature is "Quick Access" to the Connections, Alarm and Options. By just tapping the top bar on your homescreen, a drop down menu will appear allowing you to change them quickly.  And by tapping the Notifications bar, all of that information will pop up as well.  

The new operating system also comes with a powerful Universal Search application that functios in much the way Google Chrome does for your pc and searches your device, the internet and Blackberry App World for your entered query.  


Tech specs: 5 megapixel camera, 4GB on board memory, 512MB RAM (???), and WiFi 802.11n.  I am hella mad about the low 512MB of RAM, are you meaning to tell me that RIM is going to try and run this bright and shiny new OS with that?  Perhaps it's not as demanding a program as I imagine it could be and well optimized for it. 
I'm not afraid to admit, I feel like an ass for my rant about the Iphone 4's measily 5mp cam.




Here's BlackBerry's 'drool on this for a while' vid.