Forget RIM’s previous whack-a-doodle touchscreen efforts — the clicky-screened BlackBerry Storm or the chubby BlackBerry Torch slider. The latest touchscreen BlackBerry could bring us a design that’s easier to swallow, by simply adding touch to the iconic Qwerty ‘Berry.
Photos of the phone, which is codenamed ‘Dakota’, were leaked on the Boy Genius tech blog. The Dakota looks similar to the Bold 9000, which is good news, since that was a favourite of many a CrackBerry addict, despite its hefty size.
The Dakota will reportedly have a 2.8-inch screen that packs in 640×480 pixels, which should make it even more stunning than the Bold’s namesake screen.
Other rumoured specs include a 5-megapixel camera with an LED photo light, 4GB of memory, 768MB of RAM and support for tethering over Wi-Fi. It could also have NFC, the wavy-wavy touchless communication system that’s on the Google Nexus S.
We think bringing touch to the tried, tested and adored traditional BlackBerry layout is genius. But the Dakota will keep things ticking over with the BlackBerry 6 OS, like on the Torch, rather than a phone version of BlackBerry’s latest operating system, as seen on its PlayBook tablet.
There’s more to life than trying to drag BlackBerry kicking and screaming into the touchscreen age, however. The Boy Genius also leaked news of the next generation of the BlackBerry Curve, which is codenamed Apollo.
It’s reported to have 7.2Mbps HSPA, which is a nice addition to a product line that’s only just discovered 3G. A 480×360-pixel display and 5-megapixel camera could also be on board, as well as an 800MHz processor and 512MB of RAM.
But we’re most excited about the Apollo’s pared-down looks, if the leaked rendering can be taken seriously. It looks like RIM has staged a chrome intervention and agreed to cut down on the shiny stuff.
Are you tempted by the sweet juices of these latest ‘Berrys? Let us know in the comments.