BlackBerry 9000 – Myth or Reality?
The BlackBerry 9000 series, fast becoming a ‘white unicorn’ in BlackBerry circles, has finally received some substantiated information. Well, it appears that we may first be underwhelmed prior to being overwhelmed with our pipe dreams of the "Perfect BlackBerry".
The BlackBerry 9000 device (not series) has been confirmed with screen size of 480 x 320, although the physical dimensions are unknown at this time. Think of this device as the elder sibling to the BlackBerry 8320. Like it’s small screen counterpart, it will operate with a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio (850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz) and will feature 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi capabilities. This will be a full QWERTY device, as well.
The BlackBerry 9000 will feature the same general OS platform, although it will launch with version 4.3.2. Coincidentally, OS 4.3.2 will potentially be in the future roadmaps for all 8000 series devices, sans the 8700 family (although that may change).
To recap, Research In Motion will soon launch the BlackBerry 9000 handheld, which will feature a larger screen, a new OS update, most likely a new full QWERTY keyboard layout (which may or may not be a touch screen keyboard), but without HSDPA or UMTS capabilities. This could launch as soon as January and as late as April, although we’ve heard whispers it might even be officially announced by RIM today during their quarterly earnings report. Stay tuned!
no 3G ?
talk about milking EDGE right to the bitter end !
n hsdpa radios comone this is getting old how do you expect to blow out the next generation of apples i brick?
Is it really possible that this will come out before the 8330. I mean how hard is it to put a CDMA chip in a Curve.
Its the TouchBerry!!
w00t!
@cruss it takes a full year for a cdma or grybrid caounterpart to caom out a after the gsm version
Still waiting for the BlackBerry Over9000!!! device.
Myth, No 3G, and the same old pictures. Its a myth
well thats not much of an upgrade. Is this some kind of in between device to bridge the gap or what?
no 3G, now thats funny. and they really need an OS upgrade atleast in speed and look.
this might be a first, I think most BB fans are hoping that jibi’s info is wrong. never thought that before.
Well, this was somehow full of words yet completely uninformative. Way to go BGR!
Funny how you still have not figured out “europa” nor “lancer” yet.. despite the fact you have previously had the Blackberry.alx files from 4.3.1. too look at lmao, the 9000 series will be real, but nothing compared to the hyped up versions you’ve been coming up with here.
DOA!!!
This device, as described, will be Dead On Arrival.
Can’t anybody at RIM spell 3G?
The device will (if they do a physical redesign) cool, but without 3g even in its lowest forms it will not be able to satisfy many of the BB faithful. I would, as i have said before, drop any of the current devices out there for a nice 3g BB.
Good grief, RIM. Even Palm has beat you to the 3G race. If you don’t get it together, there may be even more comparisons to Palm in the near future…
Off to purchase the Motorola Q9h I had been holding off on…
At what point do the bad Blackberry 9xxx keyboardless photoshops come down?
Kudos for skunking almost all of the blog world. They fell for it hook, line and sinker. Damn – some of them are still reporting the prototype as gospel!
Half of them didn’t even bother to read your subsequent warning that what you’d posted was a photoshop concept of what you thought the Blackberry would be.
And are you sure on those dimensions? Doesn’t that mean the Blackberry is getting wider — after spending years getting to a slimmer form factor.
Boo on the ship date prediction. You have a pretty good chance of being right with the wide berth you’ve given us.
The only way to have a screen that large and also a non-touch screen qwerty keyboard is to have a slider. Maybe like the Ocean where you get the entire keyboard.
This is the kind of news I like to see on BGR. You come through in spades, Jibi.
As to the article, I’m a little surprised to see RIM planning to take it so slow after delivering such crushing results in the Q3 earnings report. Their stock is flying high in aftermarket trading with them easily blowing away analysts predictions. Problem is after a quarter like that, a phone release that is similar to the last will not bring the kind of results they are looking for. I think the Curve series is solid enough to stand on that they can leap frog to the next series and not need such a padded transition.
Times change. RIM, you are officially the BIG DOG. Don’t be afraid to howl at the moon ;0)
RIM – what in the world are you doing? Isn’t it time to stop playing CATCH UP? You’re the only real player in the industry that continues to ignore 3G.
You’re releasing a phone that basically competes with the iPhone that was first announced ONE YEAR ago. I bet that silly iPhone gets 3G before you get your act together.
I’m glad you’re doing so well financially, but you’re about to become another company that took its market position for granted. Playing catch up and ignoring what your customers are begging for isn’t the best formula for continue success.
As someone who’s been nursing their cell phone along for almost a year now, I couldn’t be more disappointed that you’ve forced me to move on and consider other hardware.
Get it together.
3G = poor battery life, which is a major advantage of blackberry over WM. BG has the specs right but the pic is wrong…
3G = faster web / email. A monochrome screen would also save battery life, but technology advances… and so do MOST cell phone makers.
actually Europa is 8130
8120 is Comet and the lancer is correct above
so what there will be an edge version of the new series, is not like 3g wont follow soon after.
rim just likes to have variety of options.
personally i have no need for 3G, so maybe i would go for a non 3G version with all the other upgrades.
Maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t the VZW 8130 I’m using to post this comment right now, that runs Rev. A, a 3G device? Sure, there isn’t a GSM version of 3G out there, but there’s options.
@ sean: I simply do not notice the difference in 3G speed on the various devices. I run BBC on a tilt and the performance is static in my opinion. The primary advantage I would see in a 3G BB is tethering, not apps on the device.
That picture just makes me nauseous!!
@ Mike
Tethering and browsing would be the advantage of 3G.