Look out Nokia E6! RIM’s first touch and type smartphone is now official.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 (the Bold 9930, which we featured a lot in the past, is actually its CDMA counterpart) has just been announced at the BlackBerry World conference in Florida.

This QWERTY smartphone packs a 2.8-inch touchscreen, a 5-megapixel with 720p HD video recording, dual-band WiFi (802.11b/g/n at 2.4GHz, a/n at 5GHz) connecitivity, Bluetooth, NFC support, and 8GB of on-board memory. The Bold 9900 also marks RIM’s entry into the GHz smartphone market as it boasts of a 1.2GHz processor under the hood backed up by 768MB RAM. Oh, and before I forget, this is also one of the slimmest Bold smartphones to date measuring in at a mere 10.5mm thin.

Apart from its hardware treats, this ‘Berry is also one of the first to come loaded with RIM’s new mobile OS, BlackBerry 7. Previously referred to as BlackBerry 6.1, BlackBerry 7 offers an enhanced browser with HTML5 support and Just-In-Time Javascript for speedy performance, voice-activated universal search, and BlackBerry Balance, a neat new feature that separates your work-related content from your personal content.

Sadly though, BlackBerry 7 will only be available on new devices. Unlike BlackBerry 6, it won’t be released as an update to current handsets. That said, this should be a pretty good reason for you to start selling your pre-loved BlackBerry so you can upgrade to the Bold 9900 once it hits local stores.

No word yet on when that will exactly happen or its possible pricing, but rest assured, we’ll be here to give you guys a heads up once we get the hold of the necessary info.

Press release follows:

RIM Introduces New BlackBerry Bold Smartphones

New BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Smartphones are the Thinnest and Most
Powerful BlackBerry Smartphones yet, Featuring the Renowned BlackBerry Keyboard
Together with a Brilliant Touch Screen and the New BlackBerry 7 OS

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today unveiled
two new BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphones. The high-performance BlackBerry Bold 9900 and
9930 smartphones feature a stunning and iconic design that integrates an incredibly easy-to-use
BlackBerry keyboard with a brilliant, high resolution, capacitive touch screen. These exceptional
smartphones are built on a new, performance-driven platform powered by the BlackBerry®
7 operating system and designed to deliver the ultimate in communications, multimedia and
productivity for users around the world.

“The new BlackBerry Bold smartphones and BlackBerry 7 OS are inspired by millions of
customers around the world who want the ultimate combination of performance, functionality
and style,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion. “These fully-loaded
and beautifully crafted smartphones offer a highly refined user experience with blazingly fast
performance, a brilliant touch screen and an outstanding typing experience.”

Thin, Sleek, Iconic Design

Distinguished by an iconic design and the industry’s best keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold
9900 and 9930 smartphones feature the premium materials and finishes that characterize the
BlackBerry Bold line. Both models have a lustrous exterior with a brushed stainless steel frame
and a high-gloss glass-weave backplate. They are also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones
yet, at only 10.5mm. The quality materials and optimized design of the new BlackBerry Bold
smartphones are instantly evident when held in the hand.

Performance-Driven

These BlackBerry Bold smartphones are built on a new performance-driven platform featuring a
1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics™ touch screen, and support for high speed 4G/HSPA+ wide
area wireless networks.

The Liquid Graphics touch screen, a key new feature powered by BlackBerry 7, delivers fast,
smooth performance for highly responsive touch-based navigation, web browsing, pictures, video
and graphics intensive games*. Offering up to 60 frames-per-second performance with instant
UI action/response, Liquid Graphics gives customers a visually rich and immersive experience
that’s responsive to the touch. In addition, the smartphones feature brilliant displays with an eye-
popping 287 dpi to deliver crisp, stunning visuals.

The new platform also provides support for 4G networks; the 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity,
and the 9930 supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA+ global roaming on GSM/UMTS
networks.

NFC

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones include built-in support for NFC (Near
Field Communications), a new technology that will enable many rich and exciting experiences.
Through NFC, users will be able to, for example, pair the BlackBerry Bold to an accessory or
read information such as a web link from smart tags by simply tapping their BlackBerry Bold to
an NFC tag (eg. Smart Poster).

Augmented Reality

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a built-in compass (magnetometer)
to support location-based services and augmented reality. The compass will be integrated with
BlackBerry® Maps and APIs will allow third party developers to take advantage of the new
functionality within their applications. The new smartphones will also include Wikitude, the
leader in mobile augmented reality, which overlays contextual information on what the user sees
through the smartphone’s camera viewfinder.

HD Video

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones support up to 720p HD video recording
and playback. Users can easily share their videos directly from the smartphone or sync videos,
as well as music and photos, to their computer using Media Sync in the BlackBerry® Desktop
Software.

BlackBerry 7

The BlackBerry 7 OS is designed to power the new performance-driven BlackBerry Bold
platform. It provides an easier and faster user experience with improved browsing, voice-
activated searches, the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as
well as additional personal and productivity apps out of the box.

The BlackBerry Browser has been significantly enhanced in BlackBerry 7. In addition to the
general performance gains of Liquid Graphics, which helps deliver faster rendering and seamless
panning and zooming, the BlackBerry 7 browser includes a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript
compiler to improve the load time speed of web pages. The new browser also includes support for
additional HTML5 elements, such as HTML5 Video.

Building upon the Universal Search feature introduced in BlackBerry 6, BlackBerry 7 expands
the capability to include voice-activated search. This new capability makes it even easier and
more convenient to search for content on the smartphone or web.

BlackBerry 7 also integrates BlackBerry® Balance™, which separates personal content from
corporate content on the smartphone, giving users the freedom and flexibility to use the handset
for personal email, Facebook®, Twitter®, multimedia, games and other apps while satisfying the
very real need for corporate data to be highly secure and manageable. BlackBerry Balance works
in conjunction with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server 5.0.3, which provides a number of unique
IT policy controls such as wiping only corporate data from the handset or blocking work related
content and apps from being copied or forwarded to personal contacts.

With BlackBerry 7 on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, users will also get the
full version of Docs To Go® with all “premium” features enabled out-of-the-box so that users can
easily work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone. Docs To Go also
includes a native PDF viewer.

Availability

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers
around the world beginning this summer.

For additional information please visit www.blackberry.com/touchbold

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Specifications

• 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g
• 2.8″ capacitive touch screen display – VGA (640×480), 287 dpi resolution
• Ultra-easy QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad
• 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM
• 8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards
• NFC technology
• 5.0 MP camera, supports 720p HD video recording
• Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor
• Built-in GPS / aGPS
• Dual-Band Wi-Fi® – 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
• Wireless Network support:

o 9900: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
o 9930: Dual-Band CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A, Dual-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE

• 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery
• BlackBerry 7 OS

Allan David

Online, Allan’s got you covered as far as news (and some reviews every now and then) goes. Offline, you’ll see him either sweating it out in the badminton courts or dining out in one of the new restos around town. His favorite noodles: cold soba.

email: allan@technoodling.netwebsite: http://oasis1.wordpress.com