Just minutes ago, Research In Motion finally made the BlackBerry Bold 9780 official. You can pick up RIM’s “boldest BlackBerry” starting in November, like had been rumored. It will launch globally next month and we’d bet that every carrier that offers the Bold 9700 will carry the refreshed model. The specifications are just as had been reported: same basic handset as the Bold 9700, 512MB RAM, 5-megapixel and BlackBerry OS 6 are the upgrades. We’ve been using a 9780 for a couple months and we definitely think the added RAM coupled with RIM’s latest operating system works well, but we can’t notice many differences from our 9700 running BlackBerry OS 6. Full press release after the break.
UPDATE: T-Mobile has announced pricing and availability — the Bold 9780 will launch on November 12th for $129.99 with a new 2-year contract.
RIM Introduces the New BlackBerry Bold 9780 Smartphone
Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today introduced the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9780 smartphone – the newest addition to the BlackBerry Bold series of smartphones. Featuring a premium and iconic design with an incredibly easy-to-use keyboard and optical trackpad, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is elegantly styled and packed with advanced communications and multimedia features. It is also the first BlackBerry Bold smartphone to come with the new BlackBerry® 6 operating system.
“We are very excited to introduce the BlackBerry Bold 9780 featuring the new BlackBerry 6 operating system,” said Carlo Chiarello, Vice President, Product Management at Research In Motion. “This new model builds on the highly refined mobile experience that BlackBerry Bold users already know and love and delivers a wide range of enhancements including a rich new user interface, a fast and powerful WebKit-based browser, broadly improved communications and multimedia capabilities, an incredibly useful Universal Search feature and a high quality 5MP camera.”
The BlackBerry Bold 9780 is a compact and stylish smartphone that offers a compelling blend of features, performance and design. It supports 3G networks around the world, includes Wi-Fi® with support for carrier supported Wi-Fi calling (UMA where available) and GPS for location-based applications and geo-tagging. It comes with a 5 MP camera with a full complement of high-end features including continuous auto focus, scene modes, image stabilization, flash and video recording. The BlackBerry Bold 9780 also includes 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB of additional storage.
BlackBerry 6 is a new operating system that retains the familiar and trusted features that distinguish the BlackBerry brand while delivering a fresh, approachable and engaging experience that’s powerful and easy to use. It integrates a new and rich WebKit-based browser that renders HTML web pages quickly and beautifully for a great browsing experience. The browser offers fluid navigation using the handset’s optical trackpad, includes tabs for accessing multiple sites simultaneously and provides a zoom feature that can intelligently auto-wrap text in a column while maintaining the placement of a page’s key elements for easier viewing.
Additional features of BlackBerry 6 include expanded messaging capabilities with intuitive features to simplify the management of social networking and RSS feeds (Social Feeds), and integrated access to BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger), Facebook®, Twitter™, MySpace™ and various instant messaging applications on the BlackBerry Bold 9780 smartphone. Its enhanced multimedia experience rivals the best in the industry and includes a dedicated YouTube app. It also features redesigned Music and Pictures applications and a new universal search feature that allows users to more effectively search for content on the smartphone as well as extend their search to the Internet or to discover applications on BlackBerry® App World™.
The BlackBerry Bold 9780 smartphone will be available from various carriers around the world beginning in November. For more information, please visit www.blackberry.com/bold.
