Well this morning was interesting. More videos of soon to launch BlackBerry devices have been leaked out earlier. The first video is an overview of the BlackBerry 9800 Slider/Torch. The second video covers the flip up BlackBerry 9670 Clamshell. Last but not least, we have the BlackBerry 9300 Curve Kepler captured as well. Overall the BlackBerry devices look pretty hot, especially the Slider 9800. Os6 is quite an upgrade from the previous operating system for BlackBerry users, let’s seee how RIM’s smartphone holds up against Apple’s iPhone and the Google powered Android by Motorola.
What do you’all think of the BlackBerry 9800 Slider/Torch? The touch is quite responsive, and fully functional as well. The device is still super QWERTY, and as you can see, The screen looks amazing, crystal clear. The screen looks larger in picture but empirically, its a little bit smaller. It is still a good size, and the landscape and portrait mode look fine. The headphone jack has been moved to the right side, the flash and camera position is the same as the BlackBerry Bold 9700. The slider is expected to have a 5.0 mega pixel camera, so we’ll see how that actually looks once the device is released. The micro usb is still used in the 9800, and as been moved further down. It has a sim card slot as well as space for an sd card. Overall, the device looks awesome. I am not a slider fan, but these photos have me thinking twice about owning one of these bad boys once they get released.
Continue reading for the next two videos. >>>
Hardware:
Starting with the left side of the device, it has the headset jack on the top followed by the micro usb charging port beneath it. The Clamshell 9670 has the sd card slot on the bottom left side, which reminded me of my previous original Bold 9000. To the right of the device are the volume buttons, which can also change your track when listening to music through the media player. Below the volume buttons is the camera, or right side conveniene key. No keys on the top of the device such as mute or lock can be seen, so there is nothing to officially confirm, but what can be seen, is the full spacious QWERTY keypad. There is a lot of breathing room so typing on it will be much more efficient. It looks so spacious, the mute and lock buttons can be implemented on top of the call/hang up buttons. The outer and inner screens look large enough to enjoy browsing, emailing, and multimedia usage.
Software:
Moving on to the software of the device, one can notice the new 6.0 operating system instantly. It looks smooth and responsive with 8 icons on the front, which can be customized. I noticed the time has been moved from the middle of the screen, to the left and under the battery level. The sound profiles are beneath the time. The layout throughout the menu options have been spread out making the text easier to read. Rim has really made an effort to reach out and attract different users. The reason I say this is because when the options are opened, a small profile icon appears next to the description. For example, next to connectivity, appears a small antenna. Next to keyboard, there is an icon of a small keyboard. For spell check, an icon appears with abc’ and a checkmark and so on. The media player has a new look as well which is not bad. Tracks can be changed using the cover scroll feature, which can be similar to the ipod touch media player. One thing that I would have really liked to see, is how the music player functions when the device is closed. I really wanted to see the functionality of the device once it was closed, as well as what appears on the outer screen. The new 5.0 mega pixel camera has me curious. I want to see how that looks, but i guess the best way to review that would be to actually get my hands on a BlackBerry 9670.
The BlackBerry 9300 should have Curve enthusiast happy because the sporty new BlackBerry has wi-fi and will support the optical trackpad as well. As of now, this prototype is running 3G (European Bands), but by the T-Mobile marking, we can generalize that the 9300 should be expected to hit North America soon. Not too many upgrades have been done to the device, but the upgrades that were made will satisfy users . New media control keys on the top of the device, so when you’re out getting your exercise or just jamming out, you can conveniently control all of your music. The 9300 captured on video is running the latest OS 5.0, so the new OS6 on the new device is still questionable.
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