RIM has just announced the release of two new Blackberry devices – the Blackberry Bold 9650 and the Pearl 9100 3G. Both packing feature sets that are decidedly more social media centric marking RIM’s move to make its line of Blackberry devices more appealing to the social media savvy junior exec who’s more comfortable going to work with a shirt, jeans and sneakers getup rather than a full power suit.
More on the Blackberry Bold 9650 and the Blackberry Pearl 9100 after the jump.
Blackberry Bold 9650
The new Bold 9650 can be seen as the successor of the Tour and is in size, very simillar to the device it replaces; though a smidgen heavier. RIM is touting the new Bold as a “truly impressive communications, multimedia and connectivity experience” with easy mobile access to popular new media sites like Flickr, Facebook and MySpace. In terms of hardware, the Bold 9650 has a 2.44, 480×360 screen, a 3.2MP camera with flash complete with digital zoom, image stabilisation, autofocus and video recording.
The new Bold is in tune with contemporary offerings from RIM in that it has ditched the unreliable trackball with an optical trackpad for navigating in the OS along with the obligatory full-QWERTY keyboard. Connectivity wise, it packs WiFi b/g as well as bluetooth and support for UMTS/HSPA 3G networks. GPS is also standard.
Storage comes in the form of 512MB on board memory with a MicroSD card slot that supports up to 32GB cards. It’s worth noting that the Bold 9650 ships with a 2GB MicroSD as standard.
Blackberry Pearl 9100/9105
At the other end of RIM’s line of Blackberry devices is the Blackberry Pearl 9100/9105 3G handphones which are targeted at users who are looking at upgrading their old dumbphones to a feature-packed yet affordable smartphone.
Many will be asking what is the difference between the Pearl 9100 and the 9105, there’s really not much actually, just that the 9100 features a SureType QWERTY keypad while the 9105 showcases a more traditional mobile phone keypad layout.
Other than that the specs are identical. Connectivity wise, the Pearl is RIM’s first ever device to support WiFi n standard along with b and g. It runs on UMTS/HSDPA 3G networks as well as EDGE/GPRS/GSM. In addition, is also has GPS and bluetooth all built-in.
Both versions of the Pearl will have 256MB of internal storage with support for MicroSD storage expansion up to 32GB. 3.2MP camera with flash is standard along with digital zoom, autofocus and video recording. Like the Bold, the Pearl will also feature an optical trackpad.
Prices will be available for the US in May, no word on worldwide availability just yet.
Blackberry 9650 press release here.
Blackberry Pearl 9100/9105 press release here
