Good news for BlackBerry fans. RIM has announced its new smartphone range. The bold 9900 and 9930 are set to hit markets this summer. But will they be good enough in this increasingly vicious market? Reception to the Torch was dim (chuckle) and in recent times BlackBerry has been playing 3rd fiddle to Apple and Google. So let's take a look at the handsets and see if there's anything exciting going on. Both handsets will run on the Blackberry 7 OS
Under the bonnet-
1.2GHz processor and 768MB of RAM.
OS-
Keyboard-
The legendary BB QWERTY keyboard and trackpad
Screen-
2.8in Liquid Graphics capacitive touchscreen with 640×480 resolution.
Bodywork-
Brushed stainless steel frames and a high gloss fibreglass backplate.
They'll both weigh 130g and are 10.5mm thick.
Storage-
8GB (internal)
Camera-
5 MP with HD 720p video
Network- (here's where the two handsets differ.)
both will have quad-band GSM/EDGE.
9990- tri-band HSPA+
9930 dual-band HSPA+ and dual-band CDMA.
Extras-
NFC
So what do you think? They're not too impressive are they? With only NFC to offer, the handsets success relies purely on BlackBerry's reputation. There's no doubt BlackBerry build premium quality, reliable smartphones, but they're way behind in the game. The OS is outdated the camera quality is nothing to write home about and there's no swanky new features. RIM can't rely on their reputation and the loyalty of their business customers forever.