The new BlackBerry has been officially announced. It is called BlackBerry Bold 9000.

• Quad-band EDGE and tri-band HSDPA
• 624MHz Intel PXA270/Marvell Tavor PXA930 CPU
• Runs BlackBerry OS 4.6
• 480×320 pixels screen
• 2 megapixel camera with flash (I was hoping for at least 3 MP)
• Battery can handle up to 5 hours of talk and 13 days of standby time
• 128MB of flash plus 1GB of onboard memory (with encryption)
• Interchangeable color back plates
• Standard 3.5mm headphone jack
• Should start selling through AT&T this summer with pricing at around $300
• Size: 4.5×2.6×0.5 inches (it's taller and wider than the Curve), weighs 4.7oz

Research in Motion has officially unwrapped their newest smartphone today, the BlackBerry Bold 9000, a massive upgrade to their existing BlackBerry handsets.

The Bold features a HVGA (480 x 320 pixels) resolution display, the same found in the Apple iPhone, which will most likely improve usability of many of the BlackBerry applications. And to answer your next question, no, it's not touchscreen.

RIM packed in 1 GB of internal memory into the Bold 9000, as well as a microSD card slot for up to 16 GB of extra memory. Connectivity wise, the BlackBerry Bold 9000 contains tri-band HSDPA and quad-band EDGE, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth and GPS.

Other features include a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom, improved QWERTY keyboard with thin metal strips between each row and a 3.5mm headphone jack. All this running on a 624MHz StrongARM processor with full MMX, the fastest CPU that can be found on a handset.

AT&T has confirmed that it will be the exclusive carrier for the BlackBerry Bold 9000 in the US. Pricing and launch date were not officially revealed, but according to rumors, the new Bold will be priced at around $300-$400 and will start worldwide shipping this summer.

Introduction

For customers seeking a smartphone that makes a bold statement, Research In Motion (RIM) today introduced the admirable BlackBerry Bold smartphone. Crafted from premium materials, inside and out, that radiate elegance with a dramatic presence, the BlackBerry Bold is designed to give business professionals and power users unprecedented functionality and performance in an intuitive BlackBerry smartphone. It is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world and comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities. From its lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leather-like backplate, to its stunning display, sophisticated user interface and newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration.

"The new BlackBerry Bold 9000 represents a tremendous step forward in business-grade smartphones and lives up to its name with incredible speed, power and functionality, all wrapped in a beautiful and confident design," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion.

Performance

The BlackBerry Bold 9000's support for tri-band HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks and its next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor make short work of downloading email attachments, streaming video or rendering web pages. The BlackBerry Bold also includes 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory, as well as and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot that is conveniently accessible from a side door. It comes with the renowned BlackBerry productivity applications, including phone, email, messaging, organizer and browser, and works with thousands of mobile business and lifestyle applications, making it easier than ever to stay connected, productive and entertained. With this powerful new smartphone, users can even talk on the phone while sending and receiving email or accessing the web, and download Word, Excel or PowerPoint files and edit them directly on the handset using the preloaded DataViz Documents to Go suite.

Display

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 comes with the most vivid and bold display ever introduced on a BlackBerry smartphone. Its half-VGA (480×320 resolution) color LCD is fused to the undersurface of the lens, making images leap out with stunning definition and clarity. Pictures are vibrant and razor sharp, while videos play smoothly and web pages, documents, presentations and messages snap with exceptional quality and contrast.

Desktop [Style Web Pages]

With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in "Page View" or "Column View" or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol).

Multimedia

While it is designed to meet the extensive requirements of the business professional during the day, the BlackBerry Bold also caters to the business person’s consumer side during evenings and weekends. It features a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, built-in flash and 5x digital zoom. The enhanced media player can display pictures and slideshows quickly, play movies smoothly in full screen mode, and manage an entire music collection. Audio can be played over the handset’s dual speakers in rich, stereo sound, and when using wired headphones or external speakers, the media player gives the user an equalizer with 11 preset filters – like "Lounge", "Jazz" and "Hip Hop" – that boost or soften audio ranges to create the perfect ambiance.

For managing music and video, the BlackBerry Desktop Manager software includes Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry as well as Roxio Photosuite 9 LE, which makes it easy to enhance pictures and create photo albums on the computer. For users that manage their collection with iTunes, the new BlackBerry Media Sync application provides a simple way to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone. Support for High Speed USB 2.0 allows all files to be transferred quickly from a desktop computer to the BlackBerry Bold smartphone.

Wi-Fi and GPS

For even broader high-speed network coverage, the BlackBerry Bold 9000 supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standards, ideal for use in enterprise or campus wireless LAN deployments, over Wi-Fi hotspots and on wireless home networks. A new "Push Button Setup" is included, making it faster for users to connect to protected wireless networks that require a sign on process.

Through its integrated GPS, the BlackBerry Bold can pinpoint its exact location, supporting applications like BlackBerry Maps and other location-based applications or services. With its improved rendering capabilities, faster download speeds and ability to support simultaneous voice and data, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone even allows users to navigate while on a call.

First Class Smartphone

The BlackBerry Bold 9000  features a new acoustic design that increases the size of the phone’s audio sweet spot, improving listening quality and clarity. It also comes with numerous premium phone features including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Bluetooth 2.0, with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including car kits that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals. It is a quad-band EDGE and tri-band HSDPA handset that supports global roaming and features dedicated 'send', 'end', and 'mute' keys, smart dialing, speed dialing, conference calling and call forwarding. It also features noise cancellation technology that offsets background noise, a powerful speaker phone and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.

E-mail and Messaging

Like all BlackBerry smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold 9000 gives users the industry’s leading mobile messaging solution. It works with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which enables advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments, as well as BlackBerry Professional Software for small businesses. It also works with BlackBerry Internet Service, which gives users access to up to 10 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), and the BlackBerry Unite! software for SOHO and home users.