RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 officially announced; Nov. U.S. Launch

Research In Motion this morning decided to acknowledge what most Web-watching gadget-enthusiasts have known was coming for months: the BlackBerry Bold 9700. The business-oriented Bold 9700 is expected to become available in the United States on T-Mobile and AT&T in November, and the device could find its way to T-Mobile Germany customers and Canadians on Rogers even earlier.

Most of the BlackBerry Bold 9700's technical specifications are no secret; blogs started posting images, details and even reviews of the device last spring.

Blackberry Storm sequel seen keeping quick screen

The Bold 9700 is a souped-version of RIM's Bold 9000 in a more compact package. The specs most worth noting are the device's support for Wi-Fi/UMA, or voice-over-Wi-Fi calling, where available (T-Mobile); new, optical "trackpad" for navigation; GPS; 256MB of Flash application memory (double the app memory of the Bold 9000); and RIM's as-of-yet unavailable -- at least officially -- BlackBerry handheld OS 5.0.

The Bold 9700 packs RIM's guitar-fret-style keyboard--thin, chrome "frets" sit between each row of keys. It has the same 3.2-megapixel camera as RIM's Curve 8900 and Tour 9630. And the new Bold uses the same 1500mAh battery as the Bold 9000.

It also packs what RIM's calling a "next-generation (624-MHz) processor," though the Bold 9000 also has a 624-MHz processor.

And the Bold 9700 will be T-Mobile's first 3G BlackBerry -- just like I predicted back in August. Because T-Mobile, AT&T and other carriers employ different RF frequencies for 3G, the Bold 9700 will be available in two versions: UMTS/HSDPA 2100/1900/850/800 MHz and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM; as well as a version with UMTS/HSDPA 2100/1700/900 MHz and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM.