RIM unveils BlackBerry Bold 9700

As we tipped last week, RIM has launched a second-gen model of its highly-praised BlackBerry Bold.

The Bold 9700 – previously codenamed Onyx – is expected to hit the stores sometime next month, slotting in as RIM’s new flagship QWERTY device.

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 will remain on the menu, however.  “We’re not discontinuing the current Bold” affirms RIM chief executive Mike Lazaridis in an interview with PC Magazine.

“The current Bold is in a class by itself. But just like we have different Curves, we have different Bolds. This is the Bold for those that wanted it just a little smaller, but still wanted the Bold look, feel, performance and materials.”


The Bold 9700 swaps the ‘pearl’ trackball for the same optical trackpad which RIM debuted on the recently-launched Curve 8520.

The more compact design brings it closer to the width and height of the Curve, and while this means a slightly smaller screen (6.2cm, down from 6.35cm) the resolution bumps up to a crisper 480 x 360 (it was previously 480 x 320).

The redesigned case now sports concealed soft-touch lock and mute buttons on the top of the case plus the soon-to-be-standard MicroUSB socket for charging the battery and synchronising the Bold 9700 with your Windows or Mac system.

The camera also gets an upgrade to 3.2 megapixels with autofocus. Under the covers sit the same 624MHz ‘Tavor’ processor and 1550mAh battery as the Bold 9000 plus 3G HSDPA, GPS and Wi-Fi.

3G coverage now includes 900MHz, so the Bold 9700 can run on the regional HSDPA networks of Vodafone and Optus, in addition to the regular 2100MHz (3G) and 850MHz (Telstra Next G) bands.

The updated BlackBerry OS 5.0 includes a speedier Web browser and more control over Exchange-based mailboxes.