BlackBerry announces Bold 9790 and Curve 9380

Recent setbacks are in no way hampering RIM’s ability to dish out new products. Designed to cater to the new age market and eager to prove that their BlackBerry OS 7 is just as good as the competition, the company has announced two more models under the Bold and Curve categories. The devices in question are the Bold 9790 with touch and type capabilities and the Curve 9380 which is a slightly downgraded model of the recently launched Torch 9860 .

The BlackBerry blog calls the Bold 9790 “a true productivity machine”. That of course remains to be seen but so far the range hasn’t failed to disappoint consumers as far as that sentiment goes. Loaded up with a 1GHz processor, optical trackpad and NFC (Near Field Communication) the new Bold also features -

• a 2.4-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 480 x 360 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GRPS, BIS and BES, Wi-Fi
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth with A2DP + EDR, USB 2.0, NFC
• 5MP AF camera with an LED flash and VGA video recoding
• 8GB of internal memory plus micro SD support for up to 32GB

Although pricing has yet to be officially announced, judging from the specs we’re placing it around the Rs. 22,000 to Rs. 24,000 mark.
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Next up is the lower end variant of the Torch 9860 i.e. the Curve 9380. It’s been stripped down to an 806MHz processor and a smaller screen thus reducing the weight of the device down to just 98 grams while retaining the same design form from what we can see. The 9380 will also be equipped with NFC technology, AR (Augmented Reality) apps like Wikitude and an optical trackpad. Here are some of the other features -

• 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen sporting a 360 x 480 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GRPS, BIS and BES, Wi-Fi
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth with A2DP + EDR, USB 2.0, NFC
• 5MP AF camera with an LED flash and VGA video recoding
• 512MBB of internal memory plus micro SD support for up to 32GB

We’re putting the price of the Curve 9380 somewhere in the Rs. 18,000 vicinity. RIM has also announced that the handsets should be rolling out globally sometime in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned to this space for updates.

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