RIM announced Torch 9800 and BlackBerry 6 OS

RIM(Research In Motion) and AT&T gather the press few days ago to make two big announces: Torch 9800 phone and the 6th version of BlackBerry OS.

BlackBerry Torch is the first touch QWERTY slider smartphone designed by RIM, built for socially connected consumers and packed with the tools business customers love.

The 3.2-inches touchscreen supports a 480×360 display resolution and probably 65k colors. Below, there are BlackBerry usual buttons: Call, Menu, Back, End-Call and between them, the optical trackpad. On the left side of the phone we find the microUSB port while on the right side is the convenience(camera) key, volume rockers and a 3.5mm headset jack. On the top side are mute and lock buttons while at the bottom, if you slide the phone up, you will discover the full QWERTY keyboard(35 keys).

On the back side of the phone is the 5 megapixel camera device along a LED flash. It can record videos with up to 640×480 resolution and has continuous auto focus, image stabilization, scene modes, geo-tagging and zoom.

The internal stuff has some major improvements comparing with previous BlackBerry models. Torch has a 624 Mhz processor and 512 Mb flash(RAM/ROM) memory. Each unit will have 4 GB built-in memory storage and will support microSD/SDHD memory card slot, up to 32Gb.

Another major improvement will be the newest operating system: BlackBerry 6 OS. During the conference we were able to see what this new OS will bring:

Visual, Fluid Interface. Icons are arranged on the Home Screen in 5 customizable views (All, Favorites, Media, Downloads and Frequent) that are navigable with simple swipes. Another new thing is the Action-Menu.
Fast Rich Web Browsing. BlackBerry 6 brings now a new WebKit-based browser that loads web pages (as well as email) quickly and beautifully for a great browsing experience. It features tabs, an auto-wrap text zoom feature and pinch to zoom.
Social Feeds and Text Messaging. The new Social Feeds application provides integrated access to the native BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), Facebook®, Twitter™, MySpace™, AOL® Instant Messenger™, Google Talk™, Windows Live™ Messenger and Yahoo!® Messenger applications for BlackBerry smartphones. RSS Feds can also be added very easily.
Engaging Multimedia Experience. BlackBerry® Desktop Software 6 integrates media sync for easily syncing photos and videos as well as iTunes® and Windows Media® Player music with the smartphone.
Compatibility with Existing BlackBerry Smartphones. BlackBerry 6 OS will start to be available same time as Torch 9800 and can run on every RIM smartphone.

BlackBerry 6 is the outcome of RIM’s ongoing passion to deliver a powerful, simplified and optimized user experience for both touch screen and keyboard fans.
Following extensive research and development to address consumer needs and wants, we are delivering a communications, browsing and multimedia experience that we think users will love, and we are thrilled to debut BlackBerry 6 on the amazing new BlackBerry Torch smartphone.

To make each users life more easier BlackBerry Torch 9800 will also include BlackBerry App World™ pre-installed. App World focuses on several categories: Education, Finance, Games, News, Music&Audio, Shopping, Sports, Travel, Utilities, Weather and so on.

We sneak inside to see some of the improvements of the new OS, now is time to see the connectivity features of the first touch QWERTY smartphone ever. Torch 9800 will have 3G, EDGE, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g/n), 3.5mm headset jack and GPS(A-Gps support). The 1300 mAh battery promises to provide up to 6 hours of talk time and 30 hours of audio playback/6 hours of video playback.

RIM announced that they will start selling BlackBerry Torch 9800 and BlackBerry 6 OS for AT&T customers from August 12. It seams that Torch 9800 will cost an estimated $199.99 at a 2-year service agreement.