RIM Announces BlackBerry Bold 9650 (aka Tour with Trackpad)

Verizon and Sprint BlackBerry will soon have a Bold to call their own: the 9650. The latest CDMA BlackBerry features an optical trackpad instead of a trackball like the BlackBerry Bold 9700. It’s also Wi-Fi capable, which allows simultaneous voice and data transmission whenever Wi-Fi is available. The full QWERTY keyboard looks to be the same one found on the BlackBerry Tour 9630, which we were fond of. And like the Tour, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 will be a world phone and will support HSPA /UMTS 2100MHz overseas – very useful for travelers. RIM confirmed this morning that the Tour is going away, which makes sense given how similar the Bold 9650 is to that handset.

All the same goodies can be expected from this device as the BlackBerry 9700: 3.2MP camera with flash, 512MB flash memory (double the Tour), 2GB microSD card included with support for 32GB expansion, 480 x 360 resolution display, and GPS. There’s not much new here at all if you’re a Tour owner, but if you’re looking to upgrade an older Curve, the Bold 9650 may prove tempting when it hits shelves this May.

via BlackBerry