I don't think anything more needs to be said ...

Fugly!

I know some people like the new flip capability of the Blackberry, but I'm not so fond of the design.

I would avoid this like the plague, am not a big fan of the design at all. Gimme candybar-style Bolds anyday!

It has a larger screen than the 8530, more ram if it's going to have 6, plus you can carry it easier in your pocket.

No I don't like the looks of it. But I do like the functionality and the features. However plain or bad looks is not a dealbreaker for everyone, or my wife certainly would not have married me. I guessed she liked my functionality over my looks. My wife is more like the Torch, everything wrapped up all in one package.

Currently have a Tour on Verizon, and I love the built in GPS but would have loved WIFI. Nice big display is very good. Don't know what I'll do when I'm up for renewal other than it will be a blackberry. We'll have the 9650 and this for to choose from. Too many blackberries, not enough hands.

Best,

Jeff

Never did like Clamshells, reminds me of the communicators in Star Trek TOS. This just looks....bad.

I like the look of it and I've said so before. I'll be getting one as soon as they're available.

On the scale of 1 to 10 for my preferences only flip type phones can score higher than 5.

thats all that comes to mind when I see this.

Well at least you wouldn't need a screen protector. I can sum this phone up in one word, retro!

I like the idea of a clamshell BB. The screen is protected. It's smaller and more easily carried. When open you can actually keep it to your ear with your shoulder so multi-tasking becomes easier. I would buy one.

I'm in the minority because I actually like it. Bigger display, 5MP camera, OS 6... I like that RIM is offering different flavors for different tastes. That said, I'm quite happy with the Bold 9650 I recently picked up and unless this comes out in my 30 day exchange period, I won't look back. And, I think the Torch is head and shoulders better than the Oxford.

The look of this is a total turn off for me. lol.
it has to look good and function well at the same time, i cant have one without the other.
Plus the idea of a flip BB just doesnt appeal to me at all.
i wouldnot buy one, not sure if i'd even use it if it was given to me!

I wouldn't want that....at all.

But if/when Verizon goes to Tiered data plans, and if I can step down, we'll be upping my wife from a dumb phone to a BB with a lower tier data plan. And I think she would like this. Then again, by the time we make a move like this, she may be ready for Storm 3 or something like that.

My sister would like this too.

And I agree with boots796.....no pressing need for a screen protector. For my wife and sister, it would fold and slip into a purse pocket nice and easy.

The Kyocera 7135 that I got in 2003! http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/7135-smartphone/

Then I'll be impressed!

If they really wanted to sell something this retro, they could have put something in it thats new or different from the other offerings. Maybe a faster processor, wifi-n, larger incoming caller ID font, even if its a useless upgrade, its still an upgrade.
Having said that I still like the more protected screen while carrying bit, that they do it with a full keyboard is cool. If I had to change BBs, I would consider this one too.

My old Kyocera 7135.

It was huge back in the day!
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/kyocera-7135-verizon-wireless/4505-6...

There, I said it. Going all the way back to my Motorola MPx220, I have been fond of this form factor.

It feels like a phone when you use it, and I like the fact they retained their keyboard. It boils down to function for me.

I admire RIM for taking a chance. Lets not punish them for making an effort here.

I don't think it looks that great but it seems like every version of the blackberry finds a home someplace. Maybe there are people out there that need a clam shell blackberry...maybe they just love clams.

I don't particularly mind the idea of a flip phone...but I wouldn't have wished this upon anyone. Yes, the specs are nice - but not fantastic. The design reminds me of something that might have appealed to someone's conservative grandfather.
There are a lot of sleek-looking phones out there, and more importantly, many have even better specs. This hurts to see this.

That the slide with the device comparison calls this the Pearl? (perhaps it's just a mistake, or I'm reading it incorrectly)

I don't hate the design. I wouldn't waste an upgrade on it, but I don't hate it. Lets get the Torch on Verizon!

I won't be looking at this. What a step backwards this is! Clam shells? That is so 80's, okay, early 2000's, but still Pug ugly! YIKES! WHoever thought this would work for RIM should be shot! Okay, perhaps just fired! OUT OF A CANNON!

This is by far the ugliest BB I have ever seen.

well it's nice to see they upped the resolution a tad from the original razr phone. ffs RIM, what are you even doing at this point, you're actually realeasing phones that were outdated 2 years ago. guys for real, all bias aside, how long can rim do this? this phone is a joke, it's not going to sell, neither is the refreshed 9700, or the torch for that matter. when are people going to stop being fanboys and demand answers on this subject? i want blackberry to release an awesome phone so bad, but they refuse, not since the 9000 has rim made something relevant. everything after that has shared internals, including this, and the torch. get real rim.

My fiance would trade her curve 8530 for this phone in a hearbeat. Expecially with the frustrating new lock system on BB's. She also just loves flip phones. There will be a market for it.

What the hell is going on with RIM???

Is RIM going for the retro look or sumthin'? They failed. If we wanted a retro Blackberry, we would have asked for one. There are enough flips on the market. We want the future, not the past! WAKE UP RIM!!!

but at least its underpowered. I wouldnt use this if someone gave it me for free and paid for my data plan for a year............and gave me a new hat.

It looks okay when closed...yeah, I got nothing.

Mmmm, it seems to look a lot better in silver and black.....

I think the only thing worse than this would be a retro slider.........oh.........wait......

To me, this has the look of a phone to introduce users to the blackberry or smartphone experience. I am out of contract right now with verizon on a blackberry and would not use it on this phone. Just not appealing in any way from the photos I have seen. I also have a Bold 9000 from work and would look forward to upgrading to the Torch. This phone, the Oxford, just has no appeal to me. I hope something more is coming to Verizon.

My 8230 gets jealous whenever I see these pics...I'm loving the silver/black look!

I DON'T LIKE THE LOOK OF THIS PHONE AT ALL.. I SURE DO HOPE TMOBILE COMES WITH SOMETHING HOT!!!

This looks to be RIM's attempt at trying to saturate the market with their phones. For customers who want to part of the Blackberry family, but are used to a flip phone, they may be interested in purchasing the Oxford. I personally don't like it, but there may be people who would.

It actually doesn't look as bad in the color scheme used in the photos. I'm not in the market for a clamshell, but if I was, this isn't so bad.

This phone will fail and RIM will lose even more market share to Apple and Android.

It looks kind of ugly, but I can see it being really functional. I'll have to go down to the store and play around with it.

Why did they even bother? Even people who HAVE clamshell phones don't want clamshell phones anymore. Yikes?! Instead RIM should focus their energies on an OS 6 rollout to the masses!

I'd feel like I was living in the year 2000

Flip/Clams are sooooooooo last decade... "hehe"

Seriously though, having said that, my personal obervation is that I see flips/clams in the hands of older users these days. I'd say age 40+ rough estimate.

Wonder if anyone has any factual data on that? I bet RIM does...

Bear in mind that the #1 priority of just about any corporation worthy of the title is to make money. So I'm sure RIM thought this latest flip was a good bet or they wouldn't have spent the time/money to bring it to market.

Just a thought ;)

why wouldn't they make the outter screen navigable? to have alerts and a bigg CLOCK seems like a waste of valuable real estate! no?

Its not the best lookin bb but atleast sprint and them get something different TMo don't get no good phones all these dumb a$$ messaging girl phones smh can't wait to get out of tmo

I am really shocked that RIM's stock has remained relatively unchanged despite the recent underwhelming developments coming from the company. This 9650 is so 2000. Seriously, is this the best RIM can do? This to me is clearly lack of innovation. While sometimes it's good to be different for brand identity, RIM has chosen to snub consumers desire but releasing such a device. My 9700 is to me the best phone RIM has ever made. Instead of re-inventing from there, RIM opts to go backwards. Why?

Ugh!!! I can see a company like Sprint going with that! But Verizon????? C'mon now Verizon better not go with that mess, especially since AT&T got the Torch. We cant accept that, its ugly and definately RETRO looking. How do we as consumers voice our complaints and/or inquirys to the cell phone companies and/or manufacturers?

What a piece of crap! Clam shell phones are so old school. Blackberry better get with the program, they are losing the cell phone battle. Once you have seen one new model Blackberry phone that year you have seen them all. Yes there are some changes with the displays and yes there are some internal features but all and all these phones aren’t changing that much. I have been a Blackberry user for the past 4yrs. and other than them changing some software, desplay and redesigning them they are still the same phone. Let’s talk about BB 6, if it looks like a Duck and quacks like a duck well guess what it’s probably a duck. Blackberry Apps. suck and they are expensive. When my contract is over I will be switching to a Droid phone and it’s not because I want to, but Blackberry is falling behind. Well I have vented enough, but this is how I feel. I would love input from other people. Later

This device might look better in person. I'm willing to keep an open mind and give it a chance. I bet physically it holds up better than the Torch slider though. Clamshells > Vertical Sliders It's not like the 9800 looks THAT nice.I never liked the 82xx Pearl Flips but this looks like a big improvement starting with the full QWERTY keyboard(which looks alot like the 9800's).

Hopefully she has a nice personality.

because unlike Apple, they are willing to make a wide range of handsets - candy-bar (9100) traditional (9700) slider (9800) and now compressed-keyboard flip (8220) and now the full-keyboard clamshell flip. So there is a style and shape for virtually everyone's taste.

Add up the sales of each type of handset (oh yeah, and don't forget to add in the unique recurring BIS/BES account revenue as well) and you've got aggregrate sales that make them one of the most innovative and profitable companies around.

(All that being said, it still is an odd-looking phone... :-)

Coming from people rocking Iphone 4s saying this is ugly. Looks pretty fly to me

My husband is so "old school" that he won't let go of his flip phone and won't buy another phone unless its a flip. He would like this phone.

Personally, flip phones aren't my thing. BUT, my daughter loves her Pearl Flip 8220 - because it doesn't look like a typical BlackBerry. She can pocket it easily and not pocket-dial.

My wife loves the look of the one shown in the simulator. If the actual device looks more like that (Curve-style keyboard) than the earlier seen devices (Bold-style keyboard), I could see her moving from Curve to clamshell (no more purse dialing).

RIM is back!! They've hit a homerun with this phone. My prediction is they'll more than double the number of Jitterbug phones sold during the first week of its introduction. iPhone and Android device users ... who's your daddy! SWEEEET!

Another product developed by those "geniuses" at RIM that's going to be a huge hit....NOT

This is the stuff that RIM needs to stop doing -- random blackberries that no one will probably buy. One of the things I hate most about RIM is that they release a new phone every couple months. When I first bought my 9700, I found out a couple days later that there was gonna be a 'Bold 9700 refresh.'

It's so hard to stay current with RIM's phones because there is always a new one coming out, and it may not even necessarily be better than its predecessor.

RIM needs to stop making phones like these and focus more on what they already have out.

/end rant.

I wish they would of put that LED notification light on the newer blackberries as well. I hate the little dot compared to the old LED.

RIM that is!
This listing includes:
-(1)slightly beat up company out of fresh ideas
-Intellectual rights to said company
-Free fugly phone rights and battery chargers!
**BEST OF ALL**
-Millions of customers that are oblivious to mediocre devices!!!
Unfortunately this listing does not include a true research and development team; however, you will receive several custodians wearing lab coats.
Buy it now and receive the building with several empty cubicles for FREE!
Thanks for watching and happy bidding!

I didn't like the Oxford at 1st seeing some of the early renderings, but after looking at this final version. I've changed my mind. I think it looks stylish and will be a good seller since it looks like it's going to be positioned as a entry level Blackberry.

Probably because it looks like one of my turds on an especially bad day.

It's a Jitterbug on steroids.

My wife took one look at this phone and said "this one is for me". She currently uses a BB Curve. There is a market for flip phones...problem with this site is that sometimes everyone thinks too "techie" and not like an average consumer. You don't think that RIM has done some advance surveying...then you don't know RIM. The RIM obituary has been written way too soon here...they're not going down for the count.

At it again...wow this is how you follow up to a laggy torch release. This is your next offical 6.0 phone that the rest of the world other than AT&T can have.

SMH....

If it was available at Sprint I would have jumped at the Pearl flip. A quick scan of the comments it is clear that I am in the minority of favoring this phone.
I especially like the 'pocketability' of the device. I have used holsters up to and including my birth into the Blackberry device arena but in the last 6 mos have adopted the pocket for stowing the unit (heh, unit).
Aside from poor humor, and as always with technology, no matter where I jump in, within one week of a decision, the latest and greatest come out. I just acquired the 9650, in fact one week shy of the Torch release. I could not be happier but would be lying if I didn't mention that 9670 would not only be ergonomically suited for my purposes but a cost effective way to protect the main screen.
Here's to hope that it will still be available in <2yrs it will take to justify a new device acquisition.

Maybe this is the Blackberry that appeals to people who don't visit Crackberry.

I'd have to take a look at it in person, but I think I'd buy it. I didn't like the pearl flip...and if I liked the fit of this (in my hand), I'd consider it. I like the clock option on the outside.

Honestly it doesn't look bad. If the goal was to pull off a slick looking smartphone flip then this hits the target.

What is hideous in my opinion is the name "Oxford"? WTF???

I mean for the mass that perceives this phone to be ugly they give it an ugly name... Seriously "oxford"? (torch, storm, bold, curve, and.........oxford?)

If I had to choose between a bold 9650 and this I would probably go with the oxford just cuz of the bigger inner display (rest of the spec being the same)..

I really like this phone. I am going to be disappointed if there is no GSM version released as I'd love to use one with T-Mobile.

Think about it, they want your phone but love the form factor of their flip phone. They wanna be cool and have BBM and the things they hear about Blackberry, so RIM said lets build a phone for them. I believe they will take BB6 and market it to the world, and building different and new form factor phones is a way to do that. This phone, much like the last flip phone will be a 'one and done' meaning there wont be much support in the way of OS updates or major changes. Just watch, this phone doesn't appeal to those of us on this site, but I bet... YOUR GRANDMA WILL OWN ONE!

meh...waste of resources when they could have put all that effort in making the torch a much MUCH better phone.

flip phones are dead...enough said

Clamshells are ok for dumb phones and even the Pearl. But it just looks awkward on a full qwerty device.

I didn't like the 9800 when the first leaked pics came out...but it has slowly grown on me. The 9670 still looks as hideous as the first time I saw it.

Clamshell: Can you imagine having this hunk of crap flipped open on your car dash trying to use Telenav (which is sorry to begin with)? PLUS, is there anything more annoying than someone flipping a phone open and shut while they text or BBM back and forth? And exactly how many hinges fail on these things when they wear out?
QWERTY: Good, if it is all you can use and lack the dexterity to adapt to a capacitive touch screen (which is quicker once you transition).
WiFi: B,G,N? Who cares! How many other companies out there drop a smartphone that MAY even lack wifi? Only one I can think of is Canadian.
GPS: (Same as wifi) Who DOESN'T have GPS enabled smart phones that run GPS AND AGPS?
360x400 display: Woo hoo! That's almost large enough to qualify as the exact same crappy little screen that they've jammed in the last dozen or so phones. But there is one KEY difference! You'll be able to see the key impressions all over that "enormous" screen before the newness has a chance to wear off (just like the Pearl flip screens).
5MP camera: STOP THE PRESS!, a 5MP camera? Being that 8MP is just about the norm on the other side of the fence...
240x320 external display: Awesome, now you have the option to see your caller ID on a postage stamp sized screen. We all know how inconvenient is to actually look at the device and see your whole home screem without being able to look at a clock and a flashing icon preview first.
All these features in one elegantly styled obsolete form factor. WHERE DO I sign up???
I've got an idea... Maybe they will come out with a new version of the Storm to dupe people into buying again. BTW, if you buy the Storm 3 after owning the 1 or 2 in hopes of a fix, you are a retard! Also, if you buy this phone after you have experienced the Pearl flip for some time, please seek help...

Nokia 282 Analog NAMPS. I remember back in my days of college,Nokia comes with something( in my muscle memory at least) very similar to RIM's clamshell. Back in those days, for me, that phone was like t object of my desire for months until I got a sony-matrix inspired something (actually was a Samsung)

Whatever happen to the Pearl 3G Flip!? The Pearl 8220 is awesome. I am not so hot on Oxford.

The BB 9670 is a slap in the face for Sprint and Verizon customers. All RIM did was make a more advanced Pearl flip; This clamshell design is not attractive AT ALL!The last time that I was interested in a flip phone was when the Motorola Razor was a hot item. I believe that some will buy it simply because it is a BB and we BB addicts love our BB smartphones!

It's Fugley

I must say, compared to other pictures of this phone, it doesn't look so bad. I prefer the Bold or Curve design, but this one doesn't suck as bad as previous drawings/pictures.

They'd do good to make a "girly" pink version of this since girls are more likely to carry a flip phone according to a survey I just made up.

Personally, I like the idea of a flip phone with a full keyboard. Don't know that I will buy one since my upgrade isn't for another year and I'm pretty happy with my Tour, but overall I like the concept. After putting a screen protector on the outer screen, I could throw it in my pocket and not worry about the main screen or keyboard getting beat up. I also know that my wife would like this since it is more protected in her purse. (Can't convince her to use any kind of case whatsoever!)

I'm stuck between the Torch and this phone. Mainly I like the flip phone design. I don't much like anything else.

And it better have WiFi calling like my current 8220 or else why would I switch?

If
Clasic Blackberry's are trucks.
Blackberry Perl's are compact cars.
iPhones are luxury toy cars.
Android phones are raceing or pimp my ride cars.

This is the minivan of smart phones.

For those of us who loved our LG Lotus but wanted the capabilities of a Blackberry it is what we have waited for!

So glad it will be on Sprint!

Yano what I dont think it looks that bad, I'd proudly carry it around with me :)

the inside is okay. I dont like the outside :(

i have sprint,and you gotta love how we don't get the torch but we get this piece of crap? wtf is wrong with sprint?!?!

I love RIM and Blackberry but this time i wish I could tell them "don't... don't do that..."

ATT continues to get the upper level phones and Sprint gets this steaming pile.....

I can't put my finger on it, but something about this phone makes me think of another phone out there...

Wait... I figured it out.

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=1687

I know the phone isn't a smartphone, but something about its clamshell design reminds me of the Oxford.

Booooooooooooo if I wanted a nasty looking clam I'd call my grandmother. At least it's not iF0nZe 7

Who really wanted the 9670? I understand that syles are somewhat based on wants BUT who really wants a clamshell? I know that there will be some people buying this BlackBerry and I love BlackBerry but I would NEVER invest ANY money on this one! It gives ugly a totally new meaning! I'm sure it works great but why a clamshell?? I'm just hoping T-Mobile gets the Torch one day...please keep the Oxford 9670 away!

THIS is the direction that RIM is going? Wow. Totally 100% disappointing. Have fun watching your stock plummet and loyal customers leaving you for...anything else but BlackBerry.

Seriously, it's not that bad. Some here have predicted the demise of RIM based on this one design. Some are outright angry and disgusted by this clamshell. Most commenters and even the author are taking jabs at this phone for it's looks and how they would never buy it. Some have said only the elderly and razor fans (old schoolers) would consider it. Everyone including me is entitled to an opinion but I happen to like it.

Some of the positives I see are built-in screen protection. No butt dialing or pocket calling. Dumbphone looks (less theft) but a smart phone software support. I like the iphone but it is too big and awkward as a regular phone. Everyone and their mother is trying to make fake iphones including all Android phones and the Torch. Somebody mentioned the Lotus which I used for years and was a great dumbphone. To the guy that complained about using telenav, in a pinch I'm sure it would be fine but fulltime you'll want a Garmin anyway. Flipping open to text? Who cares. I've yet to find one of those delicate hinges either. I'm sure the designers know what they are doing.

I'll give up a bit of looks for saving myself from a brain tumor any day. Besides, I think candy bar phones are butt ugly anyway and feel like a cutting board in your pocket. And I can't bring myself to use an external case, even if I am married.