Shortly after the new BlackBerry Bold 9650 and BlackBerry Pearl 3G were announced, we headed over to the BlackBerry room to get some hands-on time with the devices. Check out the video above for a quick look of what's in store. Mike McAndrews, RIM's VP of Product Marketing, was on hand so for this video (more vids to come) we had him walk us through the devices. In addition to the new 9650 and Pearl 3G hardware, I was pretty excited to see the new line of BlackBerry Pearl 3G cases RIM had in the showcase. Featuring a combinanation of hard case and rubber skin, they look awesome!

BlackBerry Bold 9650 and Pearl 3G Hands-On Video
68 Comments
Cool
chicks are gonna dig this!
I miss that in my 9700
Haha,
Did he say coming to "Tell and Belus"
Telus and Bell?
lol, thanks for the vid!
"Tell and Belus" i was getting ready to post it and saw that you already had.
awesome line of blackberrys!
Hmmm... the 9650 battery door isn't ribbed as it appeared to be in other pics.
even if I did get a bit dizzy watching!
Awesome that we can count on someone to represent the consumer at WES - great coverage Kevin, keep it up. I will definitely have a 9650, no question about it - but i just have one question, what happened to the possibility of it being released in white???
no mention of the 9650 coming in white at launch... i'm thinking black only. the pearl 3g on the other hand will ship in a ton of colors right from the get go.
although i'm a little disappointed about the no-white thing... not a deal-breaker though!
That is definatly a Crackberry case Kevin. I want an 9650 since its like my bold but just with out the ball and I dont have to worry about dust getting in my ball or something =D
i want one! i hate how you get a phone or computer or a tv and 6 months later there is a step up from it out...i got my 9630 in october
well, thats electronics for ya.. there outdated the day you buy them, so just enjoy them while you can lol
Webkit?
Not gunna happen for a couple months
I checked it and no...no webkit, that would have just been too easy, lol.
edited ..*double post*
was waiting for someone to hit "play" on their Wii :)
I hope the price is at 150.00 to 200.00 @ two years.
Looks great! Can't wait to get my hands on one of those!
RIM got it right, Bold= high performance full qwerty, Pearl=just as high, but suretype, Curve= mid or low full qwerty, more to the Sidekick audience, Storm=full touch screen. 4 family, no need for anymore names.
Actually, I'd always thought that the main distinctive difference between the bold and curve series was the keyboards. It will be interesting to see what specs the next Curve has...
you're right, but i think we're only see the 8900 with that much sexiness, I think it was gonna be a Bold, but T-mobile didn't have there 3g out at that time(or it wasn't ready at the time)without 3g, what's so bold about it, so they doped it down to a curve, but that keyboard is what making my comment kinda off, so I don't know. I started out with a curve 8320, it did get me in just in time for my 9700(witch i love)
The bold 9650 will most likely be in my hands this weekend , if vzw gets it in stores by then :D
An announcement of VZ's 9650 release date would help you plan a bit more responsibly. I wouldn't want to see you camp out in front of a Verizon store needlessly.
Fail I guess I'll get the EVO.
it looks a tad bigger that the onyx, the thank goodness that tour look is gone, its looking good, they finally listened on the design. the keyboard looks good it should of gone up to 1gig thou on the memory still looks good. vzw is going to show off now.
Why is the old style battery door being used? And the music has to go. Lol
I'm kind of hoping the retail on the Pearl isn't too high. I'm considering buying just to have as a nice option for when I want to carry lightly!!!
that the battery door doesn't have that old style Bold door. IMO it looked tacky.
You had the VP of Marketing right there. Why didn't you ask him why the 9630 wasn't built like the 9650? The 9650 is what the 9630 should have been since day 1.
That would have put the VP of Marketing in a very awkward position. It's best to maintain a good relationship with a company like RIM when you run a site like CRACKBERRY. (Makes sense, doesn't it?)
Even if the urge were too strong, perhaps it would be wiser to ask those burning questions when the cameras aren't rolling.
ill never understand why blackberry doesnt put its headphone jack on the top of the device??? it seems so unintuitive to put it of the side.
I so prefer having the headphone jack on the side. I find it much more convenient.
I was hoping he would click on the about screen and show the software version :(
I was hoping for the same, especially when they were thinking do we need to cover anything else (watched others videos from wes).
Looks like from the video I saw on another site that its OS 5.0.0.621 Bundle 1055 Platform 4.2.0.282
That pearl is packing a punch. I have never considered a pearl till now it would be so nice to have a small berry to carry around. Small but when u pull that thing out its like a little bomb. Small but full of power
Any chance we will see a CDMA version of the new Pearl(s)? Would be perfect for my sister!
Hey Kevin
can you or anybody else qualify that as 9100/9105 has 256 of memory, will this stop it running upcoming os6 and webkit,
wasn't sure if it had to have 512 to run new software
That looped background music makes this video and the last one hard to bear. A distracting monotony that becomes super annoying after 15 seconds. Please. Stop. :-)
I agree! That background syntho-music is god-awful! Can you re-edit to exclude it while demonstating the new BBs.
Wireless N on the pearl but not on the Bold? Isn't the Bold meant to be top of the line?
Look they're nice but seriously. With all these other smart phones coming out you'd think they could've done better!
Just more of the same from RIM.... When are they ever going to breakout with something jaw dropping?!?! if you were to line up all blackberry's ... they all look the same!
Except the Storm series.. OS is so bland its like using windows 3.0 arrrggg! I love my BB but its getting a little stale..IMHO.
I may consider the Droid or some other phone when my contracts up in June.
They really are! But ... the competition out there(I know, blah blah we've heard it over and over) HTC, Google(Android) ..Be it even the Little Apple, have been in the works of stepping it up in specs and technology and RIM keeps rolling out a waxed and polished version of last years model.
I am in no way dissing RIM, I have a Storm2 and it's a really sweet device. It does what I want (usually! Lol)it's gorgeous looking and it serves it's purpose. But y'know, sometimes people want a 'lil eye candy, a little oomf. I had test drove the HTC Magic and it blew me away at the time! (It had ALOT of draw backs though - so I opted for the Bold 9000) and now with the new Android devices that can do everything but tuck you in at night - RIM's devices are nifty, but not quite as tantalizing.
RIM makes a great device line - I will give them that, but sometimes when it comes to deciding between Reliable and Current... unfortunately Current may win
Now, on the devices part.. the Pearl is a very nice option for compactness, but I am not 100% sure i'd drop my upgrade in February for something as such, I'm still going to see what Apple has going in July, or if Rogers will upgrade their stale Android line.
Anyway..Thanks for the review guys! :)
Any idea when either of these will be available in the UK?


















