Does anyone know if the 9650 has had the battery charger slot moved? The original Tour charger/usb slot is in a very terrible sspot.

cant wait!!!

We shall see. Just hurry up & release the frakin thing! This World Edition is workin my last good nerve!!!

We shall see. Just hurry up & release the frakin thing! This World Edition is workin my last good nerve!!!

Pah-leeze get it out Sprint!

We shall see. Just hurry up & release the frakin thing! This World Edition is workin my last good nerve!!!

We shall see. Just hurry up & release the frakin thing! This World Edition is workin my last good nerve!!!

It would be nice to see Sprint roll this out 1st and get one up on everyone. Its about time seeing all the hype surrounding this device. Now hopefully we will get this lucky with the rumored slider berry.....

Does anyone really care anymore about the 9650? With the much anticipated BB slider coming out later this year, does the new Bold (formally the new Tour) really matter much? Is it delivering anything we haven't seen or had before?

I currently have a Tour 9630 and I think this will be the last BB device I buy until RIM comes out with something new and exciting.

I'm looking forward to renouncing my allegiance to RIM and exploring the Android OS and get the HTC EVO 4G the first day it hits the shelves. Unfortunately, only God knows when that will be.

Anything else master RIM

I was excited when I first saw this post, and after thinking about it further I realized it's just my Tour with wifi and trackpad. While those features would've been nice to have on my phone, I've lived without. I'm honestly more excited about the HTC EVO. BlackBerry better come out with a slick 4G phone soon or they're going to start losing customers...

I mean RIM

I'm with you on that one. RIM has been kinda slacking in the new features dept. They release new stuff with only a few mods. That's kind of like how iPhone does it LOL

Cant wait to replace my Curve 8330 with this device.

Well its about time !! I'm a former ALLTEL customer who is fed up with Verizon and the mistreatment. I don['t think that voice quality is as good on Sprint but I can save a bunch of money switching to Sprint and I probably will as soon as the new Bold is out. That's what I have been waiting for!!

Why would you come to a BB website to talk about how you're "super excited to leave RIM and go Android!" Go to an Android page! Also, seriously, everyone here cries about how this is just an updated Tour. Guess what, other than the trackball, lack of WiFi, and battery door, the Tour is an excellent phone. Almost everyone I know (other than 12 year olds who just want $\/\/337 4ppz) has the Tour for Verizon. So, many of us are excited about these "minor" updates, because they fix the major flaws in an otherwise outstanding phone.

I'm all for the release but is it going to have the same leather like bold batt door or is it carbon fiber? I just want the bold to be a bold and not make it a tour but put a bold brand in the back that's just cheap rim

thought the original tour was garbage and this one doesn't seem to fix any of my concerns with the original. i'll stick with the 8530 till the next round of outdated phones

this phone better come out for verizon first! it would would only make sense!

The Tour garbage? Weird definition of garbage imo. This will be a sosolid device.. A bit late with the release though. Let's see what extra's it offers

I need a new phone now.This 8130 pearl is running out of memory.

I'm not sure, but this could be true. Sprint releases new services, devices, etc on Sundays ! The 16th is a Sunday - hopefully it is true.

-gets down and prays- God.. i don't ask for much except big screen LCD tvs, cars, 42 virgins and for my team to win the championship.. but god.. please let this blackberry be released to us before Verizon.

I don't mind the location of the usb slot because it means all my tour accessories will work and I have a shit load

but I am having doubts about RIM in general.
Looking back at Kevin's pyramid, Android may be more up my alley....I just don't know!

i work in a sprint corporate store, im definately going to have the handset hot sheet when i get to work in the a.m. to confirm the validity of this!

Realistically, I can't see Sprint releasing it prior to VZW, but I'm sure WES will clear things up! :)

For those of us that still have the 8330, not to mention the 8330m and therefore not even os5 (!), this is a major upgrade. I think it's pretty weak that they tried to smooth over the ticked off customers that bought a tour RIGHT before they introduced the trackpad by re-branding it, but whatever. And I agree with the above post- it BETTER have the leather back, I mean they're the ones that decided to make it a bold, so make it a bold!

theres no way in this world this is a bold so your telling me i can put nike on a converse and have it a nike how nice, i must be a real idiot to accept that and im the one spending my money, im pretty sure the mass of the people that wanted a bold wasn't expecting this at all. a leather back? you got to be kidding me, its plastic for madness sake, this is what you guys really want a tour with a new name. this really shows people dont call the big shoots around here, and for the comment above about updated tour, thats nice but isnt the idea of the name is for a different version of a phone, and since the original bold was above the heep in performance while still there was the tour what does this mean for the true bold name, surely not a bold, if its changing to a tour then they should of kept it real and stick it out to update the product and make better phones, this is old news, im not really suprize the only sad thing here is that your just buying the same phone with the same name, we are the fools not rim cause guess what while we argue about bb vs bb we are not getting what we are paying for. HTC is a big time scammer of this same crap, tilt 1 and tilt 2 just a example, the official bold was made for the power of comfort and speed in getting things done and while im sure the argue will continue on this a this is not what people who mean business is all about, want a smaller phone get a curve want a powerful device you know get the real deal it use to be very simple and straight forward, all these look alikes and addin 2 minor stuff here and there what is this its beginning to look like apple who takes years to get something right, you guys like this and want to support it with your hard earned cash fine, but i know you will be spending allot more before you get something that really hits the back, these guys will always get paid, and its always just about the money. well good luck and to Verizon i dont forget you as well, when i paid good money for my storm and you refused to give me help in replacing the product, you will never get my money again thats for sure. rim your blackberries deliver on demand but you got to stop ####ing around with people blood and sweat and just give the people what they ask for. we will see how there sales go when this comes out, money will be doing the talking on how well this sells thats for sure.

it says 8530

Just hope that the battery life is better. Mine only take up to 1 day for normal usage then recharge. I love the design of Tour than Bold 9700, but if no improvement on the battery, I'd consider move up to the 9700.

I just got to work, i can confirm on the current handset hot sheet that the Tour/Bold will indeed launch 5/16!!!

Blackberry Bold (9650) (5/16).

About time!

According to reports, the Bold may be coming to Sprint. Is there a big difference between the Bold series and the 8530 Curve??

To be honest, I think this phone is a waste of time. What's the point of it when there's already a Bold 9700 with pretty much the same specs? With phones like the HTC Desire/Incredible, and what looks like a decent iPhone coming soon, RIM should be ashamed of themselves releasing a backwards phone like this 9650.

That picture does not show a 9650...unless im blind!

Its the line with blue writing

Looks like sprint workers are still using windows 98?

I was going to update my HTC Mogul today to a BB Curve.
Should I wait till the Bold comes next month?

For a min RIM shed that 40+ and up only user friendly phone image. But with boring OS and 3.2 Cam's ect that all share mostly the same design, they will live and die by companies like Bank of America and ect. More variety is needed the most addicted crackberry head would agree.

Getting my HTC INC. on 29th.

But I have a 9630 which I have loved and then waited on this site month after month for stupid little upgrades with a bunch of other loyal members but come on if you are sending out updates to stop blinking red lights with on messages and ect whats the point if the phone is this basic

Its like we are using a type writer while everyone else has a HP on Windows 7. How many Offical OS do I have to wait for for the most simply browser since I have a Moto Razor on AT&T.

SMH

RIM better have a lot up its sleeve for WES, because this news is a total snoozefest. Last year's phone, YAWN . . . .

(sleeping)

RIP Tour 9630? Are they gonna stop making that?