Nice to see a true, albeit similar, successor to the 8900, but how strange for RIM to go to the trouble of producing this hybrid for one market, especially when it would surely have been easier just to release the 9700.

Hey bla1ze, There's always eBay lol

Well they always get the upgrades first

I do wonder the import costs... TMO should be all over this!!!

and i posted first!!!

anyone know if this device will be coming to europe?

Are all China bound Blackberrys out of step model lines? If they are then the reason RIM goes to all of the trouble to do this is because
Of government censorship, prolly has different gps software or censoring/ device control software. Probably like "kill switch" kinda stuff. What do you guys think?

So basically they slapped an 8900 keyboard on a 9700 and took away the 3G capabilities...odd. The phones does look a lot nicer than the 9300, though.

What the heck??? We have to move to China to get a decent curve? I'll be damned if I'm going to go from my 8900 to an 8530 or a 9300. My daughter has the 8530 & it sucks. I guess anyone in America wants a decent upgrade we have no choice but the Bold?

Does anyone know what that little chrome button is on the bottom left side is? Ive never really done much research into this strange BB.

the Curve keyboard. Much easier to type on for sure. Thats the only real complaint I have about it.

Interesting. Looks nice, in fact, much sexier than the new 9300. However, it lacks 3G which means it's gonna be like crawling when surfing the net and handling other data intensive applications.

And still make me say, wow thats a sexy model of a phone.

Maybe its the tilt in the picture, but the black with red accents is hot.

smh @ myself

"Eh
By: Karmaloop | Date: Tue, 08/31/2010 - 15:32
So basically they slapped an 8900 keyboard on a 9700 and took away the 3G capabilities...odd. The phones does look a lot nicer than the 9300, though."

"What the heck??? ...
By: smhotstuff | Date: Tue, 08/31/2010 - 15:39
... I'll be damned if I'm going to go from my 8900 to an 8530 or a 9300. I guess anyone in America wants a decent upgrade we have no choice but the Bold?"

No doubt, absolutely agreed.

Another FranknBerry? WTF, When are we going to see some processor upgrades???? C'mon RIM get with the times!!! Its just another slow ass FranknBerry....

why wont you guys answer my tip of the 8980 pic i have?!?! ive sent it 3 times!!!

That is exactly what I want! My Bold 9700 with a curve keyboard... If enough people make a comment about this maybe we'll be able to get it here one of these days.. Call it a Bold/Curve 9890 with extra memory, better camera and of course OS 6.

I think RIM should have called it a Burve or a Cold.

"I'd rather have this device then say a BlackBerry Curve 3G"
+1

Yet another phone packaged with 256mb of memory? What gives? If there is any mention of MB on the details of the BBs when it's time to upgrade, I will be looking elsewhere. Who knows how much internal memory the "sucksessor" to OS6 will chew up. Having a standard of at least 1gb would be an o.k. start.

so far looks like a good looking device

Umm that isnt a curve keyboard its a 9650 keyboard, and that def is NOT a 9700 body, note the charcoal chrome edging. What was this information based off of?

Umm that isnt a curve keyboard its a 9650 keyboard, and that def is NOT a 9700 body, note the charcoal chrome edging. What was this information based off of?

Look closely at the keyboard its kind of tricky... but you can see those are the more defined keys that usually compliment the Bold, its hard to tell though without the chrome strips between each row.

Also the back looks like it may be a unique build, the chrome front appears to be from a 9650 as well.

So basically its a hacked up Bold with less muscle.

Someone doesn't know their BlackBerries.

This is my DREAM Berry. A big screen with a Curve design keyboard. I gave up my 9700 because I hate the keyboard...Make one for me Pleaaassseeeee

It's a 9700 body, completely, with a different keyboard. Hmm...innovative? Yep- just like the Bold 9650...the successor to the flop Tour. The word innovation and Blackberry used to go together in the same sentence and that just is no longer true. Re-purposing the same old design over and over again is something that even a dumb consumer like me can figure out...like the upcoming Bold 9780 or whatever it is...hmm, just color the cheap plastic band black, pack in a little more memory, better camera and make it WiFi N capable and call it a "new phone"when it'll look identical to my 9700.

I'm still on the Blackberry bandwagon, but my Android is getting more and more use these days. I'm not the only one who feels that way- just Google RIM and read how their market share is eroding daily.

Makes sense to create the frankenberry because they aren't wasting 3g parts on a carrier that won't do 3G.

That's cool! I would also like my bold 9700 with a curve keyboard..but wouldn't want the inferior features :/