That looks like a well designed phone! Wonder if it will come out this summer with the Bold.

Not my cup of tea, but very nice. My wife wants to get a BB, but only likes flip-phones, so this might be the phone for her! I don't see a SIM card, does anybody know if it's going to be CDMA? I'm assuming that it's a non-functional prototype, I would love to see the OS on that thing. 5.0 anyone?

Im not a big fan of flip phones, but the curved design of this one looks nice.

Not much of a flip kinda guy. just another thing to malfunction. I gotta give it to em that is the smoothest looking flip I have seen. Great lines both open and closed. I like the way when it is open the screen is tilted back (looks like for easier vuewing). Screen is just a little to small for me hard on the eyes (d@mn old age).

yeah, i dont like flip phones after having a full PDA/phone for years, but i must say this does look real slick

That looks very fancy :) Nice form to it. Going to be really difficult to chose which phone to get, this, the touchscreen, the hybrid, bold....so much great stuff to choose from. Be interesting to see Kickstart beside other BB's to see size comparison, looks around the 8100 size.

RIM are onto a massive Winner here !

I see the dinky-ass mini-usb hasn't been beefed up yet.

this looks pretty neat. i'm with nextel, and i have nextels latest greatest blackberry, the 3 year old 7100i. its the most recent blackberry they have, and i cant wait for the promised wifi enabled nextel iden blackberry.

as for the phone itself, the only prooblem i see with it is the fact that with flipphones, i tend to stick my fingernail into the flip, and push up on the screen and the drag my fingernails across it while opening. most phones i've had either had some kind of non scratching plastic over the screen there, or they were temporary, so i didnt care.

i have to say, the ability to slip this easily into my pocket is veeerrry appealing. veeerrry appealing indeed.

if it has wifi, theres a good chance that nextel will get get it, since the current phone is suretype, which i love. i see the new nextel either being the pearl, curve or bold, unless more specs come out revealing wifi on this thing.

I don't mind flip phones and I think RIM's done a great job with this one!
I might think about getting...too bad I have AT&T though!

Cute, but I won't be switching......

This is, in essence, a Pearl with a bigger screen. That's great for people who like the phone form factor, but won't win over those who want the full QWERTY keyboard.

The biggest problem for us Verizon subscribers is that we can be assured that it will come out with gimped GPS (tied to VZ Navigator and its $10/month subscription) and no Wifi, and it will probably come available 6-9 months after the more functional versions are sold by AT&T and T-Mobile. :-(

Form factor is neat...flip phones have their pros and cons...it will be interesting to see how this thing functions...Turn it on! :P

It's pretty sweet looking but no full keypad so like the pearl not for me but still a very nice looking berry. can't wait to see the new blackberrys come out I'm going to the store to check them all out even if it's not my service provider.

More or less it is a compact pearl, that is what I see from the second picture

I wouldn't expect much love for this form factor on a site dedicated to a phone which has only offered the candy-bar/brick form factor to date.

I love flip phones, but I love smart phones even more, so I've had to do without the flip. I'm excited about this one.

Flips:
-Have a smaller form factor when not in use, but they allow for more screen & keyboard real estate when in use.
-Are more protected when closed.
-Feel more natural against the face.
-Have a very simple and sure answer/end method. It's also very natural to just open or close a phone to answer or end a call.

Regarding "one more thing to break" flip durability and reliability hasn't been much of a problem since the early days of phones like the StarTac.

I hope to get this phone, if I can get past that darn Suretype keyboard. QWERTY all they way! SureType is short for, "I'm not Sure how to Type on this thing." I Kid! It's just a learning curve issue. I'm much faster on a pure numeric keypad than Suretype, just because of amount of experience.

I have had to many issues with flip phones but also maybe I have never been to kind to my previous phones. I do treatmy BB like a queen though.

But I do say that this phone looks really nice and slick. Its a BB so I would back because I know it will be quality.

How do all these pictures leak? This is odd. This has to be insider work.
No interest for me. The further away I am from this style of phone the better. Keyboard all the way.

If it's 3g for at&t, I may think about it. Other than that, yuckie!

Probably my next phone if it's from AT&T........

This thing is nothing but a Fugly Fat Razr cop off.

And the era of the Razr was done and over with by the end of '06.

Not to mention it probably couldn't survive the normal rigors that we put our Blackberry's through now.

Definitely not worth the investment as of now.

I think it will do well simply because its a Blackberry. I dont like the look of it myself. I think had any other company come up with a phone that looks like that, it would bomb. Not trying to hate, thats just what I think.

i love that phone!
cant wait to get my hands on one!

Nice looking device as far as flips go, but I would not un-@ss my Curve for one. I will however rescue my son from his RAZR and equip him with his own BB so he can match mom and dad.

We can be the three bears Dad(Curve)-Mom(Pearl)-Son(Kickstart?????). RAZR; Goldie Locks can have it!

I'll have one for sure. To be an alternate/backup for my Bold!

Looks nice, but I would like to have seen the screen in action to see what OS is on it. I dont care for the suretype, that is why i switched from the pearl to the curve. It is a good looking prototype though, just not my cup of tea.

that thing is kinda ugly

Now all RIM needs to do is make a Slider Berry!!

I'll admit, my first Blackberry is the Curve I just got from Verizon but that phone looks like every other Razor: they just slapped a Blackberry logo on it. IF I wanted a flip phone I would have purchased one.

Unimpressive

Really awesome for those who like flip phones. I wouldn't mind trying it for a week or two, but I know I would really miss the QWERTY keypad that I have on my Curve. I can see that there would be people out there who would like this phone. To each his/her own.

no way! you can't just make the blackberry a flip phone. then it isn't a blackberry at all, it's just like every other flip phone out there. i don't like it nore would i spend my money on it, for that i go back to a normal flip.

MY BROTHER IS TELLING ME TO GET THE IPHONE BUT IM WAITING FOR THE BOLD VIA SPRINT. WHATS THE DATE? SEPTEMBER 1ST OR SOMETIME IN SEPTEMBER. I'VE I NEXTEL SINCE THEY ARRIVED, IM A NEWBIE IN THE BB MARKET SO THIS IS GONNA BE MY FIRST BB :)

WITCHDOC

I think pics that leak out are great to stir up intrest. I just wish whoever takes the pics would put something in the pics to reference size. There is really no way to tell just how thick or long(folded or unfolded) the thing is.

This is a SWEET looking flip! It looks smart, smooth and sexy!

I dig all the Blackberries, but I've always liked flip phones more. And this ones looks to be roughly the same size as a Pearl closed. But has bigger, easier to hit, keys. The Pearl really is a pain to type, and dial on. Just wish the Talk/End keys were flipped with the Menu/Back keys.

Plus it looks pretty pimp from the side when opened.

I wouldn´t change my curve for the kickstart, but i bet my girl would love it... she would say "it looks so chic"..