With BlackBerry 7 Smartphones beginning to hit the market, I can't help but feel we're gaining some momentum again on the RIMPIRE STRIKES BACK front.

Loyal BlackBerry super fans are obviously stoked about the new lineup. These are by far the sweetest BlackBerry Smartphones to date (enter to win your choice of a new BB7 phone here!). Be sure to check out the video above from the recent BlackBerry 7 Fan Night to see what super fans are loving about the Bold 9900/9930 and Torch 9850/9860/9810. Yours truly makes a brief appearance at 4 seconds in giving the 'ole Rick Flair Woooo!

But beyond the loyal fans, what has me really excited are the number of tweets, emails, forum posts, blog comments and calls I've been seeing and receiving from people who are currently on other platforms but are switching to BlackBerry to give the new phones a go. Some of these are ex-BlackBerry users giving up the iPhone 4s and Android phones they left BB for, while others are picking up BlackBerry for the first time. Looks like we have have some new BlackBerry fans emerging here!

One such fan is Matt Miller, over at ZDnet, who posted an article today titled Becoming a BlackBerry fan when it's not cool to do so. I'm not a fan of that article of course - seriously, I'm way cooler than any iPhone or Android fanboy I know, but the article is a great example that there's continued hope for RIM in the mobile space. Matt is a cross-platform guy, and has his pick of phones and tablets from every platform. And right now, BlackBerry is the one he's becoming a fan of:

I enjoy Android, but grow tired of low battery life, constant app updates, and all the different user experiences. iOS devices are great, but I am not a huge fan of the current application-focused UI... The funny thing is that I am now becoming a RIM BlackBerry fan - at a time when people seem to be writing off the company and device as past their prime. Let me explain why.

You'll want to jump over and read Matt's full post, but the short answer is that when it comes to a no-compromise mobile experience, in a world where people own both phones and tablets, the combination of BlackBerry Bold 9930 and BlackBerry PlayBook is a killer one. Welcome to the BlackBerry Fan Club Matt!

After recording up our BlackBerry Bold comparison video at BlackBerry 7 Fan Night, RIM's Jeff Gadway and I did up a final video for the night, this time taking a look at the evolution of the full touchscreen experience on BlackBerry Smartphones (thanks again to CrackBerry member the brother for doing the filming!).

With the BlackBerry Bold line representing the best of the traditional BlackBerry form factor and experience, the Torch brand now represents the best of the full touchscreen experience. So the Storm name is officially dead, and that's why you're now seeing two form factors of Torches -- both the slider 9800/9810 and full touchscreen 9850/9860 -- under the Torch brand. Thus the Curve brand for RIM represents entry level BlackBerry Smartphones, which will cover both styles of form factor (and yes, new Curves are definitely on the way soon).

We cover a lot of things in this video, so it's definitely one to watch. We start off with a comparison of the BlackBerry Storm 2 to the new full touchscreen BlackBerry Torch 9850 / 9860, and from there we do a comparison of the Torch 9800 to the BlackBerry Torch 9810, including a web browser head to head. The new Torch is said to be 40% faster at web browsing than BlackBerry 6 (and I think a 100% faster than OS 5), and we definitely saw every percent of that improvement in our initial tests. I can't wait to get some BlackBerry 7 devices to call my own so I can really put them through my standard CrackBerry tests. Maybe it's time for another BBM Stress Test?!!  Enjoy the video!

Rounding out our trifecta of BlackBerry 7 Fan Night device hands-on videos starring RIM's VP of Software, Andrew Bocking, next up we have the king berry... the BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9930 (be sure to check out our Torch 9810 and Torch 9850/9860 videos). 

Back at BlackBerry World I did a pretty in-depth CrackBerry hands-on and first impressions review of the Bold 9900 /9930 (seriously, check out that post!), and my main first impressions then held true this time around. I love the look and feel of the new Bold, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE KEYBOARD, and I love that there's finally a touchscreen on a front-facing qwerty BlackBerry. The new Bold is FAST, rich looking and is just the absolute best of the traditional BlackBerry experience. Check out the video above for yet another look of this bad boy. Loving it!!!

If you're not up to par with your Major League Baseball history, you might not know the name Joe Carter. And if not, you should! He's best known for his amazing walk-off home run that gave the Toronto Blue Jays the 1993 World Series Victory. Suffice to say he is a Toronto hero, which is where the BlackBerry 7 Fan Night was held and Joe was on hand at the event to talk BlackBerry! Joe was in heavy demand all night, but I managed to grab a couple minutes of his time. Check out the video above - he is an uber cool guy.  Thanks for the time Joe!

 
New BlackBerry Smartphones... Tons of CrackBerry Fans.. now that's a BlackBerry 7 Fan Night!

If you don't follow me on twitter (@crackberrykevin), you may not have realized yet that I was on location in Toronto last night for the much talked about BlackBerry 7 Fan Night! All of the newly-announced BlackBerry 7 Smartphones were on hand, as were lots of media, lots of people from RIM, some celebs (recorded a sweet interview with Joe Carter!) and a ton of fans of BlackBerry. I quickly realized that fans of BlackBerry tend to be fans of CrackBerry as well - it was awesome to meet soooo many CrackBerry readers in person!

I spent a bunch of time on the new BlackBerry 7 phones and of course recorded a bunch of videos that'll be hitting the blogs here over the next 24 hours (have a couple ready to go but have to head to the airport shortly to fly home so will do the rest as soon as I'm back). I also got some solid answers to a few of the questions we've been pondering, so will shed some light on those. There's a lot to talk about it and a bunch of videos to watch, so keep it locked to CrackBerry! Thanks for the great night RIM!

The BlackBerry UK site is already posting up pictures and information for the BlackBerry Torch 9810 and Torch 9860. I guess it's safe to say that at least these two BlackBerry 7 devices will be announced at the event today. ;) They look so beautiful up there, so shiny and awesome! Which one will you be taking home once they're available?

Source: BlackBerry UK

With RIM's BlackBerry 7 Fan Night coming up on Wednesday in Toronto, rumors are flying around about what exactly is going to happen there. Of course it will be a party, but aside from rubbing elbows with other BlackBerry addicts, nomming on hors d'oeuvre, and of course getting that much anticipated BlackBerry 7 device, just what else is planned?

Well, your first clue is right there. Research In Motion is throwing in a BlackBerry 7 device as part of the prize for those lucky winners from the Twitter contest last week. Since they didn't specify the prize is a BlackBerry Bold 9900/30 and the event isn't called BlackBerry 9900 Fan Night, it stands to reason that they have plans to announce at least a few more of the seven devices they assured us were coming this year. Maybe the attendees will even get some hands on time with devices like the BlackBerry Torch 2 9810, or the Torch 9850/60.