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BlackBerry Introduces New Pearl 3G and Bold 9650 Handsets

by Terrence O'Brien on April 26, 2010 at 12:24 PM

BlackBerry Introduces New Pearl and Bold Handsets
RIM may not be Apple, and the BlackBerry Storm certainly isn't the iPhone, but, when the company that made mobile e-mail a "must" for the business professional releases some seriously updated hardware, we pay attention.

The new Pearl 3G finally brings the tiny, pseudo-QWERTY, consumer BlackBerry model into the 21st century by adding 802.11n Wi-Fi, GPS, and both T-Mobile and AT&T 3G capabilities. Like the rest of the BlackBerry lineup, the handset is ditching the trackball in favor of an optical pad, but, oddly, customers will have the option of picking up the Pearl with the traditional SurePress, or with a decidedly un-smartphone-like numerical keypad.

The Pearl 3G was announced alongside the BlackBerry Bold 9650, an update to the Tour line of mobile messaging handsets. The Bold 9650 adds 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, as well as an extra 256 MB of internal storage and the new RIM-standard optical pad. Globetrotters should be happy, since it packs both Sprint- and Verizon-compatible CDMA radios and GSM receivers for both placing calls and sending e-mails overseas.

Both new BlackBerry handsets should be hitting store shelves in May. [From: RIM, via Engadget]

Tags: blackberry, BlackberryBold, BlackberryBold9650, BlackberryPearl, BlackberryPearl3g, cellphones, RIM, smartphones, top

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