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BlackBerry Bold 9900, Torch 9810, Torch 9860 official pics

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900, Torch 9810 and Torch 9860 are stuffed with the new BlackBerry 7 and Messenger 6 software and various degrees of touchiness.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
Richard Trenholm
2 min read

I want a trio and I want one now: a trio of new BlackBerry smart phones that is. The new BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry 9810 and Torch 9860 were officially unveiled today by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, along with international versions called the Bold 9930 and Torch 9850.

The Bold 9900, pictured top left, sports a Qwerty keyboard as well as a 2.8-inch touchscreen. It's stuffed with 8GB of memory. Other features include near-field communication to pay for stuff by waving your phone at a till. The 9930 is the same phone but uses the CDMA network in the US.

The BlackBerry Torch 9810 (middle) is the sequel to the BlackBerry Torch 9800, with a 3.2-inch touchscreen and slide-out Qwerty keyboard.

The 9860 (pictured right) is the only one of the trio not to bother with a keyboard -- instead it's a 3.7-inch touchscreen all the way, the biggest screen BlackBerry has offered. It has a 5-megapixel camera and 4GB of memory. The US version is called the 9850.

Each phone packs a 1.2GHz processor and records high-definition video from its 5-megapixel camera.

The new phones all come with BlackBerry 7 software onboard, the latest version of RIM's operating system. BB7 includes improved Web browsing and souped-up visuals known as Liquid Graphics.

They also come loaded with BlackBerry Messenger 6, which lets you chat in apps and games.

Never one to waste any time, phone network Three says it will offer the Bold 9900 and 9810. There's no date for the 9810, but the 9900 lands in the "coming weeks". Are you excited about the latest BlackBerry trio?

Initial reaction from our Facebook page is a resounding yawn: Dale Townsend says, "Deathly dull is a generous understatement..." while Michael Panayi asks whether "their phone designers have gone on strike for the past 3 years?!! Why don't they try making something different for a change?" And Andrew Palmer zings "4GB of memory?? Wow, how will Apple compete with that?"

  • Our roving reporter Luke Westaway has tried out the trio, so look out for hands-on previews and videos of the Bold 9900, Torch 9810 and Torch 9860 shortly.