BlackBerry 9800 Spotted on Its Way to AT&T

The long rumored BlackBerry 9800 smartphone is now one-step closer to its official release. Following a wide range of rumors regarding the handset's existence, new photos with the device have just made it into the wild, proving that not only that Canadian phone maker Research In Motion is working on this BlackBerry smartphone, but also the fact that it should land on the market on the airwaves of at least one carrier.

The upcoming BlackBerry 9800, a handset that would sport a sliding design, has been spotted en route to AT&T, a recent article on Engadget reports. The exact name under which the new mobile phone would arrive on the market is not known now, as rumors pointed towards Bold or Torch as possible brandings, but things seem to be moving towards an official announcement in the near future.

The guys at Engadget came up with an extensive series of photos with the new device, and they say that the BlackBerry 9800 seems to be almost final. The software it runs under is said to be version 0.9, though the user interface seems to resemble a lot with the BlackBerry 6 operating system (a “refined look and subtle 3D elements” are the main identifiers).

As stated above, the BlackBerry 9800 unit that can be admired in the photos below sports AT&T branding, though it should hit the market as a world phone. According to the handset's About screen, it includes support for WCDMA bands I, II, V, and VI, making it suitable for use in most European markets, along with some Asian ones.

Among the known specs of the handset, though only rumored ones for the time being, we should mention a touchscreen display (probably of 320 x 240 pixel resolution), the sliding QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi (b/g/n) connectivity options, an optical trackpad, and 256 MB of RAM. Other details are missing at the moment but, in case the BlackBerry 9800 is indeed set to soon land on the market, all the necessary info should be unveiled in the near future. The full photo gallery with the device can be seen here.