BlackBerry Bold (also known as BlackBerry 9000), the latest high-end smartphone announced by RIM, will be released in the US only via AT&T at first, starting with an unspecified month this summer.

Officially presented by Research in Motion yesterday, the Bold will be the seventh BlackBerry available for AT&T's customers. The new smartphone is clearly the best-looking BlackBerry handset unveiled until now and also the one that packs the most advanced features. Although the device's retail price was not announced yet, nor its price with an AT&T contract, users should expect the 9000 to be the most expensive BlackBerry, which is somehow logical, considering what we've written about it above.

Weighing 4.96 ounces (133 grams) and measuring 4.48 x 2.59 x 0.55 inches (114 x 66 x 14 millimeters) BlackBerry Bold 9000 sports a 480 x 320 pixel display with 65K colors, a full QWERTY keyboard and trackball navigation (like all the smartphones produced by RIM). The handset is the first from RIM's line-up to feature tri-band UMTS connectivity, hence it offers users the ability to browse the web and transfer data at 3G speeds.

The rest of the features the Bold comes with include quad-band GSM connectivity with GPRS and EDGE, a 624 MHz processor, GPS, Wi-Fi, full HTM browser, BlackBerry maps, Instant Messaging and email, advanced Music and Video players, 3.5 mm audio jack, a 2 Megapixel camera with flash and video recording (no autofocus unfortunately), 1GB of built-in memory and microSD card support (for up to 16GB, apparently). BlackBerry 9000 is powered by a 1500 mAh battery that should provide up to 5 hours of talk-time and up to 310 hours of stand-by time.

While AT&T is surely offering the Bold 9000, other US carriers will probably get it too, after a few months from its release via the largest North American operator. Therefore, mobile users who are currently not AT&T's customers and want a new BlackBerry have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on it.