The smartphone is expected to arrive in stores on January 9

Dec 19, 2011 11:31 GMT  ·  By

Orange is the second carrier that confirms it will offer the BlackBerry Bold 9790 in the UK, after O2, who said one month ago that it will launch the smartphone in January 2012.

 

The Bold 9790 is currently listed on Orange UK’s site with the “Coming Soon” tag attached to it, but no exact release date has been given yet. However, UK-based MobileFun retailer claims that the smartphone will be available at Orange UK on January 9, 2012.

 

O2 UK will probably announce the availability of the Bold 9790 around the same timeframe, but pricing options will probably be different.

 

Built on the success of the popular BlackBerry Bold 9780, the Bold 9790 features the same design layout with the traditional QWERTY keyboard. However, the new BlackBerry 7 handset is delivered with a 2.45-inch capacitive touchscreen, whereas the Bold 9780 has a standard 2.44-inch display.

 

The smartphone’s touchscreen display supports 480 x 360 pixels resolution and 16 million colors. It features an optical trackpad for easier control and several sensors, such as ambient light sensor.

 

According to RIM, BlackBerry 9790 features “elegant lines and a premium finish conceal a powerful processor that delivers a truly outstanding experience.”

 

While not the most powerful BlackBerry handset available in the market, the Bold 9790 is equipped with a 1 GHz single core Marvel Tavor MG1 processor and packs 8GB of internal memory and 768MB of RAM.

 

Potential customers should know that they will be able to expand storage via microSD card slot up to 32GB. Depending on the carrier, the phone will be delivered with NFC (Near Field Communications) support as well.

 

On the connectivity front, the BlackBerry Bold 9790 features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, HSDPA and HSUPA, as well as microUSB and built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS. The 5-megapixel camera on the back features autofocus, LED flash, and VGA video recording capabilities.