14 DAY TRIAL // One of the handsets that Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion will probably never bring to the market is the BlackBerry Magnum, a device said to have been developed as a touchscreen / QWERTY hybrid. The phone made it into the wild a few times before, and we already learned that it has been scrapped, yet now a video with it has emerged on the Internet.
The video, as well as the latest info on the handset, has been made available courtesy of thecellularguru (via Engadget), which says it plain and clear once again that the BlackBerry Magnum is not slated for a market release, and that we won't see it available via any carrier around. However, the video below shows a little of what this device might have been, although it only presents a prototype.
On the down side, the handset presented in the video does not sport an operating system on board, meaning that you won't be able to see it at work. Even so, one can have a closer look at its exterior appearance, and the resemblance between the BlackBerry Magnum and devices like BlackBerry Bold 9000 or 9700 is easily noticeable. Interestingly enough, the phone looks more like the older 9000 rather then resembling with the 9700, though it still has features of its own, including a micro-USB port.
While Magnum is set to never see the light of day, one device that bears most of its features and which should make an appearance on the market is a BlackBerry smartphone codenamed Dakota, of which you might have heard already. The phone brings together the familiar QWERTY keyboard of Bold or Curve with the SurePress screen of Storm, basically turning into the hybrid device that Magnum was supposed to be. No specific details on Dakota are available for the time being, except for a 9700-like appearance, and for a possible landing on the market in the not too distant future.