14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry Thunder, also known as BlackBerry 9500, the first full-touch handset to be made in Canada (by RIM), has now appeared in what are believed to be the first real images with it.
The 9500 Thunder seems to be the most media-centered from all of RIM's devices. Spotted at BlackBerrySync, the new images are showing the 9500 featuring a dedicated music interface, a Video player and only four hardware keys. Since there's no info about a QWERTY keypad packed in the Thunder, we're guessing these keys and the large touchscreen will be the only ways to access the functions of the device.
The display of Thuder is said to be of 3.5 inches and 360 x 480 pixels, but these are, of course, unconfirmed details. Still, if the handset has such a display (maybe with 16 million colors too), it would mean that iPhone 3G's display is, theoretically, outperformed, since it only has a 320 x 480 pixel resolution.
BlackBerry Thunder 9500 should have a CDMA/EV-DO version for North America and a GSM/HSDPA one for Europe, Asia and the rest of the markets. Furthermore, the handset is said to come with the following features: BlackBerry OS 4.7, internal GPS, a powerful processor, internal memory of at least 1GB, advanced Web browsing capabilities, a good photo camera and so on.
Anyway, so far, there's absolutely no info from RIM to confirm the existence or features of BlackBerry Thunder. Therefore, until the Ontario-based manufacturer comes up with something official, all the details about the new handset should be considered just rumors - after all, even the new leaked images might be Photoshop renderings.
Research in Motion could announce the new Thunder in the next weeks, so let's wait and see if everything is as nice as it seems to be.
