Online retailers are starting to publish product pages for the BlackBerry Torch 9800 – it’s not going to be cheap or here before mid-September.
The smartphone from Research in Motion (RIM) runs on BlackBerry OS 6.0 and was tipped to be an iPhone 4 rival ahead of its release in the US this summer.
And despite its average sales and lukewarm reception in the US, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 has been given a £569.99 price tag on expanys.com.
However, it’s being offered for less on rival sites with Play.com selling the phone for £479.99 and handtec.co.uk pricing it at £493.49 on pre-order.
Play.com has the recommended retail price for the Torch 9800 set at £499.99.
The earliest release date of the three sites is handtec.co.uk, which says it should have the phone in stock by mid-September at the earliest.
Both Play.com and expanys.com give the phone a due date of October, while Play.com say it will be here the end of October and expanys.com say it’s due from the start of the month.
MobileShop.com reported that Vodafone will be the first UK network to carry the BlackBerry Torch 9800 slider phone. O2, Three and Orange are also reported to be supplying the phone.
The new Blackberry Torch 9800 has a 3.2-inch touchscreen, a slide out physical keyboard, Blackberry OS 6.0, visual voicemail, an optical TrackPad and a five- megapixel camera with flash.
Other up-and-c0ming releases predicted to be running on the new operating system include the BlackBerry Storm 3, codename Odin, and is very similar to the existing Storm phones such as the Storm 2 9520.
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Read: BlackBerry Torch 9800 – still to appear on network sites
Read: BlackBerry Storm 3 ‘training slide leak’ (shhhh … it’s a secret)
Read: ‘BlackBerry Curve 9300 out in August’
Read: All MobileShop.com’s news stories and blog posts on BlackBerry phones
August 25th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
It wasn’t known as the Blackberry Storm 3. It is a completely separate project. There is still a storm 3 to come out, without surepress and without a keyboard. Get your facts straight blud! brap brap
August 26th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Right blud. What can I say? You are right. I am shamed. Really. I don’t like to make mistakes. I have previously done an article about BlackBerry OS 6.0 (I think it was predicted the operating system would be released first on the Storm 3). And I put two and two together, thought that’s strange and should have checked the facts. Thank you for keeping me on my toes and reminding me of the need to check and check again.
August 26th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
What does brap mean? :-S