Just in case you needed some extra assurance that Sprint would be getting RIM’s latest touchscreen slate, a shot of the device with a Sprint wallpaper has been sighted. Although we’ve also seen an AT&T wallpaper on the new Torch, and there are no sure bets without seeing the device itself branded, but the “activation required” notice at the top is a good indication that it’s a working CDMA model. Verizon and T-Mobile are also likely to pick up the Torch 9850/60, so you won’t be hurting for options.
The BlackBerry Torch 9850 is expected to be launched soon as an alternative to the Bold 9900. It has the same near-field communication chip, magnetic compass, 1.2 GHz processor and 768 MB of RAM, but instead of a classic QWERTY keyboard, it’s got a big 3.7-inch 480 x 800 touchscreen. The 5 megapixel camera isn’t a big upgrade, but at least the software can handle 720p video recording now.
The new Torch looks nice, even if it plays second-fidde to the giant 4-inch Android phones with dual-core processors and tons of apps. The whole breed of OS 7 devices will be incremental updates that barely keep BackBerry devices up to the current standard in hardware specs, but come early next year and we start seeing dual-core QNX BackBerry handsets, I think we’ll see a pretty notable leap.
[via N4BB]