The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Torch 9810 have both made their visits to the FCC, and now another one of RIM’s upcoming OS 7 smartphones is showing its face in some official capacity. We already had a pretty good feeling that the Torch 9860 was on the way to a release after it accidentally slipped out in a Verizon demo. The FCC docs show support for standard HSPA bands, EV-DO 1X, and AWS, which basically covers the whole gamut of North American carriers.
The Torch 9860 falls closely in line with the rest of the upcoming BlackBerry family with features like NFC, a magnetic compass, 1.2 GHz processor with 768 MB of RAM, and mobile hotspot functions. The one defining characteristic of the BlackBerry 9860 is its 3.7-inch 800 x 480 screen. That might not sound like an obscenely awesome display in the grand scheme of smartphones, but for RIM, that’s the biggest and sharpest they’ve produced to date (though the Bold 9900 will cram in just a few more pixels per inch).
So far, the Torch 9850/60 is shaping up to be the OS 7 BlackBerry that finds its way onto all carriers. I suspect other devices, like the Bold 9900, Bold 9790, and Curve 9360 will all be split up in various exclusivity deals, but you never know; RIM is in quicksand these days, and they may not be able to afford limiting their retail options at this point.
In any case, RIM is holding an event in Toronto soon where we’re expecting to learn more about what they’re planning on launching and when.
[via Engadget]