The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is barely out of the gates, and we’re already looking at the next smartphone from RIM to launch with the new operating system. We’ve seen the BlackBerry 9670 “Oxford” clamshell in a variety of live shots before, but registered developers are getting access to a device simulator (from which this shot is taken), showing that a launch may be sooner than you think. Just to run through the specs real quick, the BlackBerry 9670 will reportedly have a HVGA display and a lower-res external display, a 5 megapixel camera, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage memory, and run OS 6.
From what we know, the 9670 is built for CDMA networks, so this very well may be Verizon’s answer to AT&T’s BlackBerry Torch, and if they’re smart, they’ll release it before the back-to-school season really kicks in. That Mulroney-grade chin stands pretty prominently in this rendering, which was another distinctive feature in the last flip BlackBerry. What’s weird about the picture though, is that the keyboard rocks the Curve style, rather than the Bold, which is what we’ve seen in the real pictures; the menu/back and call/hang up keys are also laid out differently. It seems unlikely that the hardware is undergoing any significant changes at this point, so it’s possible this simulator has been available for awhile, and this was just what early designs of the BlackBerry 9670 were looking like at the time.
For developers interested in working with OS 6, and anyone else curious enough to poke around, here are the download sites for the BlackBerry 9670 simulator:
[via BBLeaks]