RIM's BlackBerry Bold 9780 Launches Worldwide In November

The new BlackBerry 9780 carries over many of the features of the Bold 9650, and ramps up some of the internal specs.

It has the same 624MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and 2.44-inch display with 480 x 320 pixels. The 970 spots a nicely upgrade camera, which offers 5 megapixels with autofocus and flash. The 9780 also makes the switch from CDMA technology to GSM/EDGE/HSDPA technology, with 3G speeds reaching 3.6Mbps (why no 7.2Mbps, RIM?).

Other specs note that the Bold 9780 will have 802.11b/g Wi-Fi on board with support for UMA-based Wi-Fi calling. That's a great feature for enterprises to take advantage of. It also packs GPS and Bluetooth for navigation and headsets, respectively. It will support microSD cards up to 32GB for media and content storage.

To the untrained eye, it is nearly identical to the 9650 in terms of outward appearance. Beyond slightly better hardware features, the biggest improvement offered by the 9780 is that it will ship with the new BlackBerry 6 operating system on board.

BlackBerry 6 offers a refreshed user interface, the new WebKit-based browser with tabbed browsing, better menus, new core applications, and built-in Flash Player Mobile 10.1.

The first BlackBerry to ship with BB6 on board was the 9800 Torch, which is available from AT&T. RIM has committed to updating the 9650 to BB6 before the end of the year. The recently-launched Style 9670 also has BB6.

The Bold 9780 will be available from T-Mobile on November 17 for the price of $130 after rebate with new agreement. The Bold 9780 will launch worldwide from other carriers during November, as well.