BlackBerry Tour 9650 Could Launch in Late Spring After Being Renamed

RIM pre-announced the BlackBerry Tour 9650 early this year, but has kept quiet about it ever since. Unconfirmed reports indicate that this model won't be out for a couple of months, and may be sporting a different name when it's released.

Back in January, this company promised that it would soon announce the "BlackBerry Tour 9650", but information that has leaked out of RIM more recently indicates that this smartphone might instead be part of the Bold series when it hits the market. The reason behind this change is not known, but some have speculated that RIM is concerned about angering those who bought the original Tour by releasing the replacement much less than a year after the first one hit the market.

Whatever it ends up being named, this model is allegedly going to be released in May, though the source for this information didn't reveal what carrier(s) will be offering it at that time. The original is available from both Sprint and Verizon.

A Preliminary Overview of the BlackBerry Tour 9650
Even though this smartphone has not yet been announced, a great deal of information has already leaked out.

One of the most significant changes in the 9650 over its predecessor, the original Tour, will be an optical trackpad in place of the trackball.  This shouldn't surprise anyone, as RIM has been putting trackpads on virtually all its recent models.

In addition, it will supposedly have a faster processor than the current model, though the exact speed is not yet known.

Aside from these changes, this smartphone, sometimes called the Tour2, will apparently be identical to its predecessor.

As such, this BlackBerry will reportedly have a tablet shape, with an HVGA (480 x 360) display and full-QWERTY keyboard.

It will include mobile broadband, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

The BlackBerry Tour 9650 will supposedly have a 3.2 MP camera, microSD memory card slot, and a GPS receiver.

Source: BGR