BlackBerry Storm 3 Moving Closer to Verizon

Pictures of the third generation of RIM's touchscreen-oriented smartphone have appeared on the Web. The Verizon logo that appears prominently on these makes it clear which carrier is going to be offering this device.

Reports of a handset code-named "Monaco" surfaced early this year. Its keyboard-less design featuring a large display made it obvious that this was going to be the successor to the original BlackBerry Storm from 2008 and the follow-up model which came a year later.

Curiously, some unconfirmed reports have insisted that this model will be sold as the BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860, despite the fact that this model will have very little in common with the BlackBerry Torch 9800 which debuted last year -- a smartphone with a small Touchscreen and sliding keyboard. It's more likely that the 9850/9860 designation will be given to the Torch 2 which is expected to debut in the next few months.

Preview of the BlackBerry Storm 3
The next-generation Storm will reportedly have a larger, higher-resolution Touchscreen than its predecessors: 3.7-inch, 800 x 480 (WVGA) pixels. An optical touchpad also appears in the images of this smartphone.

According to the specifications that have leaked out, it will run BlackBerry OS 7 on a 1.2 GHz processor. It will have a 5 megapixel camera with flash, 4 GB of internal storage, a microSD memory card slot, and a 1230mAh battery.

In the wireless area, the Storm 3 will reportedly include Wi-Fi b/g/n with mobile hotspot, Bluetooth 2.1, and NFC (Near Field Communications) and GPS. It will reportedly be a worldphone, so it can connect to Verizon's CDMA-based network in the U.S., but roam onto GSM networks.