BlackBerry unveils the 9000 — er, the Bold

Looks like the spy shots of the long-rumored BlackBerry 9000 were right on target. Now dubbed the Bold, the latest BlackBerry—complete with 3.5G HSDPA support—boasts a sleek new design and what looks to be a razor-sharp display, but it's not on sale quite yet.

The bloggers at Crave got their hands on the Bold, and they were wowed by its new, half-VGA display—480 by 320 pixels, for those of you keeping score—as well as its revamped interface, including snazzy new icons and menus (although I have a feeling that the standard, bare-bones RIM menus take over once you dig down a level or two).

Other new style features include a redesigned, roomier keypad, a curvier shell, and replaceable backplates (in blue, gray, and red).

As predicted earlier by the Boy Genius Report, the Bold will mark the first BlackBerry with high-speed, 3.5G HSDPA abilities geared for U.S. networks; indeed, AT&T has confirmed that the Bold will arrive in its smartphone lineup "later this year."

Also on board: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, GPS, 1GB of internal memory plus a slot of microSD memory expansion, a 2MP camera, and a standard 3.5mm headset jack.

Under the hood, the Bold comes with a 624MHz processor, compared to the 312MHz chip in the previous generation of BlackBerrys, so expect smoother, speedier performance once this baby arrives in stores.

When can we expect the Bold to go on sale? As I mentioned before, AT&T is promising only that it'll arrive "later this year"—in step with rumors that the carrier was holding back the Bold to make room for the 3G iPhone, which is expected in June. No pricing details yet, either.

So, what do you think—looking forward to the Bold? Or sticking with the Curve?

Related:
RIM makes a Bold BlackBerry debut [Crave]