BlackBerry's touchscreen answer to Apple's iPhone has been subject to various leaks in the past few weeks, and has today been officially announced by Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and Vodafone in the UK.
The handset, dubbed the BlackBerry Storm, is the first BlackBerry handset to ship without a physical keyboard. Instead, users will be treated to an iPhone-like display that measures 3.25in and provides a 480 x 360 resolution.
Unlike the iPhone, however, the Storm will retain some of the tactile feedback enjoyed by millions of QWERTY keyboard users. The Storm's breakthrough feature is a flexing display with numerous springs located beneath - moving a finger around the screen will provide a familiar touchscreen experience, but press down and you'll trigger a sensation similar to that of pressing a mouse button.
RIM claims that its revolutionary new feature eliminates the awkward typing experience found on other touchscreen handsets, and BlackBerry fans may find the technology a reasonable trade-off for the traditional physical keyboard.
Aside from the all-new touchscreen display, the 110mm x 60mm x 6.3mm Storm has all the required features. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, auto-flash and geo-tagging courtesy of the built-in GPS. Storage comes in the form of 1GB of built-in memory, and a micro SD slot allows for expansion up to 16GB. Throw in HSDPA connectivity and BlackBerry's second-to-none e-mail functionality, and you've got quite the handset.
There's still no word on pricing, but the Storm appears to be shaping up to be the touchscreen device to give Apple's iPhone a run for its money.
Vodafone product page: blackberry.vodafone.co.uk/storm/
