I was at the RIM Campus in Waterloo, Ontario earlier this week and got a chance to take a look at the BlackBerry 7 running BlackBerry Bold 9790 (a.k.a Bellagio) and have some hands on time with it. I noticed a couple things about this new BlackBerry such as the move of the USB from the side to the middle of the bottom of the device eliminating the need for docking contacts on the 9790 and saving in its resulting overall size.
As well, I got to talk with the 9790’s Product Manager, Kyle Dorcas, and Marketing Manager, John Yen. They told me how the 9790 is seen by RIM as a companion device to the 9900 for people who liked the form factor of the 9700/9780. From what they told me, the smaller form factor is more of a global market concern than it is in North America where we don’t mind a larger device. As well, the 9790 was designed to be an entry point to the higher-end Bold franchise especially targeting the markets where phones are not given a subsidy by the providers and people buy them outright. In those markets, the Bold 9790 is targeted to be an “aspirational device” because it is, again, the high end line of BlackBerry without the price point of the Bold 9900.
I got a bunch of pictures of the 9790, specifically comparing it to the 9900 and then Kyle Dorcas was kind enough to do a video walkthrough of the Bold 9790 for everyone at home. Check it out below:
