As we read in a preview of the Bold 9700 last week, this could well be RIM’s best BlackBerry to date.  The keyboard and responsive trackpad were both praised, as we general build and the overall feel of the 9700, leading them to describe it “the finest BlackBerry ever crafted”.

The rest of us will have to wait a little longer to get our hands on the 9700, however, with a full retail launch not expected until November.  That’s based on a broken T-Mobile USA embargo, set to lift in early November, which suggests the UMA-supporting smartphone will drop that month.

[Thanks Daniel!]

In the smartphone’s favor are the speedy processor – tipped as an 800MHz chip – and twice the RAM of the BlackBerry Tour.  That makes for snappy performance, and when you pair it with GSM 3G (rather than CDMA EVDO Rev.A), a great QWERTY keyboard, “obnoxious vibrate” that you’d have to be dead to miss and a brilliant screen, you end up with a fantastic handset.

Next up, the BGR says, is a review of AT&T’s version of the Bold 9700, which hopefully won’t see the carrier throw any sticks into what sounds like a particularly impressive package.  More on the Onyx here.

“The BlackBerry ‘Onyx’ sports a premium experience and design with a high-gloss black finish and leather grain detail on the back. Boasting features such as high-speed 3G Web browsing, Wi-Fi calling, visual voicemail and support for corporate and personal e-mail options, the ‘Onyx’ will satisfy all your on-the-go needs. Also the phone comes preloaded with mobile applications from BlackBerry App World, including Amazon MP3 store for quick and easy music downloads and TeleNav GPS Navigator for turn-by-turn directions.” T-Mobile USA

The Amazon MP3 store app being preloaded suggests that RIM and the online retailer have done a similar deal to Palm and the Pre, making on-device downloads of music far more straightforward.  It’s unclear whether this app is different to the one currently available to download separately for BlackBerry devices.

CIO snapped through a T-Mobile embargo to release the image and details, the official break date of which was early November.  The carrier suggest they’ll have the BlackBerry Bold 9700 on the market before the end of the year, so it looks like there’s a roughly 1.5 month window in which it’ll hit shelves.  No idea of pricing, but this is a top-end smartphone so figure in the $200 region with a new contract.

[via Gear Diary]

In the photo you can see the BlackBerry Onyx next to the Gemini, each rocking their nifty little optical pads.  While early prototypes of the Onyx had a trackball, somewhere en route to production the decision was made to switch to the more straightforward control.

The handset is expected to land as the BlackBerry 9020, almost definitely on AT&T and most likely to T-Mobile USA as well.  UMA support is tipped for the latter, though that’s not been confirmed yet.

[via Boy Genius Report]

The buttons on the Onyx have apparently also been reworked slightly, in part to better accommodate the trackpad.  No photos of the updated BlackBerry have been released, nor concrete justification for the design decision, but it’s believed to be an attempt to minimize hardware failure and reliance on mechanical input methods.

What’s still unknown is when we can expect the Onyx to actually arrive on store shelves.  The last we heard, back in March, was that it would land on AT&T and perhaps as a different version – with UMA support – for T-Mobile USA.

[via Electronista]

We also caught a glimpse of an unboxing of the Samsung Alias 2, which sports an E-ink QWERTY keyboard and a decent price tag of $79.99.

A candybar messaging handset called the Samsung Magnet has hit AT&T for just $19.99, which is bright orange and is super easy to use with SMS, IM and Bluetooth. Plus, yesterday, we heard that the Garmin Nuvifone G60 was being delayed once again and the next expected release date falls in the last months of the year. We also caught a glimpse of a few leaked pictures of the BlackBerry Onyx which looks to be a cross between the 8900 and the Bold.

Finally, a leak from AT&T shows that the BlackBerry 8900 will cost $199.99 on the carrier, and might just be available starting on May 25th. And that’s it for today. There will no doubt be plenty more phone news on the horizon tomorrow.

Going by the previously-leaked specifications, the Onyx is expected to have a 480 x 360 resolution display, GPS, WiFi and a camera, though no UMA support.  However a T-Mobile UMA version, codenamed Driftwood and with otherwise similar specifications, is believed to be in the works also.

What remains to be seen is a release date, or even confirmation that the handsets are definitely headed to market.  It’s not unusual for projects to be canned even when prototypes have been fabricated, so there’s still plenty of time for RIM to decide the Onyx isn’t worth following up.

According to the source, the Onyx, Driftwood and Magnum aren’t the only new devices coming out of RIM either.  A UMA-version of the BlackBerry Bold is tipped, likely for T-Mobile (or possibly Canadian carrier Rogers Wireless), while the BlackBerry Gemini is now believed to not just be a single device but in fact a whole range.  However it’s looking likely that the Gemini handsets will replace the Curve, as RIM’s low-cost offerings. 

While the specs of the three handsets are believed confirmed, there’s still no definite word on whether RIM will actually release them, nor what sort of timescale we may be talking about.  Full details are below:

BlackBerry Onyx:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T

BlackBerry Driftwood:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi with UMA
• QWERTY keyboard

BlackBerry Magnum:

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS device
• GPS
• Camera
• Wi-Fi (no UMA support)
• QWERTY keyboard
• 480×360 resolution screen
• Confirmed carriers: AT&T