Rumor: BlackBerry Colt with BBX may get 9900, PlayBook looks
updated 12:35 pm EDT, Wed October 26, 2011
BlackBerry Colt with BBX may be very minimal
New rumors from the historically reliable N4BB may have given clues as to the ultimate design of the first BBX phone, the BlackBerry Colt. Now mocked up for reference, the phone is now believed to be all-touch on the front, much like the PlayBook that will share its OS in time. As such, all the control will come from swiping around the bezel.
Routinely characterized as a "superphone," it should get an upscale design as well, the tip suggested. It could have the same stainless steel outer rim as the Bold 9900 and should be thinner than the current, mixed QWERTY and touch phone. A front camera should make its way to a BlackBerry phone for the first time after first appearing in the PlayBook.
BBX will supposedly bring a large number of The Astonishing Tribes transitions to add polish to the OS. These are likely to draw on the Cascades system attached to the OS, which lets developers and RIM itself create very visually complex animations with very little effort.
The design is rumored to catch RIM up in dramatic fashion, shipping with a dual-core processor in the final version and possibly using a four-inch or larger, possibly 960x540 or 960x560 touchscreen.
RIM has long promised that its first QNX-based (now BBX) phone would ship in early 2012 and, by extension, would ship the Colt in or near that timeframe.
