BlackBerry Launches New 9720 QWERTY Phone With BB OS 7

After yesterday’s news about the possible sale of BlackBerry, the last thing that anyone expected was for the Canadian smartphone manufacturer to release a new handset using its more out-dated operating system. So when BlackBerry announced the BB 9720 today, many ended up scratching their heads in disbelief. According to BlackBerry, the 9720 is targeted at emerging markets and was designed with the budget…

• 2.8-inch HVGA touch screen
• BlackBerry OS 7.1
• 800MHz CPU

After yesterday’s news about the possible sale of BlackBerry, the last thing that anyone expected was for the Canadian smartphone manufacturer to release a new handset using its more out-dated operating system. So when BlackBerry announced the BB 9720 today, many ended up scratching their heads in disbelief.

According to BlackBerry, the 9720 is targeted at emerging markets and was designed with the budget conscious consumers in mind. The smartphone sports a 2.8-inch HVGA touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard and runs on BlackBerry OS 7.1.

Aside from a physical keyboard, the 9720 also packs an 800MHz processor with 512MB of RAM and is powered by a 1450mAh battery that will last for around 7 hours (talk time). The BlackBerry 9720 will be available in the coming months in select Asian, EMEA and Latin American markets and will come in five colours. There’s no information on pricing yet, but given its target market, of course, it will be cheap (even cheaper than the BB10 Q5).