BlackBerry Storm 9500 confirmed, don't hold your breath just yet

The highly anticipated BlackBerry Storm 9500 today made its first official appearance, popping up on German Vodafone web site. Images and specs of the first touchscreen RIM-manufactured device have been floating around the net for what seems like ages but it hasn’t yet been officially announced. If all the rumored features are confirmed when the device actually sees daylight then the Apple iPhone 3G might be up for quite a challenge.

The specifications of the BlackBerry Storm 9500 that are already known include a 3.3” touchscreen with a resolution of 360 x 480 pixels. The tri-band 3G with HSDPA and the quad-band GSM support make it capable of global roaming. The Storm 9500 is running on a 624 MHz CPU and has 192 MB of RAM and utilizes a new version of the BlackBerry OS, optimized for touchscreen input.

Some of the other extras include a built-in GPS (with A-GPS functionality), microSD card slot with support for up to 8GB cards and a 3.5mm standard audio jack. The lengthy specs sheet comes in the reasonable 112.5 x 62.2 x 13.9 mm package which makes it sound as quite an offer. The Blackberry Bold should also have Wi-Fi connectivity, but as of now it's not 100%.

Here are some additional photos and screenshots of the new full touch UI, that we snatched off Storm Reviews.co.uk.

BlackBerry Storm 9500 - a virtual landscape QWERTY keyboard is also available

Screenshots from the new BlackBerry OS

As this stage there is no information about the pricing or the expected availability of the BlackBerry 9500 Storm. Still, the fact that it has already appeared on Vodafone’s website makes us suspect that its release date is getting close.