Real, Live BlackBerry Thunder Pictures Surface!

July 14, 2008 in BlackBerry, Handsets

There has been a lot of back and forth about the upcoming touchscreen BlackBerry: will it be called the Thunder or the Storm? Is the release date set for 4th Quarter or is it severely delayed? We can put those questions on hold as we bask in the glory of live BlackBerry Thunder pictures scooped up by the folks at CrackBerry:

We thought it might a little sexier than this… slightly disappointed. But when we heard details on the touchscreen any hesitation about wanting to take a long, romantic walk on the beach with a BlackBerry Thunder was put to rest. We’re actually writing our classified now.

The BlackBerry Thunder TOUCHscreen is tactile in itself. Meaning, when you press the screen the entire thing “pushes in” a little bit, giving you the feel of an actual button. This, in itself, wouldn’t be very exciting - but combine this with localized haptic feedback and you’re oh so golden.

The Thunder’s localized haptic also generates a vibration when the touchscreen is pressed but ONLY in the area that your finger presses. The combination of this and the tactile screen will supposedly give users the feeling they are pressing an actual button… pretty neat.

We can see how such a complex system would be difficult for BlackBerry to master and wouldn’t be surprised if the phone DOES face delays. We imagine there is a very delicate balance between the touch screen’s haptic and tactile features that, if not struck perfectly, would render the phone a huge loss. And BlackBerry is in it to win it so they’ll certainly wait until this phone is ready for prime time before rushing it out.

That being said, early rumors are saying it should be ready in November of 2008 on Verizon/Vodafone. We hope those rumors hold up.

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