BlackBerry 9000 reviewed!

Remember that pair of BlackBerry 9000 units that popped up on eBay last week? Well, it turns out that one of the lucky auction winners was none other than a member of the CrackBerry.com crew. Of course, they did the responsible thing and published a review of the handset right away, before its existence has even been officially acknowledged by RIM. So what did they make of it? Judging by the review, they loved it. Granted, the reviewer definitely seems like a bit of a fanboy, so you might want to take his gushing enthusiasm with a grain of salt. Regardless, he liked the keyboard on the 9000 more than the 8800-series keyboard, was dazzled by the 480x320 resolution LCD display, and found the new BlackBerry OS, version 4.6, to be fast, responsive and intuitive. Just about the only downside he found was that the unit is physically larger than the 8800 series, though RIM has managed to utilize a few design tricks to hide the extra girth: "... the BlackBerry 9000’s battery casing is 'set into the phone,' reducing the bottom half of the device’s width, making it feel extremely thin when held in the hand." All-in-all, the reviewer found that the device's "Quad-band GSM/3G/WiFi/GPS... coupled to a fast processor and an amazing display," make for a strong flagship device for RIM's next-gen lineup.

For more on the BlackBerry 9000:
- see this CrackBerry.com review