BlackBerry Storm-Based Slider Combines Touchscreen with Full QWERTY Keyboard

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This is not the first time we hear that RIM is thinking about unleashing into the wild a BlackBerry smartphone that comes with a full touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard. But until know we were under the impression that such a smartphone would look like a BlackBerry Bold 9700.

The Bold 9700 has a more than decent display and that full QWERTY keyboard you crave. And it could be a hit hybrid device should RIM decide to add a touchscreen device to it.

Now we hear that RIM could actually launch a BlackBerry Storm-based smartphone that combines the Storm’s touchscreen display with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard. Would you go for something like that?

There are plenty of phones out there that offer these two particular features and the Palm Pre is the first that comes to mind. It has a touchscreen display and a neat QWERTY keyboard ready to slide-out whenever it’s needed.

We have no confirmation whatsoever regarding this Storm-like smartphone but people say it will run BlackBerry OS 6.0 and it will come with features like 802.11n Wi-Fi, 460 x 480 resolution touchscreen display, GSM/HSPA support and a full slide-out keyboard.

Neither the Storm, nor the Storm 2 were able to beat the iPhone. In fact the Storm was pretty much a disappointment and in no way was it able to pose a threat to the iPhone. Then the Storm 2 came but it didn’t get the same hype and attention as the Motorola Droid was announced at around the same date.

Maybe a hybrid BlackBerry smartphone that combines a touchscreen display with an actual QWERTY keyboard is what could work best for RIM. The project is not official yet and we don’t have a name for the device. The picture above is not official either so we’ll be waiting for RIM to do all the talking regarding such handsets.