BlackBerry Tour announced

"World phone"

16 June 2009 10:18 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

In the States, RIM has introduced the BlackBerry Tour, describing it as a "powerful new 3G BlackBerry smartphone for CDMA customers in North America".

The "highly refined world phone" works on CDMA/EV-DO Rev networks in North America, but also, and hence the "Tour" title, on UMTS/HSPDA and EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad, although there's no Wi-Fi connectivity.

As well as the BlackBerry email and internet you'd expect, the Tour gets built-in GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, autofocus and video capture, a 3.5mm audio jack, A2DP Bluetooth, microSD up to 32GB and 5 hours of talktime.

The handset in black, with chrome highlights, measures 112 x 62 x 14.2mm, weighs in at 130 grams, gets a full QWERTY keyboard and a 2.44-inch 480 x 360 display.

In the US, operators Sprint and Verizon have both confirmed they will be offering the new handset that's due later this summer.