Like the BlackBerry Bold 9900 but feel it's a little too wide? Research In Motion hears you, it seems, and has announced that it will be bringing a new, slimmer version of the BlackBerry Bold to the UK after Christmas.

The BlackBerry Bold 9790, as it will be known, is more an update to the BlackBerry Bold 9780 rather than just a thinner version of the Bold 9900. And it features a QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad and touch display for the first time. 

"We are very excited to expand the BlackBerry 7 portfolio with the new BlackBerry Bold 9790,” said Carlo Chiarello, Senior Vice President, Handheld Product Management at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry smartphones offer a uniquely refined mobile communications experience that people love and we think many customers will be thrilled by the faster performance, beautiful touch displays and sleek designs available with these new BlackBerry 7 based models.”

The new Bold 9790 smartphone will be narrower in design as the company tries to appeal to those that believe the current flagship, the Bold 9900 is too “fat” and “wide”.

It will pack a 1GHz processor, and 8GB of onboard memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB of additional storage. As with other phones from the Canadian manufacturer, the phone will come with NFC (Near Field Communications) support.

RIM's UK MD Stephen Bates, has told Pocket-lint that he expects the new phone to be available in the UK in early January.

In related news, the company has also announced an all-touch version of the BlackBerry Curve that ditches the keyboard altogether. Not to be mistaken with the BlackBerry Torch, the new BlackBerry Curve 9380 will come in the same form factor as the current Curve 9360 however without that QWERTY keyboard.