RIMM’s newly announced Blackberry Bold 9000 looks like a promising refresh of their basic design. Their slogan, “Be Bold”, and the newly designed website bring back hints of Motorola in its prime, when it released the metro-styled Razor phone:

The phone itself is little changed from its predecessors. It still has a full keyboard, GPS, and a bulky look. It is the first blackberry to support both GSM networks and the new HSDPA/UMTS (850/1900/2100). It also has a new half-VGA screen, at 480×320 with 64k color. A CNet reviewer said about the screen, “I was absolutely blown away. I can pretty much say I’ve never seen a better-looking display on a smartphone.”

Unfortunately, it’s still playing catchup to the iPhone. For Blackberry lovers, that might be enough. The new media player, the 3.5mm headphone jack bring it into iPhone’s territory. But, the thicker Blackberry Bold has significant battery problems, compared to the iPhone, and holds 8 times less media than the cheapest iPhone on the market. Will you be buying it?