3 New BlackBerry Devices for 2011 - BlackBerry Torch 2, Apollo & Dakota

Lately, I must admit, I have been feeling a bit of the ‘ol Android envy… No not because of those cool commercials with texting robot hands that sound ever so good through my surround sound speakers but rather because of the heavy dose of hardware packed in to these droid devices and while I have no interest is trading in my trustworthy BlackBerry operating system that has been a reliable workhorse for me over the years I have long wished for RIM’s hardware to bring BlackBerry back to the pinnacle of performance. Well good news finally arrived this week courtesy of the fellas over at Boy Genius Report. It seems 2011 will be quite a year for our favorite smartphone family as RIM plans to release at least three new devices that are not pulling any punches when it comes to the battle of bigger/better hardware. Starting off the line up we can look forward to a follow up of ‘the best BlackBerry ever’ with the release of the BlackBerry Torch 2 which will see little change in terms of design but will feature a 1.2GHz processor (more than doubling the current CPU) as well as 8GB of built-in memory, 512MB of RAM and a higher resolution display (640×480) full specs after the jump. Also announced were the BlackBerry Apollo, a new mid-range device and member of the Curve family and the BlackBerry Dakota, a hybrid Touchscreen/Candybar BlackBerry that will feature a 2.8-inch VGA 640 x 480 capacitive touch-screen, a 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording, flash, and image stabilization, 4GB of built in storage with 768MB of RAM and will even function as a mobile 3G hotspot for other devices! All three devices will ship with the recently announced OS 6.1 and are expected to release by late third quarter.

Source: BGR

Check out the full specs of these new devices after the jump:

BlackBerry Torch 2

BlackBerry Torch 2 Specs:

• 1.2GHz processor
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Tri-band HSPA 14.4Mbps
• 3.2-inch VGA 640 x 480 capacitive display
• 8GB built-in memory
• 512MB RAM
• Bluetooth 2.1
• GPS
• NFC
• 5-megapixel camera with flash
• Magnetometer
• Accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• 1300 mAh battery
• BlackBerry OS 6.1
• OpenGL ES
• 14.6mm thin

BlackBerry Curve - Apollo

BlackBerry Curve Apollo Specs:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Tri-band UMTS/HSPA 7.2Mbps
• Bluetooth 2.1
• Wi-Fi b/g/n
• GPS
• NFC
• 512MB of eMMC, 512MB of RAM
• 5-megapixel camera with flash
• HVGA 480 x 360 display
• 1050 mAh battery
• Tavor MG-1 800MHz CPU
• BlackBerry OS 6.1
• 11mm thin

BlackBerry Dakota

BlackBerry Dakota Specs:

• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Tri-band UMTS
• 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording, flash, and image stabilization
• 4GB of built in storage, 768MB of RAM
• 2.8-inch VGA 640 x 480 capacitive screen
• WiFi b,g,n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies
• 3G mobile hotspot!
• MicroUSB port
• Bluetooth
• NFC
• Magnetometer
• Accelerometer
• Proximity sensor
• 10.5mm thin
• Launches with BlackBerry OS 6.1

What do you think of these new BlackBerry devices? Worthy competition for today’s smartphone market? Will you be picking one of these up this year?  Feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.