BlackBerry Style 9670 for Sprint Shows Flip Phone a Fitting Form for BlackBerry

by Andrew Garcia

The BlackBerry Style 9670 has two screens. The external screen here, with 240×320 resolution, shows the clock and waiting message information, incoming caller ID or media information when listening to music.

The Style is the first BlackBerry flip phone with a full four-row QWERTY keyboard, and comes with a 360×400 internal screen.

While the keys on the Style (left) are around the same width as those found on last year’s Bold 9700, the Style keys are a couple millimeters longer. The added size didn’t help typing speed or accuracy much during eWEEK’s tests, however.

The left side of the Style holds the 3.5 mm headset jack, the Micro USB port and a covered slot for a MicroSD card.

The cover for the MicroSD slot is pretty much impossible to open without taking off the back cover, reducing the some of the appeal of an external slot versus one hidden completely in the battery compartment.

The right side of the Style finds the volume controls and the only convenience key. By default, the convenience key is set to trigger the camera, which only operates when the Style is flipped open.

The Style comes with a 1150 mAHr battery rated for 4.5 hours of talk time on Sprint’s network. Notice the lack of SIM slot—unlike the Bold 9650, the Style is not a world phone.

Like the Torch 9800, the Style comes with a 5 megapixel still camera with auto-flash and auto-focus. The video camera only records at 640×480 resolution, however.