Fact or Fake: What is the BlackBerry 9890 and 9850?





There are a lot, and we mean a lot of interesting rumors that go around the internet. We're going to be starting to touch on these rumors with a 'Fact or Fake' segment for each one. Here we will examine each rumor and tell you how close we think they could be fact or fake. Now is the perfect time to start as here are a few images that will really boggle your mind. We can't vouch for the authenticity of these images, so take them with a grain of salt. Twitter user AdrCoF sent these images out of what appear to be the about screens for a BlackBerry 9890 and 9850.









While these images could be complete forgeries it is still interesting to dissect them on what they could be.



We actually have heard strong rumors that Verizon or Sprint will be getting a CDMA version of the slider BlackBerry, possibly one like the Torch and its model number would be 9850. The OS version in the image above appears to be 6.3.0.899, with possibly platform 7 (like the 9890). It also shows it to be 4G. This could coincide with Sprint's existing 4G network or Verizon's upcoming 4G LTE network expected to launch in early 2011. Note: this image appears to be in spanish.



The image of the 9890 shows it with an OS version of 6.3.0.975 and on platform 7. The platform difference (not 6) could be caused due to it having to be a 4G specific radio. It is unclear what the 9890 could even be. We know that there is already a Torch2 currently being tested. Could the 9890 be it?



Currently neither model number has a UAProf Document. This is strange considering most Pre-release BlackBerry devices with about screens that show a model #, for the most part, show up on BlackBerry.net. What is your take on these two images? While some things could add up to make them real, we're still not sold and these images could be fakes. Hopefully more information will eventually come out if the 9850 and 9890 do exist. What do you think, fact or fake?