BlackBerry 9000 in the wild

Okay, we'll admit, the first thought on our minds when we saw the BlackBerry 9000 in its natural habitat for the first time was, "that's it?" RIM's been taking on increasingly sharp competition as of late -- even in its traditional corporate strongholds -- and we'd expected and hoped to see something less evolutionary and more revolutionary from these cats. On closer inspection, though, we find that the phone is leaving a very positive second impression. The phone's lines seem flow really well (dare we call a BlackBerry "sexy"?) without losing its purpose-suited stance exuded by the 8300s, 8700s, and 8800s of yore. The real kicker, though, might be the beautiful user interface, which has been totally revamped from the ground up; gone is the cartoonish look and feel of the current lineup, replaced with a modern, warm theme with wireframe icons and slick animations. Another big win: as Vodafone's slide deck mentioned, the 9000 features both WiFi and HSDPA, confirmed by this particular example's info display. Too little, too late -- or is this thing a genuine threat in the marketplace this year? Follow the break for a video of the hot new UI in action!