BlackBerry Essex with Wifi coming soon

BlackBerry Essex, a refurbished version of the BlackBerry Tour with WiFi, is on way. It’s not clear whether Essex will be the final name of the product, since the name is so far only on the OS of the new mobile phone.

Photo: Blackberry Essex is a Tour with Wi-Fi

It’s still early days to predict the price of the BlackBerry Essex, but we expect the price to be more than the BlackBerry Tour and less than the BlackBerry Storm 2 touchscreen phone.

As of now, a BlackBerry Tour (unlocked) is available at a price of $497.02 on Amazon, while a BlackBerry Storm (unlocked) comes with a price tag of $526.95. We guess Research In Motion will be able to pull of the BlackBerry Essex if it rolls out with a price tag of $510.

Watch a Blackberry Essex video below

The BlackBerry Essex has a touchpad, just like the BlackBerry 9500. The roller ball which is standard in most of the new BlackBerrys, (except the touchcreen Storm and Storm 2) has not been as functional as it is user-friendly. The roller ball occasionally gets stuck in many BlackBerrys, and RIM debuted the touchpad with the BlackBerry Curve. The BlackBerry Essex will also come with a touchpad.

An Engadget photo of the BlackBerry Essex shows that the touchpad is a bit slanted. The website calls the touchpad “weird”.

BlackBerrys are mostly launched in CDMA versions initially, followed by GSM versions and World phone capability. RIM, the Canadian mobile phone manufacturer of BlackBerry, usually launches its latest handsets in the US on the Verizon CDMA network, followed by GSM versions.

If the BlackBerry Essex CDMA version comes to India in an unlocked version, it could be used with Tata Indicom, MTS and the CDMA networks of Reliance Communications, MTNL and BSNL. A GSM version will make it compatible with Airtel, Vodafone, Tata DoCoMo, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Uninor, Loop Mobile and the GSM networks of Reliance Communications, MTNL and BSNL in India.

The technical specifications, features and hardware details of the BlackBerry Essex are not available so far. Keep watching this space for the latest.