What can we say about the BlackBerry 9000? Made from the highest quality materials, sleek and elegant in appearance and providing the latest in functionality to users in the business world while at the same time offering features to appease the inner geek in us all.

The new BlackBerry 9000 supports the latest in communication technologies such as HSDPA high-speed networks. It of course supports WI-Fi as would be expected and boasts built in GPS capabilities and several multimedia features. With a satin chrome frame, black casing and leatherette backplate the BlackBerry 9000 shouts style and professionalism. A newly designed full keyboard makes the new BlackBerry Bold smartphone easier than ever to use.

The BlackBerry 9000 in particular is better than ever before. The HSDPA support and 802.11 a/b/g Wi-fi capabilities mean one thing for streaming video, loading web pages and downloading email attachments: speed. With a processor of 624MHz, two times that of the cousin curve, it outperforms any other handheld device on the market. It also features 128MB flash memory and 1GB onboard memory. A microSD/SDHC slot allows the user to add even more memory if desired. As you'd come to expect from Blackberry you get great applications like email, web browsing, an organizer and great messaging capabilities.

The BlackBerry 9000 features what some are calling the best display panel seen on a mobile device: 480x320 half VGA resolution! This is a color LCD which is actually fused to the lens, meaning unparalleled image quality. Pictures are sharp and lifelike, videos play just as smoothly as on your PC and documents, messages and webpages are sharp and readable.

This incredible display quality combined with the latest generation of browser, the BlackBerry 9000 is made for the web. Best of all the trackball now works similar to a mous, allowing zooming or web pages with the option to see the full website or the mobile version of a page. Downloading attachments is now supported with the updated browser and streaming video using RTSP standards.

Not only for the business professional, the BlackBerry 9000 can perform numerous entertainment duties as well. You can now record video with the 2meg camera with 5 times zoom and flash. The new media player on this model easily displays photos and slideshows, plays movies in full screen mode and can handle a music collection to boot! The headsets speakers provide a surprisingly rich, full sound and the BlackBerry 9000 even has equalization software for when it is plugged into external speakers or headphones. With 11 presets for different styles of music you get just the right sound.

Managing music and video files is breeze with the Roxio media manager included in the BlackBerry Desktop Manager suite. Also included is Roxio Photosuite 9 LE, allowing the user to create photo albums, even enhance photos instantly. You can sync your iTunes collection with the new BlackBerry Media Sync application.0 support means transferring files to your BlackBerry 9000 from your PC is a snap.

Another great feature is the integrated GPS, which can be used even while making a call. The BlackBerry Bold can tell you exactly where you are and with the BlackBerry Maps application, can tell you how to get where you're going too.

State of the art acoustic design has gone into the BlackBerry 9000, giving the receiver a larger audio "sweet spot"; this means greater clarity for your calls. Voice Activated Dialing is also included, as is Bluetoth 2.0 support which makes for truly hands off operation.

A host of convenient extras are includes, such as a travel charger, carrying case, stereo headset and USB interface cable. BlackBerry 9000 users can personalize their phones with backplates of different colors. With a rechargeable 1500 mAhr battery you get 5 hours of talk time and 13 days of standby.

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!