The year started with BlackBerry focusing on launching new line of smartphones powered with BlackBerry 10 OS. It released the BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Q10 and the BlackBerry Q5 which was released recently. However, the Canadian handset manufacturing company has not done away with the older version of the BlackBerry operating system.

BlackBerry has recently unveiled the BlackBerry 9720 which will not run the new BB 10 OS but it will be running on the older BlackBerry 7.1 OS. The BlackBerry 9720 had been in the rumor mill since quite some time and it is only now that we have come to know something about the said handset. The first BlackBerry device of 2013 that will not feature BB 10 OS is expected to arrive within this year.

The BlackBerry OS 7 came out with better multimedia features than ever before and it is during this time, RIM [previous name used to refer BlackBerry] had launched BlackBerry Torch slider phones with QWERTY keyboard. RIM had made such a move to compete with Android and iOS which was gaining huge popularity. Sadly, BlackBerry lost out dearly and the brand was going to die completely. It is only when they shed off the RIM name and came out with full touchscreen devices with the new BlackBerry 10 OS.

In the United Kingdom, the BlackBerry 9720 retailers have initiated the shipping of the device with unlocked SIM slot. It seems that the phone will come with an affordable price tag. All the three BlackBerry OS 10 powered device that came out in the market this year were quite expensive for outright purchase.

The BlackBerry 9720 device will come with 2.8inch display that will support a display resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. It will produce a pixel density of 214 ppi. Like always, it will sport a very user-friendly QWERTY keyboard. The internal storage of the phone is 512MB. At the rear, it houses a 5MP camera. Going by the specs, we feel that phone really belongs to the 2010-2011 era.

The BlackBerry 9720 will be initially launched in few selected regions of Asia, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. The Canadian handset manufacturer has not yet released the price of the device and has not given out the release date of the phone. However, it is quite evident that like Apple, Samsung and HTC which are now concentrating on release low-budget phones, even BlackBerry is trying its luck in releasing a low priced device.

We are wondering whether anyone will be interested in BlackBerry 9720or not. What about you? Will you consider buying it? What do you think about BlackBerry’s move of launching handsets with older operating system? Do let us know your views.