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Kevin's in the process of posting a multi-part, detailed review of the phone on his site, and the initial response looks good. (See video tour below.)

• "Keyboard seems pretty good!"
• Operating system: "It's smooth, it's fast, it's pretty."
• "The display is AWESOME. I knew it would be an improved display, but I wasn't expecting it to be as bright and crisp as it is."

Obviously, the new BlackBerry is no iPhone -- it lacks Apple's (AAPL) powerful OS X, its multi-touch display (no touch screen, period) and its super-simple user interface.

And that iPhone-lookalike silver band around the edges? Michaluk says it's plastic, not metal. Cheap-o!

But that's okay. From what we've seen so far, this is the best iPhone-wannabe yet.

One interesting stat: While the BlackBerry 9000's screen is about an inch smaller than the iPhone's, it has the same resolution: 480x320 pixels, according to Michaluk. Because it has a higher pixel density than the iPhone, it might even look sharper than Apple's already-gorgeous display.

And there's still a dedicated audience of people who either prefer a real keyboard (over the iPhone's virtual keyboard) and whose companies rely on RIM's BlackBerry back-end servers. We think RIM (RIMM) will sell a lot of these phones once they come out later this year.

See Also:
Apple iPhone: More Powerful Than 1998 iMac, WAY More Powerful Than 1984 Macintosh
RIM iPhone Killer Delay Won't Wreck Quarter
RIM's iPhone Killer: Just Like iPhone, But Crappier