RIM just formally introduced some of its new smartphones running BlackBerry OS 7, including the flagship Bold 9900/9930. No big surprises there, but even with this new announcement, we still didn’t have a definite idea of when the phone would arrive, or how much we’d have to shell out for this bad boy. We had seen one leaked document that gave us an idea of when T-Mobile might start selling the 9900 in the states, but lacked confirmation and still had no idea about the price. A newly available T-Mobile leak now backs-up that release information, as well as paints the 9900 as a quite expensive smartphone.

Based on these two documents, it seems safe to say that T-Mobile is planning the Bold 9900 for an August 31 release. It’s entirely possible that plans may change before then, but that looks like where we are right now.

According to this, even after redeeming a $50 mail-in rebate, and with a two-year service agreement, the 9900 will cost nearly $300. There’s no doubt that the 9900 is a well-equipped handset, but that price tag seems out-of-proportion to the phone’s hardware specs. Maybe things will come down after the handset’s been out for several weeks, but we’d expect to see it start around the $200 mark, not work its way down there. We’d still like to see confirmation for this price, as well as what other carriers are planning for their 9900/9300 models, but if the $300 price-point is spot-on, does that make the Bold 9900 a whole lot less attractive?

Source: TmoNews