HTC was probably the first PDA company that pioneered the optical mouse on a mobile device, but Samsung took the idea and ran with it on the QWERTY Epix and the slab Omnia. It looks like the QWERTY candybar style and optical trackpad used by the Epix will be copied by the latest leaked BlackBerry, dubbed the 9520.

The device will be part of the Curve series and will have the internal code name as the Gemini per Research in Motion’s engineering department. It will be a 2G device, meaning that it will be a GSM device that caps out at EDGE according to Gizmodo.

Funny how the HTC Snap copies the current generation Curve with the trackball and the new leaked BlackBerry Curve Gemini will copy the Epix’s trackball. I’ve used a BlackBerry before and like the trackball for navigating the device. The caveat there is that dirt can get in under the trackball making it hard to navigate the device as the device ages with dirt. The optical trackpad on the Epix is nice, although I wish Samsung would provide more settings to adjust sensitivity when using it as a regular optical navigation pad rather than an optical mouse. You can also read the Epix review for more on the optical trackpad.