(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

On Monday, we were excited to share with you our latest addition to the BlackBerry® Bold™ family – the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, powered by the new BlackBerry 7 OS. Onsite at BlackBerry World 2011, I got the chance to speak with Product Managers Michael and Jason to take a deeper look at the hardware and software capabilities of these powerful new devices.

Post a comment and let us know what you think of the new BlackBerry Bold smartphones! If you’re looking for more info don’t forget to check out yesterday’s announcement post for the full scoop:

BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Smartphones: BlackBerry 7 with a Bold Touch

Update: Check out our hands on demo of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, with Product Managers Michael and Jason after the jump!

With BlackBerry World™ 2011 officially kicking off today, I am excited to share with you the first of many much-anticipated announcements. The iconic BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphone family has just received a powerful update with the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones driven by the BlackBerry 7 OS.

Like the BlackBerry® Torch™ smartphone, these new devices integrate brilliant, high resolution, capacitive touch screens, trackpads and full QWERTY keypads and are the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet. Here’s a quick look at some of the key specs for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones.

• 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g
• 2.8″ capacitive touch screen display – VGA (640×480), 287 PPI resolution
• Full, wide QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad
• 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM
• 8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards
• NFC technology
• 5.0 MP camera with flash, supports 720p HD video recording
• Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor
• Built-in GPS / aGPS
• Dual-Band Wi-Fi® – 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
• 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery

Wireless Network support:
o BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
o BlackBerry Bold 9930 smartphone: Dual-Band CDMA/EVDO Rev A, Dual-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

BlackBerry 7 OS

In addition to being the first touch BlackBerry Bold smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are also the first to feature the BlackBerry 7 OS. The BlackBerry 7 OS is a performance driven platform designed to deliver a faster and easier communication, multimedia and productivity experience for BlackBerry smartphone users. In addition to improved web browsing and universal search capabilities (now with voice-enabled search!), here is a quick rundown of some of the new functionality that the BlackBerry 7 OS powers in the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones:

• Liquid Graphics™ – The BlackBerry 7 OS delivers fast, fluid performance when browsing, accessing pictures or video, or running graphics intensive games.
• NFC – Built-in support for Near Field Communications (NFC), an exciting new technology that is designed to provide a secure exchange of information between NFC-enabled devices over a very short distance. Watch our interview with Andrew Bocking, VP Handheld Software Product Management, to learn more about BlackBerry and Near Field Communications.
• Augmented Reality – The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature a built-in compass (magnetometer) to take advantage of BlackBerry 7 OS support for augmented reality applications.
• HD Video – The BlackBerry 7 OS supports up to 720p HD video recording.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers around the world beginning this summer. Stay tuned for additional blog posts where we dive deeper into the BlackBerry 7 OS and BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones! For now, head to the BlackBerry Bold smartphone page for the latest info.