RIM's BlackBerry 9500 "Thunder" captured on camera?

A retailer taking pre-orders for phones that haven't even been announced is considered business as usual, but there's something just a little out of the ordinary with Horizon Wireless' listing for the alleged touchscreen superphone outta Waterloo, the BlackBerry 9500 "Thunder" -- it's accompanied by a somewhat believable picture of the thing. Extreme blur always adds a healthy dose of credibility (we kid), but more importantly, the picture shows no telltale signs of being a render and looks essentially like what everyone's expecting it to look like. BlackBerry addicts who've been desperately fighting the urge to go to the dark side, consider this your shot of willpower for the day.

[Thanks, Yasim M.]

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 12:43PM]

I dont want it if its that grainy

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 12:50PM]

Oh really...i'll go check them out, they're only 5 minutes from my house...And if it's bull, i'll let you know, so the whole world could laugh at them. I'll be back in a few...

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 1:13PM]

Looks huge.

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 2:22PM]

Must've been too close to the real thing since the page now says "Photos will be back soon - we were asked to remove them, sorry"

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 3:23PM]

hello? did anyone read the post on may 13th about this phone? it is supposed to be exclusive to verizon and vodafone, so why would a little company like horizon have it now?

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 4:09PM]

Because Horizon rhymes with Verizon, just like Sony rhymes with Phony.

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 6:14PM]

From the looks of their site they're not a service provider. So this is no different than the Bold selling on eBay.

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 6:13PM]

It looks like a grainy side shot of a Moto Razr2 to me...

http://static.seekingalpha.com/wp-content/seekingalpha/images/motorola_razr2_slant.jpg

[(Unverified) Posted May 31st 2008 10:45PM]

Ok, even the zoomed in part showing what appears to say blackberry is extremely blurry. Was that really necessary to do that? seriously? I'll just wait for a real picture after all I'm already hyped for this phone in september which happens to be the time I sign the new contract. Love the timing for a good smartphone. =D

[Poot Posted Jun 1st 2008 1:26AM]

Weird that this showed up 12 hours late on normal engadget.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 1st 2008 11:17PM]

i have a 10MP camera but I really thinking of getting one of these fuzzy picture camera's. It seems to be the new trend. :)