Well look here what the cat dragged in. These appear to be genuine leaked pictures of the newest RIM creation, the BlackBerry 9500 also known as the Thunder.

The impressive 360×480 touch display is the major upgrade RIM had in mind for us. Sure we will miss the full QWERTY keyboard but we’re not going to need it where we’re going. Aside from the ‘giant’ screen, yes it’s bigger than the iPhone’s, we will get the OS 4.7. Surely this is going to be the closest iPhone competitor so far. We’ve heard lots of rumors and we’re anxiously waiting for it to be released. As long as the Thunder will have a decent price and at least the same application support as the iPhone does, we’re sure to have one hell of a fight for mobile supremacy. HTC and Samsung beware! Your Touch Diamonds and Instincts or Omnias might be easily surpassed by the 9500.

via BlackBerrySync