Are you a Blackberry fan, but the standard Torch and Bold is not exclusive enough for you? Today, Porsche Design and RIM announced the elite new Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry. Designed by Porsche Design, in collaboration with RIM, the luxury brand’s first smartphone really does have a high end look and choice of material, combined with the performance of the latest Blackberry Bold phones.

The Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry is instantly identifiable as a Porsche Design product. The exclusive material choices for this unique smartphone include a forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover, sculpted QWERTY keyboard, and touch display. This customized Porsche Design P’9981 comes with an exclusive Porsche Design UI and a bespoke Wikitude World Browser augmented reality app experience. It also includes premium, exclusive PINs that help easily identify another P’9981 smartphone user.

“Since 1972 Porsche Design has presented milestone products with iconic style, and the P’9981 smartphone from BlackBerry will be our next landmark,” said Dr. Juergen Gessler, CEO Porsche Design Group. “The pure and distinctive design, coupled with authentic materials and an emphasis on the manufacturing process, perfectly match our philosophy and complement the Porsche Design product assortment.”

“This collaboration stems from a shared belief that form equals function,” said Todd Wood, SVP for Industrial Design, Research In Motion. “The Porsche Design P’9981 is a truly modern luxury smartphone, where the timeless style of Porsche Design meets the unmatched mobile experience provided by BlackBerry.” 

Powerful hardware and software

The Porsche Design P’9981 is built on a performance driven platform that features a 1.2 GHz processor, HD video recording, 24-bit high resolution graphics, and advanced sensors enabling new augmented reality applications. It comes with 8GB of on-board memory, expandable up to 40GB with a micro SD card.

BlackBerry 7, the operating system for the new Porsche Design P’9981, includes a Webkit browser with a fast, fluid web browsing experience, which delivers a highly responsive touch experience with incredibly fast and smooth graphics. This is the same OS that is also found in the Blackberry Bold 9900.

But it looks like this Blackberry will be for only very well heeled fans. Current reports seem to suggest a price of $2000, and very limited production run.

Our opinion? Go for the Blackberry Bold 9900, it is just as good looking.