AT&T prices BlackBerry Torch 9810 at $49.99 with 2-year contract, launches on August 21st

AT&T's Facebook page gave away some important information on Monday. The buffed up BlackBerry Torch 9810 will be launched on August 21st at a price of $49.99 with a 2 year contract. It is the same price that AT&T currently charges for the first-gen AT&T Torch 9800, the Apple iPhone 3GS with 8GB, and the Samsung Captivate.

RIM has really put the Torch 9810 through some strenuous workouts. First of all, with HSPA+ connectivity, this will be a 4G enabled phone with a single-core 1.2GHz processor under the hood, taking the place of the 624MHz chip found in the original. The 512MB of RAM has been bumped up to 768MB. The 3.2 inch display with resolution of 320 x 480 has been upgraded to resolution of 480 x 640 while the 5MP camera now captures video at 720p. BlackBerry 7 OS is on board, bringing a new internet browser that is 40% faster in rendering pages than the browser on the BlackBerry Torch 9800.

By posting this on Facebook, AT&T has effectively killed off sales of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 considering that the price of the first-gen model will be the same as the new model when it is released next week. While RIM had hoped that the original Torch would allow it to compete with Apple and Android on AT&T, the Canadian based firm realized that while it had an interesting form factor for the handset, it had underwhelmed the phone buying public with its specs. RIM has now addressed that issue and with AT&T pricing the device attractively, we could see many of the carrier's customers carry a Torch for BlackBerry.

source: Facebook (AT&T) via MobileBurn