RIM's recently announced BlackBerry Bold 2 updates (but does not replace) last year's Bold model, incorporating changes based on customer feedback regarding size and other aspects of the original device.

I was given a brief demo of the new Bold 2 - otherwise known as the Bold 9700 - which is slightly smaller and lighter than its predecessor and swaps the pearl trackball for a touchpad. It also features version 5.0 of the BlackBerry OS (recently introduced on the new Storm2 handset), and a slightly higher resolution 480 x 360 pixel display.

My first impression was that the Bold 2 seems noticeably smaller than the Bold, even though RIM has only shaved off a few millimetres all round, and it feels about the same size as one of the older Blackberry Curve models.

It looks like it would fit better in your pocket than the original Bold, and at 122 grams, is also less heavy to carry.

The other noticeable difference is the touchpad, which enables you to use some of the same gestures that are possible on the Storm2's touch screen, such as swipe, zoom and double-tap.

In practice, this means you can swipe your thumb across the touchpad to move from one open window to another. The touchpad also makes it easier to scroll quickly up and down through your messages much faster than was possible with the pearl trackball, which will please those business users who make heavy use of their BlackBerry for emails.

However, the Bold 2 has a very similar keyboard design to the Bold, with the oddly sculpted keys that some people (myself included) find more difficult to use than those of the BlackBerry Curve models.

Rob Orr, director of product management for RIM in EMEA, countered that users have a choice and can pick the keyboard that suits them. The original Bold will continue to be sold alongside the Bold 2, he added, because some users said they prefer a larger device.

Because it shares the updated OS 5.0 with the Storm2, the Bold 2 has the same enhanced web browser, which seemed pretty good for accessing standard web sites in the brief time I had available to try it out.

For corporate users, OS 5.0 also opens up access to the enhanced features of RIM's latest BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) 5.0 release, such as the ability to flag emails for follow up and access to Windows network file shares.

Like the Bold, the new model has Wi-Fi and GPS, but has double the Flash memory at 256MB.

Other notable features include a microSD card slot that can easily be accessed just by sliding the back cover down by a centimetre or so.

RIM also said that owners of existing BlackBerry devices will be able to get an upgrade to OS 5.0 sometime early next year.