RIM has announced the BlackBerry Torch 9860, its long-awaited all-touch smartphone running BlackBerry OS 7.

As expected, the handset comes with a 1.2Ghz processor, and features the largest screen ever on a BlackBerry at 3.6-inches.

It's a high-res capacitive touchscreen with 15:9 aspect ratio and the 5MP rear-mounted camera can handle 720P HD video recording.

Thin Lizzy

The Torch 9860 is also one of BlackBerry's slimmest smartphone offerings, coming in at 11.5mm thin – still substantially deeper than the iPhone 4's 9mm waist.

In terms of memory, the BlackBerry Torch 9860 comes with 768MB of RAM and 4GB of memory which is expandable up to 32GB via microSD.

Other handy features include Wi-Fi, GPS, an accelerometer, digital compass and HSPA+ connectivity.

The new BlackBerry OS 7 was first seen on the BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900, first revealed in May of this year; it means we'll see updated icons, more fluid movements, and faster performance from the Torch 9860 than its BB OS 6 predecessors.

No word from RIM or the networks yet on a BlackBerry Torch 9860 UK release date or UK price. We'll be getting up close and personal with the handset later this morning, so stay tuned for our hands on BlackBerry Torch 9860 review.