Research In Motion (RIM) on Monday launched the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone in pure white for customers in Hong Kong.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet at only 10.5mm, and the first to offer the perfect union of a high performance keyboard and touch display integrated within the iconic BlackBerry Bold design.

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to include built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that is enabling many new and exciting capabilities, including the ability to make mobile payments, pair with NFC-enabled accessories or read smart poster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.

The new BlackBerry 7 operating system introduces a next generation BlackBerry browser with a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry.

Combining the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine together with powerful hardware enhancements, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone delivers browsing  results that are up to 40% faster than BlackBerry 6 based smartphones and up to 100% faster than BlackBerry 5 based smartphones.

Additional enhancements to the browser include optimized zooming and panning for smoother web navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences.