RIM announced new touch-screen and keyboard smartphones running BlackBerry 7 OS to be released to three US carriers. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 resembles the current AT&T Torch but greatly improved, more notably, the updated operating system. The Torch 9850 and 9860, on the other hand, marks RIM’s second attempt on touchscreens following the BlackBerry Storm.

9850 and 9860 are full touchscreen smartphone devices following BlackBerry Storm and Storm 2. The previous two Storm devices were pulled because of bug issues and a difficult user interface. The company claims that the new Touch Torch is 5 times faster than its predecessor. The processor is a single-core Qualcomm Snapdragon Q SD8655 that runs at 1.2 GHz, with a phone RAM of 768MB with 4GB of storage. It boasts a 3.7-inch, 800-by-480 touch screen and a 5-megapixel camera on the back with 720p HD video recording. It has a curved front, subsequently eliminating the typical boxy look and which RIM fondly calls the “waterfall.”

We can only wonder if the new Touch Torch will surpass the previous touchscreen Blackberry that was running on Storm. They look a lot alike but RIM says they have changed much of the core features, such as improved hardware graphics.

Meanwhile, the Torch 9810 is also not a far cry from the current Torch 9800, looks-wise, so much so that AT&T had to put together a PDF just to point-by-point differentiate the two versions. Torch 9810 is also a sliding smartphone with a touchscreen and full keyboard, just like the current Torch. It features a 1.2-Ghz processor, 8GB of memory, 768 MB RAM and 720p video recording.

AT&T said the 9810 will roll out in August, and the 9860 will come out before the end of year. There’s no announcement of Torch 9850 release. We can recall the carrier announcing the launch of BlackBerry Bold 9900 back in May as well.

On the competitor side of things, Apple is expected to be releasing its iPhone 5 this fall, along with a string of Android devices, including tablets.  It’s going to be an uphill battle for BlackBerry.