Well, we’ve been seeing the BlackBerry Essex out in the wild for quite a while now, but this is the first time we’ve seen it with some Sprint branding, which we’re sure is enough to get at least some folks plenty excited (or regretful as the case may be). As most BlackBerry fans are no doubt well aware, the Essex is a Tour refresh that, among other things, adds some much needed WiFi capabilities to the phone, and ditches the Tour’s trackball in favor of a trackpad. Of course, this still isn’t a done

deal just yet, especially considering that the branding seen is only in the OS and not on the device itself — not to mention the fact that the phone seems to have a curiously crooked trackpad. Hit up the link for a closer look.

Update: As we’d mentioned, the trackpad looks vaguely weird — and on closer examination, it looks downright uncool when you’re zoomed in. We’re thinking this probably nothing more than a Tour with a Bold 9700 pad ‘shopped on; have to admit, though, the dude did a decent job. Thanks, Boy Genius!

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