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BlackBerry General, ReviewsHands-On BlackBerry Bold 9000 Review
BlackBerry Bold Review:
Full of screen shots and comparison pictures!
We got our hands on a BlackBerry Bold review unit. It is a so-called “seed unit” and did not come in the retail box. The seed unit is a T-Mobile Germany branded device.
As soon as we get our hands onto a retail unit, we will post some nice un-boxing pictures. For the moment being we can give some comparison screen shots with other BlackBerry devices and detailed pictures of the device OS.
Scroll to the bottom of this article to view the comparison shots of the The Bold with the iPhone, the Curve, the Pearl and a Nokia E90.
(Below) The applications screen, the message screen,home screen menu and the calculator.
When I first saw the Bold at WES 2008, the device looked very large. With my test unit I don’t have this impression any more. The device looks very slick and small and feels as small as the Curve does. The build quality is very good. The device is very solid and robust.
The keyboard is much better than the one on the BlackBerry 8800 and almost as good as on the BlackBerry Curve. Prior to the Bold, the Curve was my day-to-day device. The switch to the Bold keyboard was very easy and smooth. I can’t really describe, but somehow the trackball seems to be better then on any other trackball device I have used before.
The various options for the clock display.
(below) Various screen shots, including the clock options, WordMole, and the stopwatch.
The device looks very slick and small and feels as small as the Curve does. The build quality is very good. The device is very solid and robust.
The Options screen and home screen options:
The largest improvement from prior devices is the screen. With the resolution of 480×320 the screen is brilliant and has a very crisp picture. How brilliant the screen is, can be seen best when watching any videos optimized for this screen resolution.
With BlackBerry device software 4.6.0 release 199 the device is keeping a stable connection, both on EDGE and 3G. Switching from 3G to 2G and vice versa takes just two to three seconds. The phone quality on both network types is brilliant. The sound is clear and there aren’t any bad noises.
In this shot, you see the outside Media Card slot, with the Media Card inserted halfway.
The performance of the device is very good. There is no sluggishness while using the device. Some times the sand clock appears on the screen but in all cases it disappears in the same second it appeared.
I like the BlackBerry Bold. It is a great device. It could be very well be a device that I will keep longer than six months (which is the usual frequency in which I change my BlackBerry devices. There are only two things RIM needs to improve on the device. First they need to increase the battery life. I only managed to get two days from the device battery in EDGE-only mode. Most of the time I have the chance to charge my BlackBerry at least once a day, but I do not think of doing this every day. Second the browser needs a Flash player. There are too many web sites nowadays that use Flash animations.
Overall I am very satisfied with the BlackBerry Bold 9000. It is the first BlackBerry to offer everything you need – GPS, WLAN, UMTS/HSDPA, Camera.
A nice addition to the BlackBerry OS is the “Accessibility” option. It allows you to modify the grid layout from 4×4 to 1×1 icons. You can also change the colour contrast between “Normal”, “Reverse Contrast” and “Greyscale”. For certain user groups this could very well improve the read-ability of the BlackBerry screen.
The Bold browser screen in OS 4.6, sporting BlackBerryForums.com
The biggest improvement on the device is the browser. Finally you do not need any third-party browser to get the same browser feeling like on your desktop computer.
When I remember back to my first BlackBerry device more than six years ago, the BlackBerry 5820, I am still impressed how RIM managed to keep the BlackBerry feeling. You start to use the device and you know it is a real BlackBerry, just much better then what it used to be a few years ago.
Go and save some money to get your BlackBerry Bold – you will not regret it!
Comparison Shots!
Post Tags: 9000, 9000 review, bold, Bold review, pictures, screenshots
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