The Blackberry Bold 9700

AT&T is now offering the update to the Blackberry Bold 9000, the new and improved Blackberry Bold 9700. It is more powerful, useful, and chic than the previous version, and for $99 after rebates and a two year contract, it’s a very good deal that incorporates everything that you could possibly need for work related business.

The design of the Bold 9700 is slimmer and lighter than its predecessor. The smartphone measures 4.3 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches and weighs 4.3 ounces. The back panel is made of faux leather, while the rest of the phone features chrome accents and full-size keys that spread across the entire width of the phone. Although it is not a touch screen, the LCD screen is extremely bright and sharp. The display resolution comes in at 480 x 360 pixels. The QWERTY keyboard on the Bold 9700 is fantastic. It is easy to use, accurate, and very quiet. The optical trackpad is another welcome improvement over the easily broken trackball that can be found on the Bold 9000.

The Bold is credited as a quad-band EDGE and quad-band HSDPA 3.6 device with Wi-Fi. The device uses Wi-Fi for data purposes but does support Wi-Fi calling like a lot of T-Mobile’s smartphones.

When the Bold 9700 was compared to the iPhone 3GS for call quality, clarity, and crispness, the Bold came out on top. I found this very impressive. It also has a fantastic speakerphone that is able to project perfectly. Battery life averages at about 6 hours and 45 minutes of continuous talk time when in 3G mode.

The Bold features a 624 MHz processor and Blackberry OS 5.0. This offers upgraded Web browsers, threaded text messages, and a variety of other enhancements. Included with the phone is push e-mail for accounts including Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Exchange. There are about 3,000 apps that are available to buy and download from the Blackberry App World. Included on the phone is AT&T’s Navigator which features TeleNav-powered GPS directions. IM clients are not preloaded on the Bold, but they can be easily downloaded from major accounts for free. With the Documents to Go software, you can view and edit Word and Excel files and even display PowerPoint presentations right from your smartphone.

The list of impressive features just continues on as the Bold is also an excellent music player. It syncs with both PCs and Macs and even syncs unprotected iTunes music and playlists. You can also easily download MP3 tracks from Napster or eMusic. Included with the Bold 9700 is a pair of wired stereo earbuds and a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack. AT&T even throws in a 2GB microSD card for storing all your media files. The card is conveniently stored underneath the battery cover.

The 3.2-megapixel camera on the Bold 9700 should serve all your purposes well. It features image stabilization, auto-focus, and an LED flash. The photos seems sharp and well balanced. The video is 480 x 360-pixels, 28 frames per second, and extremely sharp and smooth.

The Blackberry Bold 9700 is a fantastic smartphone with a multitude of features. It has quite a bit of competition in AT&T’s lineup, but I feel that it stays towards the top with its low price tag, sleek design, and many impressive features. If your looking for a new smartphone, this is definitely one direction to consider.

The Blackberry Bold 9000

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 is one of Research in Motion's latest 3G smartphones to hit the market. The Bold sports a sleek design, very sharp display, and high speed connectivity but is lacking other areas such as call quality and its camera's image quality. Although the phone presents a very enticing offer it's drawbacks may prevent you from justifying the high price tag. Here's what we have to say about the Blackberry Bold 9000.

The BlackBerry Bold is easily one of the most stylish BlackBerries yet and comes with a removable black leather cover which gives the phone a sophisticated look and is very comfortable to hold. The cover can also be customized with an optional blue, brown, green, gray or red to give it a more personalized feel. The Bold is also roughly the same size as the BlackBerry Curve 8300 with dimensions of 4.5 inches by 2.6 inches by .55 inches and weighs about equal to an iPhone at 4.8 ounces. The phone has curved corners and a glossy face but unfortunately lacks a touch screen that have become so ingrained in the world of smart phones.

The bold does come with a full QWERTY keyboard and various corporate e-mail and infrastructure characteristics that BlackBerry is known for. The keyboard itself is has been revamped in the Bold model with sculpted keys to minimize finger slippage and enhance usability. The Bold also has a superior battery life and provides over 7 hours and 50 minutes of talk time, which is longer than any other 3G phone I've seen. The BlackBerry operating system was revamped as well giving the interface in version 4.6 a looking cleaner and more attractive look. The new OS features background wallpapers and a customizable application view known as the Ribbon.

The phone itself also has an excellent display. Images and video look absolutely spectacular on the Bold's 480 X 320 VGA display which supports over 65,000 colors, twice as many as the BlackBerry Curve. In terms of performance, the BlackBerry Bold's display matches that of the iPhone's resolution and has great video playback with little to no pixelation or blurring. However the camera on the phone has much to be desired. The 2 megapixel camera has some advanced features including digital zoom and flash but many users report the flash being to bright causing indoor pictures to look grainy or overexposed. The camera also has very few megapixels for such an expensive phone and seems to be lacking on some features such as a self timer, which is non-existant.

The BlackBerry Bold has also had some reports on poor call quality. On several occasions calls made to other mobile devices consistently suffered from a background hiss and many times the voices on the other line sounded far away, as if they were talking to their phone from 5 feet away. People who have received calls from the BlackBerry Bold also reported hearing a lot of background noise and somewhat of a distortion in the voice.

The BlackBerry Bold undoubtedly delivers high-speed browsing and strong messaging capabilities and a definite step up in functionality and form from existing BlackBerry models, but some faults hinder its potential to compete with other well-known smartphones such as the iPhone and the T-mobile G1. With such a high price tag it will be hard to grab a consumers attention.