In December 2009, I bought my first Blackberry, the Bold 9000. Throughout that month I took the time to learn the intricacies of the Blackberry OS and learn its strenghts and weaknesses. The last three years of iPhone ownership has blinded me to advantages offered by the Blackberry; chief among these is true OS multitasking. Using applications such as Pandora and the Wall Street Journal reader simultaneously, makes the single tasking iPhone look archaic at times. After a month of using the Bold 9000 I was able to exchange it for the Bold 9700; and thats when things got interesting.
Design
The Bold 9000 was a dramatic departure from previous Blackberry devices; it proved that Research In Motion could make stylish smartphones just as good as Apple or Nokia. The 9700 attempted to solve the few complaints Bold users had, these included the large size, minuscule memory capacity, and the lack of a significant OS upgrade. On paper the Bold 9700 accomplished everything it set out to do, which is to be the flagship Blackberry, but in actual real world usage things are more nuanced.
The biggest change with the Bold 9700 is the device’s size and weight, its slimmed down considerably and has roughly the same dimensions as the Blackberry Curve 8900. The smaller size means smaller keys and screen, although the screen resolution has been raised from 480×320 to 480×360 pixels. The result is a physically smaller screen but sharper fonts and images. Gone are the chrome side key accents and leather battery cover, instead replaced with a partial faux leather back with “Bold” embossed on it. Another big difference between the two phones is the transition from a trackball to an optical pad. Longtime users may complain about the removal of the trackball, but in the past Blackberries came with scroll wheels and people lamented its removal at the time. The optical pad should end the issues of clogged and disgusting looking trackballs for a much more reliable input mechanism.
Keyboard & Internals
Other than the OS, what makes a RIM device a “crackberry” is the keyboard, and its a mixed experience. Curve and Pearl users will love the raised keys and travel space, Bold users such as myself will miss the Cadillac spaciousness of the 9000’s keyboard, even if our typing doesn’t suffer with the 9700’s smaller buttons. Internally the 9700 has 256 megabytes of memory which is double that of the 9000 and other Blackberries such as the Curve and the Tour series. 256 megabytes is laughable compared to every other major smartphone platform. Mitigating this issue somewhat is that Blackberry apps are several hundred kilobytes apiece so your storage can be stretched out a bit. The 1500mAh battery has withstand two days of push email, internet surfing, messaging and several hours of voice calls before it reached 20% -my threshold for immediate charging. There is an included 2gig SDHC(Secure Digital High Capacity) microSD card, that can be “hotswapped” i.e. accessed without removing the battery and accepts up to 32gigabyte cards.
Voice and Data
Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of a smartphone is its function as a telephone. In this capacity the 9700’s sound quality was much better than the mushy sound I experience with the iPhone 3GS and comparable to my at&t voice quality champion, the Nokia e71. The 3G signal has been consistent throughout the New York City metro area, but overall the internet experience feels slower than any other smartphone I’ve used. The included web browser does a poor job rendering Javascript heavy sites such as the desktop version of the Wall Street Journal. As an alternative try Opera Mini and Bolt for a much faster internet surfing experience.
Blackberries are known for their superior email capabilities and in this regard the hype is deserved. Using an at&t BIS account, I was able to setup a POP3 work email, several Google Apps and Gmail accounts without configuring any server settings; very impressive. Emails consistently arrive on the 9700 before they reach any other service, again demonstrating Research In Motion’s dominance over rival platforms.
Overall Impressions
The Blackberry Bold 9700 is a microcosm of the Blackberry platform as a whole; its a throughly dependable, yet rapidly aging smartphone OS living on the momentum of its popularity. Research In Motion makes superbly crafted devices that are improved in small increments with even smaller improvements to its operating system. Blackberry App World, which is RIM’s answer to Apple’s App Store, pales in comparison in regards to the volume and sophistication of available applications. For example the Blackberry version of Beejive (the superlative instant messaging application on any platform) was double the price than that found for the iPhone- with similar functionality (The price has now been reduced to $9.99). Another major issue is the lack of storage for applications; as mentioned earlier the 9700 has 256 megabytes of internal memory which must be used for the OS, applications and emails. The micro SD card can only store media such as music, video and photos. There are iPhone games such as Myst that use more application space than the Bold has internal memory. This will severely hinder developers from porting their apps to the Blackberry platform unless this is remedied in the near future.
Users of older model Blackberry’s will find a lot to love with the 9700, but I’d recommend happy Bold 9000 owners to find one the many leaked OS 5.0 firmware updates and not purchase the Bold 9700, or as I call mine, the “Blackberry Bold Mini”.
Specs:
Display: 480 x 360 pixel TFT 65k color LCD. Screen size diagonally: 2.44″.
Battery: Rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell battery. Battery is user replaceable. 1500 mAh. Claimed GSM talk time: 6 hours, claimed UMTS talk time: 6 hours. Claimed GSM standby: 19 days, claimed UMTS standby time: 15 days.
Performance: 624 MHz Marvell processor. 256 megs RAM. 256 megs Flash ROM.
Size: 4.29 x 2.36 x 0.56 inches. Weight: 4.30 ounces.
Phone: GSM quad band with UMTS. GSM on 1900/1800/900/850 MHz. UMTS on 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1, 2, 5/6), 2100/1700/900 MHz (Bands 1, 4, 8). UMA Wi-Fi calling supported.
Camera: 3.2 MP camera with autofocus, a flash and 2x digital zoom. Image resolutions include 2048 x 1536, 1024 x 768 and 480 x 360 pixels. Camera comes with image stabilizer, white balance and color effect options. It can also shoot video in 480 x 360 and 176 x 144 resolutions.
Audio: Ringtones 32 polyphonic – MIDI, SP-MDI, MP3 and WAV. Built-in mic, speaker and a 3.5mm stereo audio jack. Music player onboard and can play music in 3GP, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB and Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ formats.
Networking: Bluetooth v2.1. Mono/Stereo Headset, Hands-free, Serial Port Profile, Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP/AVCRP) and Bluetooth SIM Access Profile supported. Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g.
GPS: Integrated GPS with A-GPS (assisted GPS) ready. BlackBerry Maps included, TeleNav is available on retail devices provisioned with BES.
Software: BlackBerry OS 5.0. BlackBerry push email with service integrations to Exchange, Lotus Domino and GroupWise. BlackBerry Messaging, SMS and MMS. BlackBerry Maps, Documents to Go Suite, web browser, media player for your MP3 pleasure and video playback. PIM apps include address book, calendar, tasks and memo. Also Alarm, voice notes, calculator, Password Keeper. Games: BrickBreaker, Word Mole, Texas Hold’Em King 2, Sudoku and Klondike. BlackBerry Desktop software for PC included for syncing and software installation (PocketMac for BlackBerry Mac software can be downloaded for free from RIM’s site).
Expansion: 1 SDHC microSD card slot. 2 gig card included. Supports up to 32 gig cards.
In the Box: Bold 9700, charger, USB cable, stereo earbud headset, a 2 gig microSD card, case, software CD and manual.
Written by Brent Gairy
Brent’s background is in multimedia development and over the last 12 years his knowledge has evolved into web design and client services. Brent can found daily on Twitter.
