A review by Badger_Boy on BlackBerry Bold 9000 September 10th, 2008
Author's product rating:
Look & Feel
Durability & Robustness
Battery standby time
Value for money
Range of features
Advantages:
mobile e - mail, excellent mobile phone, SMS/MMS, camera, web browsing
Disadvantages:
synchronisation issues, inbox/calendar/contact updates are not transferred
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
The commencement of a new job saw me presented with a brick like XDA device which truth be told was useless. E-mails had to be typed using a stylus which frankly took hours to write and every time the battery died it had to be sent back to IT while they rebuilt it from scratch after it managed to wipe every last trace of my documents and e-mails. After much sighing in front of my boss and several important e-mails going unreturned late at night and at the weekend she finally gave in and with much glee presented me with a BlackBerry 7100v, a model I had previously used, a model which to put bluntly was close to obsolete by the time my sweaty paws had gotten to grips with it again. Frustrated with the inaction of my peers I went out and spent £450 of my own money on the BlackBerry Bold, the new smart phone from RIM designed to rival the Apple i-Phone.
The user interface for the Bold is very similar to the Pearl version with the icons and features being accessed using a trackball located just below the screen, however in terms of size and feel it is on a par in size with the 7100v, due to the large colour screen and the full QWERTY keyboard. With a weight of only 136g and dimensions of 11.4cm x 6.6cm x 1.5cm there is a clear move away from the theory behind the Pearl of making the smart phone as aesthetically similar to a regular mobile phone device as possible. In my opinion, this is a move for the better, making the device practical for use in a business environment. My initial reaction to the enhanced colour display was one of shock and awe, the Half VGA resolution 480 x 320 colour pixel display supports over 65,000 different colours and shades making icons, pictures and messages clear, bright, packed with colour and more than a match for the graphics and visuals of the i-Phone.
Anyone with any experience of the RIM BlackBerry series of smart phones will be aware that the main feature and draw to them from the business class is e-mail on the move, allowing truly instant access to your inbox and the Bold is no different. Once the software is uploaded onto the computer following the easy step by step guide, the BlackBerry becomes synchronised with the inbox selected. By using Outlook I have always found that the installation process much easier, due in part to the fact that as the e-mail content from the inbox and other folders is transferred, contact details and my own personal calendar are automatically synchronised onto the device. An observation after using the device is that e-mails actually appear on the device prior to appearing on my desktop inbox, therefore when I hear the buzzing of an incoming email from the BlackBerry I can wait anything up to a minute for the email to appear in my inbox when at my desk. This has become slightly infuriating, particularly in busy periods when I can receive in excess of 250 e-mails a day.
In terms of accessing, sending and receiving e-mails there are no real problems, if anything they arrive on the device a little too quickly however after 2 weeks of using the synchronisation facility failed, therefore if reading and deleting an e-mail from the device, it would not be deleted from my desktop inbox and visa versa, this meant having to manual delete and file e-mails into sub-folders again utilising the rare time I have during the working day. To combat the problem I had to re-install the software again and go through the synchronisation process, again eating into time I just don't have when working. If I had to score the email function out of ten, the Bold would receive a 6 due to the synchronisation issues, whereas the Pearl version would receive a hearty nine for being close to flawless.
Other standard business features include as mentioned earlier an Outlook calendar, a contacts directory and mobile phone. Both the calendar and contact directory are very useful tools and the ability to increase the size of text makes finding a viewing details incredibly easy. Due to the synchronisation issues explained above however, data input via the device was not always transferred to my desktop and visa versa causing a whole host of problems with diary management. When using previous version of RIM BlackBerry products I would always give the calendar and contact features ten out of ten but again I'm limited in my assessment due to the fact that the device fell down causing me problems, especially when it came to missed meetings that could have gotten me into trouble at work. With this in mind, again out of ten the Bold only scores a six. Whilst the tone of this review may seem negative there are a host of positives to come, the mobile phone for instance scores a resounding ten out of ten due to the fantastic range of tones available from polyphonic, MIDI and MP3. With the ability to customise volume and caller display (which includes the ability to assign photographs to numbers) by far the best thing is call reception. In a poor coverage area with only one bar in terms of signal strength everything received and broadcast is crystal clear. In addition and somewhat different to previous models, SMS and MMS messages are composed and stored under a separate icon, and don't appear in the e-mail inbox. This makes the ability to differentiate between e-mails and text messages very easy, especially when assigning different tones to different types of messages.
Like the Pearl, the Bold has a fantastic built in 2 mega-pixel camera that has an image stabiliser which takes the hassle out of taking the perfect pictures. Every time I have used the camera (usually when under the influence) the pictures have been sharp, crystal clear and high in detail. Video clips can also be captured and the images and sound are second to none, in fact that are on a par with my digital video camera. With the built in 1GB memory the ability to store hundreds of photographs and video clips is welcome, however I have noticed that the more pictures and storage space used, the device becomes marginally slower when reacting to commands when typing e-mails and text messages. With 75 pictures stored to the memory, the text when typing doesn't seem capable to keep up. A firm thumbs up for the camera in terms of quality so another ten out of ten, however until I upgrade the memory (which is easy, but expensive to do) this function receives only a seven from ten.
Video, multi-media and Internet clips are viewed under the media player, that supports nearly every known current format and playback is of a fantastic quality, again earning a rating of ten out ten. Personally I would have liked this feature to have been available on the Pearl but it is a welcome addition to the Bold.
The Bold also supports the BlackBerry Maps feature introduced for the Pearl and some slight tweaks to the software have improved the layout. With the provision of a larger screen means that getting lost in an area with a mobile phone signal now impossible as the system allows for locations and street maps to be viewed using street names, areas and postcodes.
A plethora of other accessories are incorporated such as an alarm clock, calculator, memo pad (that allows the viewing of .pdf files as well as Word), tasks and a fast web browser. These are standard features you'd find on any mobile device. They don't set the world on fire but browsing the web is quick and easy, navigation is simple and the colour screen does justice to some very graphic heavy web pages.
The incredible battery life was something I was very used to as a regular BlackBerry user, and the Bold is no different. On average I find that it takes a good 7 days for the device battery to drain down to the point where the GPS/GPRS switches off to conserve energy and with heavy use at weekends utilising the video player, camera and e-mail very little power is used up. Charging can be done via a plug or a USB connection, both of which come as standard with the hardware package.
As a business tool the Bold has the potential to be a world beater, packed with features galore that could make mobile working a breeze but the one main flaw I have experienced relating to the synchronisation of the e-mail inbox, calendar and contacts means that I cannot hand on heart recommend it to potential consumers. Until synchronisation is guaranteed there will always be a niggling doubt in my mind as to whether I'm missing a meeting, have the most up to date contact details for journalists or have received important e-mails. I loved the BlackBerry Pearl but wanted a QWERTY keyboard to make typing easier, and now I have the QWERTY keyboard and flawed software I want my Pearl back. With hindsight I should have waited until the bugs were resolved, but forearmed is forewarned and sadly I wasn't.
Don't make the same mistake, if you like BlackBerry products wait a few months before looking to buy the Bold as there are issues that need to be resolved to make this a truly exceptional piece of kit. If you offered me an i-Phone, the Bold or the Pearl I would now take the Pearl over the other two.
Advantages: Great looking, very easy to use Disadvantages: Poor Battery
After recently getting the Blackberry Bold I thought I'd share my thoughts about it. Traditionally a Blackberry is known for being solely aimed at the business market with one of its main selling points being the fact that you have constant email access which is of course very important for some people. They were not aimed at the consumer market in terms of looks or capabilities. However, the Blackberry Bold (BB) aims to change that. With the recent ... ...the Blackberry isn't so businessey and may have some appeal to the consumer market. The BB has been very much designed not only for practical reasons, but also in order to attract potential new customers. Gone are the brick like Blackberry's and in is the very attractive looking Blackberry Bold.
Design
Looking at the phone from the outside it certainly looks very good. On the front you are presented with a full QWERTY keyboard which is sized very ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Great e-mail service, easy to use. Does what it says on the tin! Disadvantages: Size is not for everyone.
...crazy! To me the blackberry bold is the first real step blackberry have made to corner the consumer handphone market and is without a doubt the main rival to the iphone. I have been a blackberry user for the past three years, my first being the blackberry pearl, a small but useful handset, the only thing missing was the full QWERTY keyboard which you do really need. After that phone I moved to the T-Mobile MDA 3 which had a nasty stylus to type with ... ...my own personal e-mails. The blackberry e-mail service is fantastic and routes e-mails through push e-mail, sending them straight to the device the minute they hit your inbox, unlike many other phones which use pull e-mail where the phone manually looks every few minutes or hours to see if anything has come in. The blackberry operates in realtime, essential for a useful device! This handset is Blackberry’s first foray into the 3G arena and you can ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Freedom to surf and do other things. Disadvantages: Very expensive, ill-fitting pouch.
The Blackberry has evolved in society and has become an icon of business, and a regular sight and sound on train and tube journeys in and around London. Business men take advantage of its almost flawless e-mail feature, which allows them to send and receive e-mail on the move.
I am not a business user. I am a student, and while this may seem like an expensive toy, the functionality of this gadget is drawing more and more teenagers to it as a valuable ... ...and there is a handy BlackBerry messenger feature which is a real-time text conversation, supporting conference-style chat.
Obviously there is a QWERTY keyboard, but when navigating you pretty much only use the rollerball and the two buttons directly adjacent to it. Next to those are the green and red buttons, which obviously control calls. There is a shift button for capitals, and an "alt" button for symbols and numbers. The keyboard defaults to ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Included a number of advanced technology. 3G HSDPA support Disadvantages: The sharpness of the screen is too ketch 65000
...(Rim) re-introduce the BlackBerry, the BlackBerry Bold 9000. PDA market for high-end explain this tendency to make the rim peranti best, to work, and play.
BlackBerry Bold 9000 has a two-resolution screen that promises sharpness. For this newest product, Rim more likely to play with the resolution, not on the size of the screen. BlackBerry Bold 9000 dilengkap complete and advanced features, ranging from 1GB internal memory and the memory card slot ... ...such as Curve and Pearl, BlackBerry Bold 9000 has a camera that can record video. While prosesornya adopted 624MHz Intel PXA270, the previous series using the 312MHz processor.
Other merit, BlackBerry Bold 9000 has a back cover that can be replaced with a variety of changing colors. This LCD screen smartphone with a large enough resolution 480 x 320 pixels, so that gives satisfaction when enjoying movies or photos stored in it.
Not only that, be ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Easy to use, pleasent to look at, good battery life, big memory, good camera, easily customisable. Disadvantages: May not be for those who prefer a smaller phone.
...been an owner of the blackberry curve and pearl and the bold by far is the best phone I have ever laid my hands on.
The phone is stylish and the format is set out in a clear and easy to use way. Although fonts are limited, the new fonts added to the bold are nicer to look at than the previous. The phone is very easy to customise, with a vast variety of covers, cases, skins to protect the phone, although the phone is very durable. Unlike the other ... ...downloaded and bought for the blackberry bold, meaning you can customise it to your personality as much as possible, you can even make your own themes with the right tools.
Many people look at the blackberry and worry that it looks to complex to use. However, once you've found had the phone for a couple of days and found your way around, you will find it is one of the most easiet and pleasent phones to have. I was suprised to see how long the battery ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: best speakerphone! Disadvantages: no vieo recorder or 3g
...Pros: Fantastic call quality, better on speakerphone; video/audio quality is the best you'll ever find on a phone (better than surround sound); good flash 2 MP camera, 5x zoom; receive e-mail from ANY account; state-of-the-art security/encryption options
Cons: No 3G support, though there are rumors of this phone in circulation with 3G (BlackBerryBold, a.k.a. BlackBerry9000 will offer it indefinitely when it comes out later this year for AT&T); no video recorder available (ouch!)
Summary: The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8310 (AT&T) is perhaps the best phone on the market; however, it relinquishes that title with the loss of 3G support and video recorder, which make this phone a devout underachiever. But with superior call quality (even better on speakerphone!), video/audio quality to die for, handy 2 megapixel 5x zoom camera, the ability...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
...a smartphone that walks and talks high-end.
Nokia E71 however is in for some tough BlackBerry competition. The Bold9000 seems like a nice alternative having almost the same feature pack as the Nokia. BlackBerry's proprietary OS is not as widespread as the Symbian S60 but the business applications are all there, so the target audience won't feel deprived. The Bold also has a screen of much higher-resolution than the E71, but then, size is worth a thought....
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Ciao members have rated this review on average not helpful
04.07.2009
