BlackBerry Bold 9000

It's remarkable. The more devices we acquire to keep us in touch with the world around us, the less we actually communicate with each other. How many times have you seen two people sitting in a pub, both industriously typing on their phones, PDAs or laptops, and utterly ignoring the person sitting right opposite them? Partly for this reason, I'd avoided joining the Crackberry - oops - I mean Blackberry generation. My trusty Nokia was (and still is, for personal use) sufficient - I could make and receive calls, and send and receive texts, and even take the odd picture. What more did I need?

This all changed six months ago, when I changed jobs. Within two days of joining, I was given a box, in which nestled a sleek Blackberry 9000, two charging cables (one for the mains outlet, the other for a usb connection), a set of headphones, a carry case which is, apparently, magnetic, and four booklets of instructions (two of which, admittedly, were in Spanish). I was well on my way to a serious Crack(berry) addiction.

As this is a work phone, most of the set up was done for me. The device was set up to 'push' my work emails to my phone, and allow me to look up company names, numbers and email addresses from the global list. The phone number was already printed on my business cards, so it was pretty much ready to go. Yes, I did customise it to an extent, but it must be remembered that as this is a work phone, it's not got tons of memory, so I haven't loaded it up with music (though it will play music), nor games (though it has a handful) and I have not downloaded oodles of funky apps. I use it primarily, though not exclusively, for work, and so will be reviewing it from that perspective.

The Mirror Crack'd - look and feel

Not surprisingly, this is a hefty little device. It has a full QWERTY keypad (by full, I mean it has all the letters, not that it's full sized - you'd need awfully tiny fingers to touch type on this bad boy) taking up the bottom third(ish) of the 11.4 cm height, and an easy to view, well lit, high resolution, colour screen filling most of the rest of the top. Between the keypad and the screen you'll find the answer, hang up, menu button, back up button and little scroll nipple thing (the little ball that allows you to navigate the screen - this isn't a touch screen, and the ball does stick from time to time). It's black with a chrome 'frame', and has a leatherette back with the inevitable camera lens. There are a number of buttons and holes on the sides, including one to activate the camera, one to lock the phone, a volume control, and a couple that are frankly a mystery to me.

It is heavier than a 'normal' mobile, though not uncomfortably so. The official specifications tell me it weighs 136gms, this hardly matters though - it's heavier than a stupid phone, but not brick like. Oddly, I find it fits more comfortably on my ear, when using it as a phone, than does a normal phone. It covers more of my ear, and sits better.

It is a bit large to fit comfortably in a pocket. Height, width, depth and weight are considerably larger than my little Nokia. I have carried it (in its supplied case) in my jeans pocket. This works only if there is nothing else in the pocket, and the jeans aren't too tight. In a suit jacket pocket it sits like a stodgy pudding consumed after a big meal. It drags and you can certainly feel the size and weight. It fits better in many coat pockets, but no matter which pocket you put it in, you will be aware of its presence. If, like me, you carry two phones, one for personal and one for work, you will soon feel weighed down my technology.

Hangin' on the Telephone - Call Me!

Call quality is good. My Blackberry is on Vodaphone, and the sound is usually crisp and clear, and I don't suffer many dropouts. Whilst it is comfortable on the ear, do be aware that if you are wearing make-up, you will find it smeared on the screen after your call. The quality on the headset is very good. I can hear my caller clearly on the headset that resembles a good iPod headset, with soft in-ear earphones, and they can hear me. I am not sure they can even tell I am on a headset, which is high praise indeed.

My phone is currently set up to vibrate a couple of times when it is in its case (putting the phone in the case automatically locks the phone, requiring a password to unlock to make calls, but not to receive them - that's what the magnet is for), and then ring. I rarely make it in time to answer the call before voicemail kicks in, particularly if I have to frantically search to discover into which pocket I have stored it. I have fiddled with the settings to change this. The ringtone setting is easy to find. There is a little loudspeaker type symbol at the top, you simply move the little ball until it's highlighted, and you can adjust the settings for various ring profiles from there. However, I've not found a setting that has a good balance between a couple of vibrations and full blown ringing. I am still working on it.

It did take me a couple of gos to work out how to make a call, particularly one to someone not in my address book. It does turn out that this is fairly simple. There are red numbers printed above some of the letters, arranged in a typical phone fashion. Simply press those to make your call. However, it wasn't immediately obvious to me, as you need to enter a menu item to do almost everything else.

Texting is not as straightforward as I'd like - simply navigate to the appropriate menu item (mine is on the 'home' page), and hit the menu key, and then go to 'compose SMS', unless you are replying to a previous text. There may well be a simpler way to do this; if so, I've not yet found it.

Stalked by Work - email and stuff

Clearly, my firm didn't give me a Blackberry just to use as a mobile phone. Oh no. They want to make sure I can deal with obstreperous clients at all times of day and night. Using email (it's set up to give me access to the Exchange server at work) is considerably simpler than texting. A little red light (the bane of my existence) flashes insistently when an email has arrived, and a little yellow envelope symbol appears at the top of the screen. I simply highlight the envelope symbol (bigger, and not yellow) at the bottom of the screen, and lo, I am sent straight to my inbox, and sometimes to the new message that has arrived. Reading and replying are easy - the screen is clear, and the menu button gives me many of the same options I have on my computer - forward, reply to all, reply and the like. I can download attachments, but I don't - who wants to read a spreadsheet on a dinky little screen? Some graphics are rendered in email, some not so much. But given that it's more designed to quickly read emails on the go, I don't usually find this a huge problem.

When composing an email, I can use the lookup feature to find colleague's email addresses, or to find any addresses I've put into my personal address book (on Outlook at work). The Blackberry automatically picks up any addresses I add to my Outlook address book. Because it's a QWERTY keyboard, typing a message is easy - no predictive text required here. The keyboard is small, and a bit fiddly, even for my tiny hands. Symbols can be accessed either through the little 'sym' key near the space bar, or more commonly used symbols are on the keyboard, accessed by hitting the 'alt' key first. Numbers are also accessed via the alt key (i.e. hit 'alt' followed by W, and that gives you a 1). Irritatingly, I have not yet found a reliable way to delete large chunks of text at one time, nor to copy and paste large chunks. I have sometimes managed to highlight a chunk, but for me, it is very hit and miss.

My work calendar is also accessed by the Blackberry, and the device will alert me when an appointment is due. I don't add appointments via the Blackberry; I tend to do this at work, and the Blackberry syncs with my calendar. I get a wee tingle and a flashing light when an alert is there, I can then dismiss or snooze it just as I would from my computer. I can also view my calendar day by day, scrolling across to change days. This all works much as you'd expect - it's not as clear on the tiny screen as it would be on my computer, but I wouldn't expect it to be.

All Work & No Play Makes Matty a Dull Girl

No-one expected to give me a toy and not allow me to play with it! There is a pretty much fully functional internet browser on this, which even allows me to view web pages much as I would on a computer (albeit much smaller). These days, many sites will automatically default to a PDA view in any case when browsing to them - the BBC's site is an example of that. Browsing is easy. The 'go to' page, which is accessed via the ever useful menu key allows you to either type in an address directly, or use the other input box causing a Google search to happen. It's not the quickest internet browser in the works. This is to be expected, given that it is still essentially going through the mobile phone network. It is, however, adequate.

I find the browser especially useful for finding pubs, in conjunction with Google Maps (a downloadable, incredibly useful app that acts as a silent sat nav system). Pop over to www.beerintheevening.com, bung in your postcode and find yourself a decent pub. Find the postcode on BITE of the pub you want to visit, stick that in Googlemaps, get directions, and Bob is your proverbial uncle.

I have also downloaded the Googlemail app, allowing me to access my personal email as quickly and easily as I can my work email. The screen looks slightly different from the 'real' email screen, but the functionality is much the same, right down to the blinking red light to alert me to a new email.

The camera is...ok. It is easy to use, and includes a zoom of up to 3x, and a flash. It doesn't take the world's greatest pictures, which is not surprising, given it's only a 2 megapixel camera. It is adequate, but you won't be setting the world alight with your masterpieces.

The phone is Bluetooth capable. I do not, however, have a Bluetooth headset, nor have I had occasion to swap pictures or other bits and bobs via Bluetooth. I have found the Bluetooth menu, but not yet used it, so really cannot comment. Do bear in mind, though, that Bluetooth is a real battery sucker, and so it is not wise to have it always on.

There are many features to make the phone 'fun', many of which I just do not use. I don't use Blackberry's own map feature, nor have I downloaded any music or other multimedia. I have played Breakout a few times, but soon tired of that. For the most part, I really do use this for work. Once the novelty value evaporated, I realised that I already had an iPod (RIP - stolen a couple of weeks ago), and access to plenty of computers, most of the time, and that I'd rather read a book than play the games. The only other apps I have downloaded and use regularly are IM clients - Googletalk, Yahoo Chat and MSN Messenger. Even those, I don't keep on all the time. I tend to sign into them if I don't have a book on a long train journey. I don't really need to be in contact all the time. But more on that shortly.

More Power!

According to Blackberry's own website, http://uk.blackberry.com/devices/blackbe​rrybold/bo ld_specifications.jsp, this thing should stay alive for 13.5 hours on standby, and 4.5 hours of talk time. Bullocks. I find, even though I have mine turn off automatically at 11.00pm and back on again at 7.00am, I have to give it a wee top up at least once every couple of days. I don't use it that often as a phone, though I do check it and use it for emails quite a lot. Even so, I do find this thing eats power. Furthermore, whilst you can charge it with the usb cable attached to the computer, it doesn't really like it. It absolutely must be charged from the mains from time to time, or else it will die, and appear utterly dead. This happened to me; I thought I'd somehow broken the phone. It just needed some proper, mains power and then it was fine. Fortunately, it didn't lose anything in the memory.

Online, All the Time - the bottom line

Looking at the device itself, it is fairly easy to use. It feels good on the ear when using it as a phone, and isn't too hefty, though slightly inconvenient, when carrying it around. Using email is a dawdle, and it works consistently. The keyboard, though small, is easy to use and has a good, responsive feel to it. The trackball is useful, though it does stick sometimes. There are a number of useful (and not so useful) apps out there for it. Battery life is appalling, but, on the upside, it does recharge from the mains reasonably quickly.

The Blackberry is, without a doubt, a useful device. If I am on my way to a meeting, or running late, or away from my desk, my clients don't have to suffer. I can even catch up with personal email, update my Facebook status, IM friends or colleagues or just generally mess around with the great wide world outside my immediate sphere of influence. I can be in constant contact with people I cannot see.

And there's the rub. With a Blackberry, you ARE in contact all the time. You are expected to respond to emails, or appointments, or even IMs instantly and effectively. You are never offline. Every silver lining has a cloud, and the constant availability truly is a double-edged sword.

If I were asked 'what do I think of the Blackberry as a concept', I'd swing between the poles of convenience of contact, and on the downside, convenience of contact.