BSN104 - Blackberry Bold

BLACKBERRY BOLD ON THE SCENE

Blackberry Bold, another masterpiece from RIM was unveiled some time back. Although it isn’t a revolutionary device like the Blackberry Storm, it does have all the features business users would like to have. It has a physical QWERTY keyboard and all the goodness of Blackberry packed in to a single device.

Blackberry Bold specifications :

Dimensions : 114 x 66 x 14 mm
Weight : 133 g
Display : 2.6″ with 480 x 320 resolution
Card slot : microSD
Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, 3G
WLAN : WiFi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth : v2.0 with A2DP
Camera : 2.0 MP with LED flash
GPS : Yes with A-GPS support
Approx. price : $699

Blackberry Bold does not feature very high end features that one would probably find in the Blackberry Storm. It does however, have both the GPS and WiFi that have rarely coexisted together on Blackberry phones. It also has 3G connectivity to enable high speed browsing and downloads. The retail package has a meager 1GB memory card, microUSB cable and dual DC charger, carrying pouch and single earpiece handsfree.

Design, Display and Keyboard

The Bold has a round design which feels compact and holding it in hand is a nice feeling. Its dimensions are not large and hence it would make not your pocket bulge out, the weight is about average. The Bold is quite thin at just 14 mm, though it isn’t the thinnest Blackberry we have seen. The front is made up of glossy plastic difficult to keep clean and faux leather has been used at the back.

The 2.6″ display on the Bold has a landscape layout with a resolution of 320 x 480 with an aspect ratio of 3:2. The display quality is great with vibrant colors, bright display and great contrast levels. Sunlight visibility of the display is amazing and there is very less washing away of colors in direct sunlight. The landscape display makes way for a totally different experience and is easier to use than portrait ones.

The QWERTY keyboard is one of the best features of the Blackberry Bold. It has a four row layout that is a pleasure to work on. It is one of the best keyboards on a phone that you will find till date. The numeric keypad is on the left and is easy to access. The keys are almost identically sized with the space bar key being the only exception and the keys offer tactile feedback. Overall an excellent keyboard that will please typists.

Camera and Music Player

The camera on the Bold is a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash and no autofocus. It is a basic camera with hardly any manual controls to tinker around with. The camera interface is clunky and unpleasant to use. The settings are all buried deep inside menus making them inaccessible most of the times, although there ain’t too many of them. Some of them include white balance, color effects and image stabilization. Geotagging is possible with the inbuilt GPS receiver. The image quality is pretty bad and the shots turn out noisy with significant loss of detail. The contrast levels are low and color balance is off the mark making way for ‘watercolor’ photos.

Being a business class phone, multimedia isn’t a high priority and this reflects in the phone’s multimedia capabilities. The music player on the device isn’t great and just about fine for casual listening. Sorting the songs by artists, genre, albums etc is possible and it supports album art too. There are no equaliser presets and no ‘Repeat’ option too. The home screen does not show the currently playing track. The audio quality is the only saving grace and its great for a business class phone. The bundled earpiece is the last thing you should be using to enjoy your favorite tracks. Thankfully the phone has 3.5 mm jack to accept third-party earphones.

Web Browser and Organiser

The web browsing on the phone is excellent and trackball plays a important part in that. Input through the QWERTY keyboard is quick and precise. Zooming and panning can be accomplished easily and both work smoothly with the help of virtual mouse cursor and the trackball. The web pages are rendered perfectly and fit the browser window. More content is available on the screen due to its high resolution. The browser does not have Flash support, disappointing to say the least for such a magnificent browser otherwise. It gives strong competition to the likes of Nokia E71 that has been selling like hot cakes.

Organisation skills of the Bold are exceptional as expected from a phone of its class. It has a wide set of applications to manage time efficiently.The calendar has daily, weekly and monthly views and tasks can be added to it. Mobile Office comes preinstalled and supports document editing out of the box but the phone does not have a PDF viewer. Some of the other applications include Notes, alarm, To-Do manager, stopwatch, unit converter etc. The Alarm application can set only a single alarm at a time something where even dirt cheap phones fare better. To-Do manager is quite handy at managing your tasks. Overall the organiser has complete set of applications to manage your time efficiently.

Pros :

Great display
Excellent QWERTY keyboard
3G, GPS, WiFi enabled
Responsive trackball
Great web browser
Excellent organiser

Cons :

Poor camera
Unstable WiFi connection
Bit bulky
No flash support on browser

Final Thoughts

The Blackberry Bold is targeted towards business class users and cares less about the music player or the camera. It has a great display, awesome QWERTY keyboard along with special emphasis on its web browsing and time management skills. The weight is on the heavier side but the relatively small dimensions compensate for it. It provides 3G, WiFi and GPS all in a single device that only a few Balckberrys can write off home with. The trackball plays an important part in phone navigation as well as enhance browser experience. The browser lacks Flash support though. Camera is poor and music player is passable with good audio quality but poor interface. Overall a good package for business users to invest in.