If you are asking me whether I am a big fan of Blackberry, honestly, I am not. In fact, I am not using Blackberry, but I have a lot or I can say almost all of my friends are now using Blackberry. My friends who don’t have Blackberry are now saving some money to buy one. I don’t get it, what’s going on? I cannot remember when exactly Blackberry is coming to the market, but definitely, they were not very famous before. If I am not mistaken, the people are starting to consider the Blackberry when the 8800 series was coming to the market.
The famous shape of Blackberry with QWERTY keyboard was firstly introduced through 8800. That’s why I am very interested to make a review on Blackberry by borrowing it from my friend for couple of weeks. Actually, I don’t want to borrow the bold first, but I want to review from the oldest Blackberry like the Curve. Unfortunately, I only can borrow the phone for a few days because my friend who owns Blackberry Curve is planning to go out of town. So, I have no choice then starting with Blackberry Bold.
Appearance
The first time I saw Blackberry Bold, I easily recognize that the shape is better then previous series. The rounding shape is shown on the product and thinner that makes the Bold looks flexible and handy. The color of glossy black is combined with doff silver on the side part, definitely, makes the phone looks exclusive. If I turn around the phone, I can see the Blackberry uses a skin to cover the battery’s panel. From the information I got, the skin used in this phone is the same skin used in BMW’s interior. Wow… cool..
No wonder, many people are buying this phone. Blackberry is definitely different compare to other brands. It’s exclusively made with a good in appearance. I can see they build the phone very nice. I can see the way they design the back side of the phone, very solid. The position of the button of the QWERTY keyboard are nicely arranged and designed. Of course, it is not possible for them to make a bigger buttons for the keyboard, but in this series, they make a nice and bigger for pick up and hang up buttons.
The Bold is still keeping its Trackball navigation, which, I think it’s very handy and also one of the strength of Blackberry phone. I still can remember when I used Sony Ericsson K750 with stick navigation. It doesn’t work very well. It is hardly to clean and questionable in durability. The fact is, Sony Ericsson decided not to use this stupid stick navigation anymore. It is so different with Trackball from Blackberry. It is nicely designed and built, and not easy for dusts coming in. I try to play with the ball as many as possible, but I cannot find any error or difficulties like I found in K750.
Main Features
The bold is quite a big jump from previous version. Because of the increasing of their popularity, it looks like the Blackberry is having more confidence to upgrade their technology to a higher level. This is the first series of Blackberry that uses HSDPA. I can imagine the Bold will have a complete data transfer facilities with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, EDGE and GPRS. The other interesting part is the operating system used in this Bold. It uses 4.6.0 that is totally different user interface compare to the previous series. This new operating system is offering a new appearance called Precision Style. I can see clearly this new thing from the icons like transparent animation, which is different then previously, with 3D icon.
For upgraded Blackberry users, if you use previous version then Bold, you need to know that you are no longer being able to add a shortcut on the menu. In home screen, there will be only six icons on the shortcut menu and that’s it. Users can only change the existing icons with your favorite application by moving the position.
For other features, Bold also has navigation features like Map and GPS receiver. If you need a map then Bold already has it made by RIM. They call it Blackberry Maps. But I am sure many users are not focusing on GPS or map, they mostly care on the push email feature on Blackberry :)
Overall Performance
Since I use the phone in couple of weeks, I can see the screen is quite bright for a screen with 65K colors. I think it is because the resolution that make the colors look smooth on the screen. If I compare to my phone that has 256K color, the Bold’s screen looks better.
The main feature that used by many users of Blackberry is email feature. In this Bold series, the email supports HTML page, even though, it is not one hundred percent HTML because the incoming emails are already rendered by Blackberry’s server. However, we still can open an email and read the text along with the picture.
Thanks to RIM for the new development on the speaker for the Bold. The sound is getting better compare to previous one. Blackberry is already famous on its brand and also famous for the worst sound for playing music. Not for Bold, you can feel the different when listen to music with Bold, neither through headset or speaker.
In conclusion, I have to admit this is a great phone. After reviewing the Bold, I don’t want to review the previous series of Blackberry. Definitely, it is much better then the previous one. Now, I need to wait for one of my friend buy the Storm so I can borrow it again J
Do I want to change my phone to Blackberry now? The answer is YES. Too bad, the price for this Bold is still expensive. And, if I buy this Blackberry, I have to spend more every month to pay for the internet facilities. So, if you are like me and want to have a Blackberry, you can think positively. First, you need to make a list what do you want to do with Blackberry and make a list what is the thing you do with your phone now. If you use your phone more often for listen to MP3, I suggest buy Walkman by Sony Ericsson. It’s the best. If you are a heavy user for email and chatting, Blackberry is the one for you. Like the tag quoted from Blackberry website: “BlackBerry® is the one-stop, no-compromise, wireless solution that allows you to stay connected with wireless access to email, phone, web and organizer features”. They are focusing on giving solution for wireless access to email and internet features, other then that, you can find other phones.
The following specification was taken from Blackberry official website.
Features:
* Wireless email
* Organizer
* Browser
* Phone
* Camera (2.0 MP)
* Video Recording
* BlackBerry® Maps
* Media Player
* Built-in GPS
* Wi-Fi® Support
* Corporate data access
* SMS
* MMS
Size and Weight
* 4.48"/114mm (Length)
* 2.6"/66mm (Width)
* 0.59"/15mm (Depth)
* 4.8 oz/136g (Weight)
Data Input/Navigation
* Trackball
* QWERTY (Keyboard)
* Keyboard backlighting
Voice Input/Output
* 3.5mm stereo headset capable
* Integrated earpiece/ microphone
* Built-in speakerphone
* Bluetooth® v2.0; mono/stereo headset, handsfree and Serial Port Profile supported. Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP/AVCRP) (Bluetooth technology)
Media Player
* Video format support: DivX 4, DivX 5/6 partially supported, XviD partially supported, H.263, H.264, WMV3
* Audio format support: .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
Display
* Half VGA resolution 480 x 320 pixel color display
* Transmissive TFT LCD, supports over 65,000 colors
* Font size (user selectable)
* Backlighting
* Light sensing screen
Notification
* Polyphonic/MIDI ringtones
* 32 polyphonic ringtones – MIDI, SP-MDI, MP3, WAV
* Vibrate mode
* LED indicator
Approximate Battery Life
* Up to 13.5 days (Standby time)
* Up to 4.5 hours (Talk time)
Memory
* Expandable memory – support for microSD™ card
* 1GB On-board + 128 MB Flash
Modem
* RIM® wireless modem
* Tethered modem capability
Email Integrations
* Works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for Microsoft® Exchange
* Works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for IBM® Lotus® Domino®
* Works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for Novell® GroupWise®
* Integrates with an existing enterprise email account
* Integrates with existing personal email account
* Integrates with optional new device account
Accessories Included
* USB cable
* Wall charger
Device Security
* Password protection and keyboard lock
* Support for AES or Triple DES encryption when integrated with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server
* FIPS Compliant Encryption (Validation In Progress)
* Optional support for S/MIME
Wireless Network
* Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g
* UMTS: 2100/1900/850 MHz
* GSM®: 1900/1800/900/850 MHz
* North America: 850 MHz GSM/GPRS networks
* North America: 1900MHz GSM®/GPRS networks
* Europe/Asia Pacific: 1800MHz GSM/GPRS networks
* Europe/Asia Pacific: 900MHz GSM/GPRS networks
* EDGE networks
* HSDPA networks
