BlackBerry Bold 9700 Review

Posted by Julio Angel Ortiz in Featured Articles, Mobile on Jan 2nd, 2010 | View Comments

RIM has, over the past couple of years, been working on transforming the image of its BlackBerry line from “stuffy corporate tool” to “consumer-friendly mobile phone.” It is a tough balancing act, both in delivering both the security, features, and management platform that corporate and IT customers demand, as well as the media, social networking, and web-friendly apps that are all the rage among the mobile-hungry public. The economy being what it is, RIM is always looking to expand its customer base, but in doing so needs to entice people away from the lures of the iPhone juggernaut. This means following a few de facto rules: provide a phone that is not only functional but has the looks to be a fashion accessory; a central repository of applications that is continuously growing and varied to draw people in; and provide a rock-solid mobile experience so that word of mouth and positive reviews will bring in new customers. If you step back three years and compare the then-flagship model (the Curve 8700) and the current one (the Bold 9700), you will see RIM is dead serious about capturing as much of the consumer pie as possible.

RIM’s latest mobile phone, the Bold 9700, is its current top model for AT&T and T-Mobile customers (note: for the purposes of this review, the Bold 9700 was tested on the AT&T network). It sports a list of features that are commonplace for current-gen smartphones: 3G connectivity, 480×360 resolution color screen, 256MB of internal memory, microSD slot, 3.2MP camera with auto-focus and flash, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the 9700 came with a 2GB microSD card out of the box and pre-installed. However, given that their touch screen BlackBerry Storm (on Verizon’s network) came with an 8GB card out of the box as well as 1GB of additional internal memory and sells for the same price, it would have behooved RIM to extend the same courtesy to 9700 owners. Not a dealbreaker, but something to note.

Physically, the 9700 is the best looking phone that RIM has released. The device is light but feels sturdy; the build quality is fantastic. While its predecessor, the BlackBerry 9000, had a wider body and felt quite full in your hands, the 9700 has taken the opposite tact and trimmed down. The black with chrome bezel look and curved, sloped features gives the 9700 a thoroughly modern appeal that should satisfy the crowd looking for tech chic; the faux-leather backing will satisfy corporate types who want a phone that looks good and is all about business. The keyboard is a carryover from the previous model, which is good, since the 9000’s keyboard was the best on any mobile phone that I had used. In fact, one concern was, since the 9000 model was wider with more keyboard space, that the tighter keys on the slimmer 9700 would hinder the typing experience. Thankfully, this is not the case, as the engineers at RIM have designed the 9700 with just the right spacing so that the experience is the same. Typing on the 9700 took no adjustment at all, and the new Bold has set the standard for physical (non-slider) keyboards on phones.

The 9700 brings a new navigation method to the table, namely, the trackpad. RIM has done away with their trackball, and not a moment too soon. I was a fan of the trackball, but in working with and supporting BlackBerry phones over the past few years, trackballs were a constant problem. They were either sticking badly or going bad, and they were the most common fault on devices. RIM apparently had enough of these issues, and replaced it with the trackpad. The trackpad, a touch-sensitive square on the phone, takes only a few minutes to get used to. After adjusting, you won’t miss the trackball. Navigation is just as easy if not easier, and there are none of the problems inherent with the trackball design. My one nitpick was that, in the OS builds for the 9700, there is no flick scrolling via the trackpad, which is something I imagined would be a possible (and desired) feature. Aside from that, the trackpad is a fantastic addition.

In other areas, the hardware measures up nicely. The 3.2MP camera is not fantastic, but gets the job done in adequate lighting. The flash is extremely bright but still does not prevent the picture from looking extremely grainy. The additional memory on the 9700 is a welcome addition, although in this day and age, RIM should be able to bump up the memory to more than a mere 256MB for applications. Battery life is great, with the 9700 able to easily last a full day while running multiple applications in the background (for example, Ubertwitter pulling updates every 3 minutes).

With all this great hardware, the slight letdown comes in the form of the operating system. Although RIM has updated BlackBerry OS to version 5.0 and has been improving the looks greatly beginning with the 4.6 release, there is still a stale visual appeal running throughout the OS. The email, calendar, and other standard apps work great and are rock solid, but remind me of the old PalmOS from 10 years ago. The OS lacks a modern aesthetic throughout the basic OS; clearly, RIM has been building on top of an old UI that is lacking when compared to modern ones such as the iPhone and Android. This is no more obvious than when you look at the various themes available for BlackBerry phones; often, theme developers imitate other OSes (Android appears to be a popular one) as an front-end interface for the BlackBerry. RIM’s default themes are bare-bones and boring, and while I think it is great that RIM offers a free theme development kit, you would hope they would take the lead in developing a more impressive, rich interface for its product. Also, when you look at what other mobile OSes have been doing with their home screens for years (Windows Mobile’s Today screen, Android’s widgets), RIM looks downright antiquated. While OS 5.0 adds a number of new features (such as threaded SMS), it doesn’t add or change enough. And the web browser remains its Achilles heel; while it is faster, it still does not compare to the iPhone’s Safari (which, let’s be blunt, is the standard). This is a real shame, as on a device such as the 9700, the web browser is a key part of the mobile experience, and here RIM is simply not up to task. Thankfully, RIM is working towards rectifying this, as it has acquired Torch Mobile and its Webkit-based browser to replace the current one. It can’t come fast enough. In the meantime, there are some alternatives, such as Bolt Browser and Opera Mini. In fact, a lot of the new 3rd-party apps do bring visual appeal along with functionality, something RIM needs to take a cue from. Aside from these flaws, the 9700 is a great email and texting device, with the new threaded SMS being a welcome addition. Adding additional email accounts, such as GMail, was simple, with the BlackBerry service automatically handling the technical details like incoming / outgoing servers and ports and shielding them from the user. Keeping track, responding, and composing messages is a breeze, with the ability to view message notifications from the home screen being a big help, and a large number of available keyboard shortcuts allows you to get things done quickly. There are also subtle things, such as how the OS will automatically capitalize the first word of a new sentence and append a period to the end via two spaces, that you miss when dealing with other phones.

The Bold 9700 is an impressive phone from RIM, and deserving of being its flagship phone. At $199, the phone is priced to compete with the iPhone and Droid. How does it stack up? As a corporate phone, and if your job supports a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, you can’t do better. What if you’re an everyday consumer? Depends. Do you want a serious messaging device? Then the 9700 is a great choice. Do you want to do gaming? Then the 9700 is not your best choice. The 9700 is a decent multimedia phone, especially if you add on applications such as Slacker and Pandora. If you have a lot of friends who use BlackBerry phones, then purchasing one would be useful if they use BlackBerry Messenger, a free messaging client that allows you to send PIN (SMS-like) messages as well as carry on an IM-style conversation, all for free. BlackBerry Messenger, however, only works for BlackBerry users, so it depends on your situation if that would be an advantage. With applications for Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, the 9700 could easily allow you to keep in touch with your social networks.
But what if you are a Bold 9000 user? Is the 9700 a worthy upgrade? Not for the full price. The additional memory, trackpad, and improved screen and camera are incremental upgrades that may be hard to justify the $199 cost. However, AT&T is running a special right now, $99 for a 9700 after a mail-in rebate. For $99, the 9700 is worth consideration.

The 9700 is a great phone, and while it has some flaws, RIM can, in theory, correct them with via upgrades. But right now, for messaging, there is none better.