RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 (AT&T) – need focus on mobile Web browsing
Thumbs Up:
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 has sleeker design and features quick responsive trackpad, sharp display, 3.5mm headphone jack, excellent messaging features, numerous wireless options, and fast performance.
Thumbs Down:
BlackBerry browser still needs improvement to stand on top of mobile Web browsing competition. The downloaded applications are limited to internal memory.
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: Quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Candy Bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Wi-Fi, 3G Support, Bluetooth, GPS/A-GPS; support for BES, IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell Groupwise
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 is powered with 624MHz processor. It has 256MB RAM and micro-SD card slot for external storage. The messaging and data services include mobile email, mobile Web mail, BlackBerry browser, HSDPA, and RIM BlackBerry VM Client.
2.4 inches LCD display has 480×360 pixels resolution that supports 16-bit colors. 3.2-megapixel camera features Picture stabilizer, auto-focus, and 2x digital zoom. It records video in two resolutions: QCIF 176×144, and 352×480 pixels.
The Bold 9700 has 1500mAH lithium ion battery. Accessories supplied inside the box are user manual, software disc, wired stereo headset, belt holster, USB cable, and power adapter.
Razzle Dazzle:
RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 is 4.3 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, and 0.6 inch deep and weighs 4.3 ounces. It feels solid while taking in hand. The Bold 9700 is lighter and smaller than BlackBerry Tour. Chrome lines and edges between the keyboard rows are giving more appealing look.
Inside Dope:
RIM BlackBerry Bold remains one of the top 10 cellular phone with its new version. Now, RIM has released new product – RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700. It costs $99.99 with two year AT&T contract after mail-in-rebate of $100. It offers sleeker design, excellent messaging features, large display, robust tools, and perfect multimedia performance. Like previous BlackBerry versions, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 will be the first choice for professionals and young users due to its attractive design and great feature set. The Bold 9700 is available in two versions – one for AT&T and other for T-Mobile.
2.44 inches LCD display of RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 has 480×360 pixels resolution. The display shows crispy images and text with better vibrant colors. The Bold 9700 runs on BlackBerry OS 5.0 that provides better user interface. It has same main menu and home screen like previous BlackBerry versions. You can personalize home screen with wallpapers and themes as well as change six shortcuts.
Navigation array sits underneath the display and consists of optical trackpad in the center. The Talk and menu keys are located on the left of trackpad, whereas End/Power key and back button are on its right side. You can smoothly use the trackpad to navigate the menus and scrolls through menus. We used this trackpad while testing and it worked quickly and accurately.
RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 has 35 keys QWERTY keyboard, but it is not so spacious like that of original Bold. On the contrary, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 has comfortable and large keys to provide better typing experience.
You will find customizable shortcut key, combined micro-USB port for charger/PC sync, and 3.5mm headphone jack located on the left spine. Volume rocker and dedicated camera button sits on the right spine. Mute and lock buttons are located on the top, whereas camera with flash sits on the back.
You can sync the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 with corporate BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). In addition, it also supports IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell Groupwise. We like that you will also get additional functions with the Bold 9700 due to latest BlackBerry OS 5.0 such as ability to view calendar appointments, access remote file share, manage email folders, and more.
RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 allows accessing up to 10 business/personal POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts via BlackBerry Internet Service. We are disappointed that you do not get any pre-installed instant messengers. For compensating this problem, you can download free clients such as Windows Live, Yahoo!, ICQ, Google Talk, and AIM.
The Bold 9700 comes with preloaded BlackBerry App World that offers numerous paid and free applications categorized into games, utilities, music, social networking, and more. We do not like that the application storage download is limited to the internal memory. RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 comes with some information management tools including task list, calculator, clock, Yellow Pages Mobile, and Documents to Go Standard Edition to view/access Microsoft Office documents.
The phonebook of RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 stores contacts limited to available memory. Each contact can save multiple phone numbers, work information, email address, and more. You can organize the contacts into groups as well as pair them with group ID, ring-tone, and photo for caller ID. The basic feature set of the Bold 9700 includes multimedia and text messaging with chat threaded view, background noise suppression, speed dial, conference calling, smart dialing, voice activated dialing, speakerphone, and quad-band world roaming.
The additional highlights are Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G support, BlackBerry browser, and GPS/A-GPS. The onboard Bluetooth supports AV remote, audio sources, dial-up networking, serial port profile, hands-free kits, stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets. For GPS, AT&T has included its AT&T Navigator for turn-by-turn voice guided directions. It is free for first 30 days and after that you have to pay additional $9.99 per month to continue the service.
BlackBerry browser includes some new additions including support for real-time streaming, Google gears, and BlackBerry widgets. It has as fast CSS & JavaScript processing for quickly loading the Web pages. On the contrary, the browser has limited tools and clunky navigation. We will prefer the BlackBerry to focus on Web browser to stand on top of Web browsing.
Inbuilt media player supports audio formats of eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, WMA ProPlus, WMA, and MP3. In addition, it supports H.264, WMV and MPEG4 video formats. The media player features full screen for video, repeat and shuffle playback, play-list creation, and search function. You can sync the music with Windows Media Player or iTunes via BlackBerry Media Sync. What’s more – BlackBerry Desktop Manager is now compatible to both Mac and Windows computers.
3.2-megapixel camera of RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 features video recording, auto-focus, variable zoom, and geo-tagging. The image editing options are standard. The overall picture quality was good while testing. The images looked better in outdoors than in indoors.
We made few calls through quad-band based RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 via AT&T service. The overall call quality was good. We received good and clear sound at our end with minimum background noise. The callers also received clear sound at their end with occasional crackling sound. The speakerphone call quality was fine. Both of us received loud sound with tinny volume. We also did not have any problem while pairing Bluetooth headsets with the Bold 9700.
RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700 has 1500mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 6 hours talk time and 19 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR is 1.55 watts per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need a latest BlackBerry with quick responsive keyboard, trackpad and latest features and can work with average Web browsing experience, then buy – RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700.
