RIM's BlackBerry Bold 9000 smartphone review

Is this BlackBerry premium enough for the T3 team?

Research In Motion's first 3G internet-capable BlackBerry has landed in our sweaty little palms after months of previews and slobbering-sessions, allowing us to get all intimate on its Bold little case.

With an all-new look to the operating system, it quite simply is a pleasure to use. The icons are now highly-stylised, and the extra processing power means it's super-fast to flick through the various applications. Internally, the GPS has better map rendering than some of the other models we've seen before, and it's a thrill to use with the super high-res screen, which measures 480 x 320. The screen has been placed very closely with the glass exterior, giving a very close picture and brighter, more luminous colours when watching video.

YouTube videos work a treat, as the internet is super fast - in tests, it quite often eclipsed the iPhone 3G's loading times. The addition of stereo speakers means you can pester those around you with extremely loud sound, whether that's played from the MP3 player function, or video playback.

RIM claims the arrangement of the qwerty keypad has been inspired by a guitar fret, with four slim silver lines separating each row of keys, which have been finely sculptured. The now-standard trackball and two buttons on either side finish off the keypad.

Storage-wise, the internal memory of 1GB could really be improved, however the microSD card slot means you can whack in an extra 16GB, perhaps to store some of the photos and video you can take with the 2.0-megapixel camera, another slight downfall.

Still, the quality of the photos and video is acceptable, and the microphone seems able to pick up on a surprising amount of sound, listenable via the 3.5mm headphone jack or aforementioned stereo speakers.

An absolutely stunning piece of machinery, RIM's new flagship title is bound to do well, with its ultra-premium good looks (did we mention the leatherette back? Phwroar!), and the operating system's slick new layer. This will make any heavy emailer, texter or internet browser very happy indeed.

BlackBerry Bold

Posted by Katherine Hannaford on 2008-08-11