Article by Zene Mary

Overview

Compared with other BlackBerry series, BlackBerry Bold comes off as the most expensive with its premium materials and better specs. Fans of the series will not be disappointed with its latest edition– BlackBerry 9900 Bold. It retains the piano-like QWERTY keyboard it’s known for and gets itself a touch screen. Owners of the first Bold phone, BlackBerry 9000, will recognize that the 9900′s physical appearance is a nod to the original. The 9900 looks like a sleeker and richer-looking reissue of the 9000, with almost the same keypad size (9900′s is larger) and a stainless steel rim. But the 9900 is a far cry from the first Bold phone. It’s even touted as the best BlackBerry phone to come out. It’s not perfect but it’s a steal.

Pros

It looks rich and refined with that metal band around it. It looks heavy but is actually very light weighing just 110 g. Also, its surfaces are sculpted to make it comfortable to hold. Compared to the earlier Bold phones, it has a 1.2 GHz processor and 8 GB of expandable memory. It is also capable of supporting an SD card with a maximum of 32 GB memory. These attribute to its power, speed and performance. It’s no wonder it has an HD video recording feature and a 640 x 480 resolution.

The phone is also integrated with BlackBerry Maps so you are given access to location-based services, perfect for looking for a good place to eat when you’re in unfamiliar territory. With its Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, you can use the phone to redeem coupons or pay for expenses with one swipe. Even if there are only a few establishments that use this technology, it’s steadily becoming more popular.

E-mailing is easy with the option to synchronize multiple accounts’ inboxes. You can also compose a message for any of your accounts without having to open apps individually.

Music playing is good with its extensive file support. Play your MP3 files, FLAC and WAV with its music player and choose from a set of 12 equalization options.

The contents of the menu are also so customisable, you might get confused, but it’s a really nice addition.

Cons

Connectivity is a very important thing in a phone so it’s hard to understand why the BlackBerry 9900 Bold still doesn’t have an app like FaceTime. It’s also not 4G so for a phone that has a nifty NFC feature, that’s odd. Also, BlackBerry OS 7 isn’t worth any buzz. It feels only a little bit improved from the last OS. The phone runs significantly faster, GPU experience is better and UI is more fluid, the icons are newer but the improvements end there. So don’t get your hopes up when it comes to getting a revolutionary improvement from OS 6. You’ll just end up disappointed.

If you’ve had experience with phones using other OS, you need to do more than just a few swipes when performing actions similar to those in those other phones. Also, replying to feeds from Twitter, Facebook and RSS opens the apps individually. You also can’t upload photos from your BlackBerry directly to your Facebook or other accounts. Also, the camera’s photo quality isn’t good enough for its five megapixels.

Conclusion

The features of BlackBerry 9900 Bold are a significant improvement from the rest of the series. The phone is the classiest looking phone from BlackBerry and that says something, because all BlackBerry phones look sleek. It’s starting to get features similar to other more popular devices– the touch screen, inbox synchronization– and fails to have certain features from other mobile phones you might like. But if you are a dedicated BlackBerry user, it still has all the perks you like from BlackBerry– the QWERTY keyboard, fast messaging, etc. It also packs a punch with its new speedy processor and expandable memory.