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Given a choice, most people today opting for a smartphone would choose an Android or an iPhone. BlackBerry, which once ruled the executive's universe, has now been relegated to third place. The phones aren't really media friendly, so for those who want to listen to music, watch videos or play games, a full touch phone is the obvious choice.
However, RIMs USP continues to be instant messaging and push mail, and in my opinion, it is still Number One in the field of communication. The recently announced Bold 9900 is the latest in BlackBerry's line-up of high-end smartphones. Equipped with a bunch of new features and the brand new BlackBerry 7 OS, will this phone keep BB fans happy?
Design and build
The Bold 9900 has the best design on any BlackBerry I've seen so far. It's much broader, with a screen size of 2.8-inches, which means a more spaced-out keyboard layout as well. Although BlackBerry calls the 9900 its thinnest smartphone yet, I found that it was merely the brushed stainless steel frame (which I must admit I loved), that gives this impression. The battery cover protrudes a bit, so it does end up being quite bulky in your pocket.
The back panel has a rubberised edge, and the battery cover has a chequered plastic finish with a 3D hologram effect. Physical controls include a lock switch, dedicated camera key and volume toggle switch. There's a micro USB charging slot and 3.5mm jack for connectivity options.
The screen on the Bold 9900 was impressive, to say the least. Although 2.8-inches can't compare to some of the larger screens we've seen on some smartphones, it's still larger than what we've seen on any Bold smartphone so far. One of the new features of BlackBerry 7 OS is Liquid Graphics which claims to offer faster response time and more fluid animations.
The Bold 9900's screen has a resolution of 640x480 pixels, and it's also touch sensitive. It's definitely more responsive than the Torch, but it wasn't the smoothest when it came to scrolling. Higher pixel density means the screen is quite bright, and videos, photos and text looked sharper and brighter on it. Since the Bold 9900 also features the signature BlackBerry trackpad, I found that I was barely using the touch screen at all.
The four standard BlackBerry control buttons are LED backlit and don't require any of the hard pressing that users of the Curve series might have issues with. The keyboard was the best I've seen on any BlackBerry so far. It's just that tad bit more spaced out, and I happily typed out long emails and IMs without feeling cramped. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that the Nokia E6 had a better keyboard than BlackBerry, but after using the Bold 9900, I've switched loyalties.
User interface
There aren't many visible differences between BlackBerry 6 OS and 7 OS. You still have the same Quick Access bar on top with your time, date and network settings. There's a notification bar below that for all your alerts. At the bottom of the screen is the menu, where you can navigate up and down to see all your apps, or swipe from side to side to view different categories like Media, Favourites, Downloads, etc.
The search function on the phone is great, because it lets you not only check the entire content of the phone, but also search Google, Facebook, Maps and a bunch of other apps. While this feature was present in 6 OS, the little microphone icon which lets you do a voice search is a new addition.
Other interesting new additions to 7 OS are HTML5 support, 720p HD video recording, NFC and augmented reality apps. Some augmented reality apps even let you see which of your BBM contacts are nearby by using your camera and GPS!
Media
The Bold 9900 features a unified inbox which integrates all your messages, including your Facebook and Twitter private messages, in one place. Personally, I wished that BlackBerry would allow me to have separate inboxes, one for work and one for personal emails. It was a bit distracting to fish out official emails from a party invite on Facebook.
I found quite a bit of difference in the browser, which was faster and loaded pages quickly. The screen supports pinch to zoom and scrolling (using the trackpad) is lightning fast, which made browsing a real pleasure.
Despite the screen being so bright, it's not the ideal size for watching videos. It was fine to check out random videos on YouTube, but even though I loaded a couple of movies onto the phone, I couldn't sit through more than 10 minutes of any of them because it started to strain my eyes a bit. The square-ish profile and smaller size of the screen also means that in widescreen (16:9) mode videos become really narrow.
The camera is a 5-meg with LED flash, and as I mentioned earlier, is capable of Full HD recording. There are a bunch of Scene modes you can choose from too. Don't be surprised at the lack of a front facing camera though, BlackBerry is yet to support video calling.
Like a lot of phones nowadays, the Bold 9900 offers 8GB of internal storage. If you want to be a media hog though, you can expand this by an additional 32GB via micro SD.
Performance
Running a 1.2 GHz processor, the Bold 9900 is definitely snappier than its predecessors. I didn't face the slightest hint of a lag when opening any app or even multi-tasking. Navigating and scrolling just felt a whole lot more fluid, and the phone didn't freeze even once.
Call quality on the phone was one of the best I've heard so far, and I was able to hear callers clearly in noisy, trafficky situations. I didn't have any complaints from callers on the other side, neither did I face a problem with dropped calls, as is the case with many smartphones. The proximity sensor worked to perfection and I had none of those annoying problems with the touch screen getting activated when I was on a call.
Battery life was better than an Android for sure, with the phone running for about a day and a half on a full charge.
Our Verdict
The Bold 9900 is undoubtedly the best Bold smartphone to be launched by BlackBerry so far. 7 OS brings in a whole range of new features which BlackBerry badly needed considering the leaps and bounds by which Android is advancing. Since BlackBerry doesn't allow any older devices to be upgraded to the new operating system, the Bold 9900 is a tantalising option both for existing BlackBerry users and for new ones too.
Love: Clear screen, excellent keyboard
Hate: Quite pricey for an upgrade
Rs 32,490
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