RIM’s Blackberry series of smartphones is almost legendary now. If the Curve redefined design and the Storm 2 redefined features, then Bold redefines attitude. Packed with full features of the Blackberry, a full QWERTY and a wide screen, the phone is an absolute blessing for Blackberry fans. The Bold might not be the greatest or the most stylish Blackberry phone but it is definitely the best phone from the RIM stable till date.

Verdict:

If you are an absolute fan of the Blackberry you should have had this in your pocket by now.

Design and Display:

Now the design was the issue of a minor battle within the team. The fans felt the design was fantastic, probably the best patent Blackberry design till date whereas the cynics felt the design was outdated when compared to the Storm or the Curve. Well, no verdict on the design then, let’s just get the facts right. The design is typically suit and tie, a bit bigger and wider than the curve but comfortable on the hands. Tucking the Bold into the pocket could be a tough bet though. The smartphone is best held in the hand. The screen is another huge improvement-it’s huge; it’s rich in texture and high on pixels. The all plastic body weighs 133 Gms and comes with a faux leather backside; all adding to the style.

The extra size is not wasted – the comfortable full QWERTY is no less than a blessing. The Blackberry OS plays wonderfully under the expert guidance of the trackball. The left side of the Bold features one of the loudspeaker grills, the 3.5mm standard audio jack, convenience key and the standard miniUSB port. The right side of the BlackBerry Bold has another loudspeaker grill, the volume rocker and the other convenience key.

Overall, the Bold looks very gifted and seems to be the perfect Blackberry till date.

Camera:

We didn’t expect an executive to go about clicking pictures of his colleagues in a meeting. So, a fairly basic 2 MP camera is provided with a LED flash. Additional features like white balance, color effects and image stabilization are supposed to make the camera more interesting but you simply can’t hold your own in a world of 8 MP camera smartphones. Nothing much to comment here.

Multimedia:

The music player is again fairly basic but is sufficiently equipped to handle everyday listening. The player comes with sort enabled by artist, album and genre and search through by gradual typing. Playlists and album art complete the set of features. The audio quality though is the surprise package and is definitely impressive keeping in mind the Blackberry background. And just when you have started enjoying the experience you realize: no equalizers!!

The video player is again excellent when compared to the peers at RIM. The high resolution screen is a nice way to watch movies, especially since MP4, WMV, XVid and DivX all are supported.

And when we found the image gallery impressive, we knew RIM finally had a R&D team in place.

Internet, messaging and Organizer:

Now we come to the interesting part. The Bold performs brilliantly in this section but wasn’t this expected? The Bold comes with every known type of connectivity, right from Bluetooth to 3G. The browser is vastly improved and the trackball navigation is simply fantastic. Use it to zoom, pan and navigate through web pages. The high resolution screen is aptly supported by the Blackberry OS and the browser in rendering the web pages in high resolution.

Email is almost synonymous with Blackberry. Do we need say more? For formality- the customizable email is probably the best in the business. However, the web mail is only supported for Blackberry Internet Service.

The Bold comes with excellent organizing skills. Integrated with the calendar and the office suite, the smartphone is Blackberry at its best.

Full Specifications:
Display: 2.6 inch TFT capacitive screen with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels and support for 65K colors.
Dimensions: 114 x 66 x 14 mm.
Weight: 133 Gms.
Camera: Main camera – 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, white balance, color effects and image stabilization.
Secondary camera – No.
Audio: Music player with support for MP3/eAAC+/WAV/WMA9.
Video: DivX/WMV/XviD/3gp.
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, IM, Push Email.
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, microUSB, Wi-Fi.
Internet: GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSDPA, HSUPA, Web Browser.
Games: Built-in and downloadable.
Memory: 128 MB internal with support for microSD unto 8 GB.
Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1500 mAh with talk time of 5 hours and standby of 310 hours.
Extras:
* Full QWERTY keypad.
* Photocall.
* Trackball Navigation.
* Organizer complete with Calendar, a task list, a memo pad, a voice recorder, a calculator.
* Built in speaker and 3.5 mm headphone jack.
* A-GPS with Blackberry Maps.
* Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF).