Blackberry Bold 9000

The Blackberry Bold 9000 is the first in the series of the Bold family of Blackberry from Canadian firm Research in Motion. It is their premium line having the more sophisticated look and much higher specs than the Curve series. I happen to have one and here is my take on this phone from RIM.

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Here's a quick look of the specs:

Network	GSM 850/900/1800/1900 HSDPA 850/1900/2100
Body	114 x 66 x 14 mm
Weight	133 g
Display	480 x 320 pixels, 2.6 inches (~222 ppi pixel density)
Internal memory	1 GB storage, 128 MB RAM
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g
Bluetooth	v2.0 with A2DP
USB	v2.0 miniUSB
Camera Primary	2 MP, 1600x12006 pixels, LED flash
Secondary	None
OS	Blackberry OS 5
Input and Navigation	Trackball + QWERTY
CPU	624 MHz
Battery	Li-Ion 1500 mAh
Stand-by	Up to 310 h / Up to 5 hours talk time

The Good:

Camera with flash: Well this is, compared to some phones without flash and to their Curve series of Blackberry phones, an advantage for low light photography. But that's about it.

QWERTY keyboard: No doubt the keyboard makes messaging easy and efficient. It is for this reason that business professionals use Blackberry phones.

Blackberry Internet Services (BIS): Blackberry has its server for Messaging (BBM) and other network services which are highly encrypted and is very ideal, again, for business persons.

Battery: On light use, you can end up loosing juice on the third or fourth day. Heavy usage can last for a day with still remaining juice up until the next morning.



The Bad:


Trackball: While the trackball has proven its worth when it comes to navigation in personal computing (and the Blackberry OS interface), its mechanical approach is ultimately the phone's downfall. Dirt gets accumulated inside over time jamming the rollers, much like the rollers inside a PC mouse that is not optical. But unlike the PC mouse that you can easily clean, the Bold 9000 will have to be taken to a repair center for cleaning (unless you're really up to opening the insides of your phone).

Camera: Being a premium phone, the 2 MP camera seems a bit on the cheap side. Photos have noise especially when there's insufficient light (as with other phones). The LED flash is of little help there, and your friends might not want to be taken another shot the next time being it very bright for the eyes (as usual with LED flash).

Low internal memory: Applications depend on the internal memory (128 MB) and it is not much. Not much so that your OS upgrade is stagnant at version 5. Newer Blackberry phones are on versions 6 or 7.

Internet (Data) connection: Internet connection is controlled via a link to the Blackberry servers, and when you are not subscribed to the Blackberry Internet Service, chances are, some of your apps won't work, even if you're connected to Wi-Fi. E-mail clients on Blackberry depend on this service.

Small Screen: With the advent of big touchscreen phones, this phone's screen is on the small side.


Overall:

What I liked about this phone is its long lasting battery and the QWERTY keypad. Messaging is quick and easy, plus I don't have to worry about charging the phone every night. The trackball is reminiscent of the old PC days, which will be replaced by the trackpad on newer models. Blackberry is never known for good cameras on their phones, but hey, this is after all a phone and not a camera. The services offered by RIM meets the needs of the Business sector hence you see professionals are the most prominent Blackberry users.