Clove Technology’s Blog

We are sure many owners of the original Blackberry Bold 9000 will be wondering why they’ll want to upgrade only a year later. We’ll be answering these questions to help you come to your own conclusions.

In this post we’ll be comparing the new Blackberry Bold 9700 or Blackberry Bold 2 with its predecessor the Blackberry Bold 9000 or Blackberry Bold 1. In the world of smartphones a year is a long time and the Blackberry Bold has evolved.

If you are looking for a detailed Blackberry Bold 9700 review you can find one here courtesy of Shaun from PDA247

Blackberry Bold 9000	Blackberry Bold 9700

So what are the main differences that you really want to know about and what do they mean?

The keyboard

If you own the original Bold 9000, you probably love the keyboard. At the time it was the best QWERTY keyboard available on the market. Sure it added to the width of the phone and made it bit chunky, but avid emailers couldn’t live without it.

Well Blackberry has addressed the width and perhaps surpassed themselves with the keyboard. It’ll take a bit of getting used to and we wouldn’t be surprised if your first impressions are that it is not as easy as the original. However, Shaun described it in his detailed review as the best front facing keyboard on the market, light to the touch whilst being extremely accurate for super quick thumb typing.

So if you love your thumb typing, once you are over the initial change there should be no looking back.

Display

The display size is slightly smaller than the original, but this is made up for by the resolution which is larger at 480 x 360 pixels. The quality is exceptional for both pictures and video, so if you upgrade you’ll be getting more pixels for your money and even better quality.

Size

If you found the original Bold a bit chunky, you’ll find that Blackberry have worked wonders on the size of the Bold 9700. It is now a much sleeker device and is a whole 16g lighter. With 6mm less width, 5mm less height and 0.9mm less depth the handset it is a lot less bulky in the pocket, with a great in hand feel.

Again there should be no regrets in upgrading here.

Navigation

Gone is the trackball, being replaced with optical trackpad. It gives a very natural feel to phone. There has been talk of unreliability of the trackballs and the trackpad which was introduced on the Blackberry Curve 8520 is known to be very reliable and great to use.

Moving on from the trackball to trackpad should be a natural transition and with added reliability there should be nothing to worry about.

Connection

The big difference here is the Bold 9700 is a full 3g phone, making email downloads even quicker and really opening up the world of internet browsing.

It is a speedy phone already and the 3g just makes it even better.

Battery

With the Bold 9700 Blackberry have surpassed themselves, and produced a smartphone with phenomenal battery life. They have obviously worked hard to optimise the software to work efficiently with an industry leading 1500mAh battery. So you shouldn’t have to worry about lugging your battery charger with you all the time.

Blackberry stats claim up to 6 hrs talk time and 17 days standby time on the Bold 9700, compared with 4.5 hrs talk time and 13.5 days standby time on the Bold 9000.

So again it is another big improvement on the original.

Performance

The performance is fantastic, the combination of a 624 Mhz processor and an OS widely regarded as one of the most efficient in the business, plus 256MB of memory, performance isn’t an issue. You’ll be listening to music and switching between multiple applications without the Bold 9700 stuttering or stalling.

Camera

The camera has been upgraded from a 2 megapixel camera to a 3.2 mega pixel camera. It is unlikely to impress David Bailey, but with zoom capability and an LED flash, it is great for those quick off the cuff snaps you need to keep Facebook and Twitter up to date. The 2x digital zoom operated by the trackpad is quite handy, especially with its good autofocus function.

Video

The video camera is good, if not amazing. It stands up well to other phones on the market and does the basics you’ll need recording at 30 frames per second and capable of 480 x 352 recording.

There isn’t a full video suite for editing afterward, but it should meet most people needs.

Side by side specifications

All in all it is quite a comprehensive upgrade, both from the surface and under the hood. Nothing in itself may be a deal clincher, but added together the features make quite a compelling case for the new Blackberry Bold 9700.

If you are interested in purchasing the Blackberry Bold 9700, Clove sell them both Sim free and on contract. Find out more here…