Clove Technology’s Blog

Review compliments of Tracy and Matt’s Blog.

Also being called the Bold2 the Blackberry Bold 9700 is the new version of the original Bold 9000. Although there are not too many major software changes there are a few hard wear ones. Is the 9700 an improvement?

Blackberry Bold 9700

What’s in the box:

• Device

• Battery

• Charger

• USB Cable

• Headphones

• Case

• Software/Manual

The ten second review:

Device: Blackberry Bold 9700

Summary: A hardcore messaging device that does pretty much the works.

Best of: Keyboard, Wi-Fi, 3G.

Worst of: Web Browser.

General:

The top of the Blackberry 9700 appears to have no buttons but there are actually two. The first locks the device and the second puts it into standby mode.

Blackberry Bold 9700 top

The bottom also appears to have no buttons and that’s because there are not any! Both the top and bottom are extremely smooth.

Blackberry Bold 9700 bottom

Housed on the left side of the device is the 3.5mm headset jack, a shortcut button and the microUSB port. This shortcut button is preset for voice dialling.

Blackberry Bold 9700 left side

On the right side is another shortcut button. This one is preset as the camera button. There is also an up/down volume rocker.

Blackberry Bold 9700 Right side

The rear of the handset contains the camera lens and flash. You can also see the nice leather battery cover with the Blackberry logo on it.

Blackberry Bold 9700 rear

And of course the front of the device houses the full QWERTY keyboard, send/end keys, a back button and a Blackberry menu button

Blackberry Bold 9700 front

Highlights:

• 3G/Wi-Fi
• QWERTY Keyboard
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Multiple push email accounts
• Optical Track Pad

Lowlights:

• Web Browser
• Cheap looking supplied headphones

Review:

Straight out of the box I was amazed at what a nice looking device the Blackberry Bold 9700 is. The combination of jet black plastic and shiny metal give the Bold 9700 a really sweet look. Like the original Bold 9000, the 9700 has inherited the leather battery cover which helps give it a luxurious feel.

The device is fairly lightweight but doesn’t feel as robust as some other handsets. Only time will tell if the 9700 can withstand heavy daily usage.

The Blackberry Bold 9700 is a few millimetres smaller in both height and width compared to the 9000. Thickness is the same but this new Bold really feels a lot smaller. Its now about the same size as the Blackberry Curves. The one concern I did have prior to receiving the Bold 9700 was that this reduction in size may make typing a little harder. I was wrong. The keys on the 9700 are the same design as on the 9000 which in my opinion are a lot better than on the Curve models. I have never owned a Blackberry myself and have only reviewed one, the 8520, and I can honestly say I took to typing on the 9700 like a duck to water. I do prefer a hard keyboard over an onscreen one and I instantly found myself getting as few errors as I do on my HTC Touch Pro2. I was most impressed.

The other major difference between the original Bold and the new 9700 is that RIM have replaced the trackball with a optical track pad. This is the same as I used on the 8520 and a real joy to use. I have played with friends Blackberries which have the trackball and I found the new track pad to be better to use in every way. Hopefully this will now stop millions of Blackberry users complaining that their trackball has stopped working as they are prone to getting dust and debris inside them. This new move by RIM is fantastic and I would imagine the trackball is now history.

As you would imagine the track pad can have its sensitivity altered. This will allow you the choice of speed that it moves. I did test it out on its highest setting but it was way to fast and totally uncontrollable!

Messaging has to be the main reason that people use a Blackberry. This was my first time setting up email on a Blackberry and after the nice people at Orange gave me a few tips I was off to a flying start. It could not have been much easier to be honest. It was just a case of registering the device and then inputting the email account details onto the Orange Blackberry site and that was it. The accounts appeared on the Blackberry. Now, the beauty of the Blackberry is you can have multiple push email accounts which I think makes it unique and it works perfectly.

So lets see what else is different compared to the 9700s daddy. Well the screen is obviously smaller but of a better resolution . This time 480 x 360. It looks pretty sharp. We have lost some internal storage though, which is a shame. The Bold 9000 came with 1GB but now we are down to 256mb on the 9700.

The camera has been upgraded to 3.2 mp with auto focus but I will cover that in more depth later in the review.

Apart from the above, I think the features are more of less the same but now in a new shell. I am most defiantly not a Blackberry expert so I may be missing a few things!

In terms of performance in all other areas I have been really pleased with the Blackberry Bold 9700. I have been using the device as my primary handset for nearly a week now and I have become addicted!

As a phone the 9700 does a great job. Accessing contacts is simple. Just start typing their name and up they pop. Getting contacts onto the phone was easy for me. As I use Microsoft Outlook I set the Blackberry desktop software to sync with Outlook so in a matter of minutes all my contacts were on the handset. Perfect!

The calendar on the Blackberry is also nice and easy to use and this again syncs with Outlook, making the transition to using Blackberry as simple as can be.

One thing on all Blackberries that has never been great is web browsing and this is the one main area that I feel let down. Coming from a big touch screen device I knew that using the browser would be "pants" but its not been as bad as I thought it would be. Of course compared to handsets like the iPhone, HTC HD2 and the Samsung Omnia2 its totally rubbish but I think you need to decide what is of most importance to you when thinking of switching to a Blackberry. If you are constantly browsing or using your phone as an in-car satnav then a Blackberry is probably not right for you (apart from the Storm or Storm2). If messaging is what you do most then this could be the device you need.

Connectivity on the Blackberry Bold 9700 is great. Its a 3G device and also has Wi-Fi. I think this is what will get a tonne of Blackberry Curve users switching to the Bold2 as none of the Curve models were 3G. God knows why but at least now there is a solution.

I have managed okay with the browser. To be honest I have not spent as much time browsing as I did on my touch screen phone but I can do pretty much everything on the Blackberry that I could do before. The downside is that the screen is not as big and if you need to zoom in you will find yourself scrolling left and right just to read a sentence. But as I said before it was better than I thought it was going to be.

If social networking is your thing then you will be pleased to know that Blackberry is pretty good when it comes to that sort of thing. There are some fantastic apps to help you stay in touch with your buddies.

Facebook has to be the top one at the moment and the Blackberry Facebook app is not bad. Compared to the windows version I would say its better as it keeps up to date. I found the windows one lagging behind a lot. As well as seeing your friends status updates you can also see news feeds, photos and links. Uploading photos to the app is also dead easy and its an all round decent application.

Like on most operating systems there are numerous Twitter apps and Blackberry is no different. I found Ubertwitter to be the best one and it worked faultlessly.

I’m not a massive Twitter user but tweeting from the Blackberry was easy-peasy.

I also installed Windows Live Messenger as Matt and I use it all day to communicate and I also found a good Facebook chat app so I could IM my Facebook buddies.

One of the first things you need to do when you have your new Blackberry is download Blackberry App World. Although its not on par with Apples iPhone app store its not bad. There is some decent stuff in there and the prices are reasonable. Of course there are loads of free apps as well . Its easy to navigate round App World and you are given a lot of info about the apps before you download, including screen shots. The graphics are not great for gaming but you must remember that a Blackberry is primarily a messaging device.

Media on the Blackberry Bold 9700 is taken care of nicely. I put a few movies onto my MicroSD card and they played straight away. Although not the biggest screen viewing is possible thanks to it being so crisp and bright.

Viewing photos was fine and dandy. With the vibrant screen the pictures look fantastic. A simple swipe of the optical track pad moves pictures left or right so you can either view all pictures in a grid or just view full screen and scroll smoothly to the one you want. Nice.

The 9700 has a built in music player and the quality it produced was surprisingly good. Using the external speaker the music was loud but not of great quality. Using the supplied headphones made things a lot better although they don’t feel the best made bit of kit. Once I plugged in my own JVC headphones (which only cost about £12.00) Guns N Roses rocked! The quality was super good and after I found the equaliser and turned up the bass I was rocking my socks off. If you listen to music you will be more than pleased with the results the Bold 9700 produces.

With built in A-GPS you wont be getting lost with the Bold 9700. It comes pre-installed with Blackberry Maps which is much the same concept as Google Maps. I also tried Nav4All which is a turn by turn navigation tool and it worked perfectly. Its never going to replace a stand alone satnav but for those times you are out and about on foot it will certainly come in handy.

No one is every going to buy the Blackberry Bold 9700 for its camera but it actually does a good job. At 3.2mp its not going to produce the best pictures in the world but the powerful LED flash helps a lot. Certainly does a better job than the camera on the Bold 9000. The camera interface is dead simple and fool proof really.

Conclusion:

So is the Bold 9700 an improvement over the 9000. I should say so. As long as web browsing is not what you do most and you like a QWERTY keyboard then the Blackberry Bold 9700 is in my opinion a fantastic phone well worthy of its price, although in time I am sure most carriers will supply it free on contract.

I liked it so much that this review device is not going back. I have dipped my hand into my pocket and I am keeping it. We cant bare to be parted!

I never thought this would happen as I am a big Windows Mobile fan but the Blackberry Bold 9700 just does everything well and its so easy and quick.

I have also just upgraded my girlfriends phone and she now has a Bold 9700 coming!

Good job RIM. Lets see if the Storm2 is as much of an improvement as the Bold2 is?

Review compliments of Shaun from PDA247

The Bold 9700 is a curiosity in many ways; it carries the ‘Bold’ name, but shares the bulk of its physical similarities with the Curve 8900. Put them next to each other and it is hard to tell the difference. The 9700 is slightly less curved and of course the back is leather, but besides that I would bet good money than few people who do not know much about BlackBerry’s would see any discernable difference.

However, the improvements in the Bold Bold 9700 mostly lie under the hood and this is what makes the Bold 9700 a definite improvement on what has come before. Outwardly the keyboard and optical trackpad complete a set of changes which come together to create something evolutionary which will appeal to a specific set of users who want the ultimate BlackBerry which can handle a variety of tasks in a way that only a BlackBerry can.

It would be all too easy for me to sit here and proclaim the Bold 9700 to be a minor update in a long line of BlackBerry devices which seemingly change very little from year to year, but who am I to say that this approach is not right? RIM has made a fortune out of these smartphones so it must be doing something right and there is a solid argument that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Here is a quick rundown of the current BlackBerry line up (Storm not included) and the negatives that come with each-

• BlackBerry Bold 9000- quite big, serious lack of internal memory, trackball reliability issues
• BlackBerry Curve 8900- only 2G, questionable build quality (some have loose keyboards and battery covers), video playback can be choppy, trackball reliability issues
• BlackBerry Curve 8520- only 2G, poor music quality, low resolution screen

ALL of the issues above have been fixed in the Bold 9700; it is similar in size to the 8900, it has a lot of internal memory, is built like a brick, has a high resolution screen and the optical trackpad which is a huge improvement over the trackball. Let’s take a look at each aspect of the Bold 9700 in detail-

Keyboard / Trackpad
Somehow RIM has managed to bring the original Bold keyboard feel to the smaller 9700 and produced a keyboard which is light to the touch, yet extremely accurate during bouts of super quick thumb typing. Anyone who has used a BlackBerry before will understand the lack of a full stop key (that still annoys me) and even those new to this kind of device should have no problems. It is the best front facing keyboard on the market and beats all of the others I have used from the newer smartphones all the way back to the Palm Treos.

The trackpad is a revelation after the trackball. I have suffered multiple trackball issues and started to lose faith in the entire idea. The trackpad is easy to master and feels more natural than almost any other hardware navigator I have used in the past.

Screen
I don’t have much to say here. It is 2.44” which is obviously smaller than the original Bold, but at 480×360 pixels the detail on offer is crisp and offers the same exceptional quality seen on the original Photos jump out of the screen and well encoded videos also display well with no stutters. I had many problems with the Curve 8520 and 8900 video playback, but the same videos have all played without any problems on the 9700- that’s a relief.

Build Quality
Exceptional. It is a solid as a rock and there are no moving parts to take away the feeling that it will serve you well on the busiest of days. After so long with the, in comparison, flimsy 8900 this feels just right to me. The only concern I have is the silver BlackBerry logo on the back leather cover which looks like it could easily peel off to me.

Buttons
On the sides we have rubber volume and side keys which most people seem to like. I am not a huge fan of these because they detract from the overall look, but I guess that they will be more hard wearing than the standards seen on previous devices. The expected mute and standby keys adorn the top and work as you would expect, but it would have been nice to see the media keys lifted from the 8520. It is a personal choice, but I never use the top keys. The 3.5mm headphone jack is top left and curiously I can use my iPhone headphones with this device. I never could with the 8900. The microUSB charger/sync jack is on the left as well which is not ideal, but the inclusion of the charger pods (left and right at the bottom) means that the classic cradle can be used. Every BlackBerry needs a charging cradle which rivals the Palm Pre touchstone for ease of use.

General Performance
This smartphone is quicker than any other I have used to date. The 624Mhz processor is powerful indeed for an OS which is widely regarded as one of the most efficient in the business. Throw in 256MB of memory and the natural trackpad and everything feels snappy and you soon forget that you are doing multiple things at once. I managed to have 15 apps open at once and it did not blink once. With music playing in the background I could skip between the browser, MobiPocket and anything else in the blink of eye. At no point has this phone given me any cause for concern in terms of performance.

Media
As I said earlier video playback is excellent and photo viewing is also a pleasure. The ability to move through photos with just the swipe of the trackpad makes navigating a large collection of images very easy and the overall simplicity of the interface works well. There are few bells and whistles in terms of the look, but it is debatable as to how necessary this is. Music playback is much, much better than the 8900 and on a par with the original 8900. I would advise dumping the included headphones because they do not bring out the best music experience. It is a difficult one to judge, but it is just about comparable to the iPhone with maybe a little too much music up front if you know what I mean. I would still rate the iPhone as better for music quality, but we are talking by a minimal amount.

Battery
After the first charge I managed a full day’s email, 70 minutes of calls, 2 hours of music, 2.5 hours of Wi-Fi and lots of messing around installing new apps and moving calendar entries etc. I left Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled for the whole day. Result: 60% battery remaining. Find me a smartphone that has a better battery life and I will give you the Bold. OK, no I won’t, but you get the idea.

Camera
I didn’t expect much of an improvement over the 8900 here, but it is quicker and the snaps are much clearer than before. I am no camera expert, but the colour reproduction seems more real and I am able to grab good snaps much easier than I could before.

The video camera is rated at 30 frames per second and capable of 480 x 352 recording. Again I noticed a big improvement and it is more than acceptable for capturing those moments when you do not have a standalone camera handy. It will not compete with the efforts found on Nokia phones, but is more than good enough for most people’s needs.

OS5.0
At first glance the move to OS5.0 seems inconsequential and in many ways it is. The speed improvement is the most noticeable change, but there are lots of small interface changes which add a more modern feel to the OS. Buttons in thirds party apps like Ascendo Money are different and the other changes like the easier profile management do make a difference. There are many, many changes onboard, but none that make it is revolutionary upgrade from the previous versions. Hopefully RIM will look at some more wide-ranging changes in the near future despite serious BlackBerry users likely being well pleased with the latest update.

Voice Quality / Signal
The voice capability of the Bold 9700 is as I would expect from any BlackBerry nowadays. It is loud and clear in ear or through the speaker phone and easily one of the best in the smartphone market. Only Nokia creates a better voice experience on ‘some’ of its smartphones.

Signal wise I have been impressed with the 3G coverage and manage to grasp a 3G signal anywhere in my house. Besides that it is difficult to test, but the GPS chip is also efficient and works quietly in the background when I need it. One day we will see a decent turn by turn navigation solution for BlackBerry, but until then it is hard to really push it.

Connectivity
The inclusion of 3G was not something that bothered me before I received the 9700, but I may have to eat my words with regards to how useful it can be. There is a caveat here in that you need a device with a BIG battery life to get the most out of it and as I said earlier this one is capable of supporting long periods of 3G.

You are only getting up to 3.6Mbps speed which will seem slow to some and I fully understand that. The problem is that little on the BlackBerry OS needs faster speeds and this is why some will not even look at a smartphone like the Bold 9700.

Conclusion
As you can tell from the above, this review is unusually positive for me. I am conscious that there are minimal downsides in this review, but that is because there are minimal downsides to the device. I am no fanboy of the BlackBerry platform and recognise that the OS is boring compared to much of the competition, the third party app market is devoid of imagination and the whole setup is looking long in the tooth. The messaging application could be a lot better and the OS needs an all encompassing refresh to battle it out with Android, the iPhone and even Windows Mobile in the consumer market.

However, if you need a phone which has a great screen, a huge battery life, excellent data entry and general performance which is able to cope with the most needed tasks of everyday life then this is the one to go for. The OS may look boring, but it handles all of the major tasks perfectly and third party apps like Ascendo Money and TweetGenius are hard to beat on any platform. There is a lot going on in a small space on the Bold 9700 and RIM has managed to create a device which will turn few heads, but one which is almost flawless in its implementation. I will be keeping this one as my main smartphone and will report back in a longer term review in a few weeks time.

Order your Blackberry Bold 9700 today at Clove Technology.