The BlackBerry Bold’s Screen
Take a look at the screen capture above you. A good, long look. The question you should be asking yourself as you reflect upon this bucolic vision is not if you’ve ever seen anything so beautiful on a BlackBerry before, but if you’ve ever seen anything so beautiful on a mobile device before.
It feels slightly weird to write, but RIM, the company known for email and enterprise, has made the BlackBerry Bold’s screen a killer app. The media often points to the iPhone’s screen as the industry leader in mobile visuals, but RIM has shown that it’s not the size that matters, but the amount of pixels your packing. At 2.6 inches diagonally and .75in wider than the BlackBerry Curve, the BlackBerry Bold also an increased screen resolution of 480×320 (HVGA), leading to a pixel density of 240ppi, significantly higher than the iPhone’s 165ppi. What does this technical mumbo-jumbo mean? More pixels + smaller screen area = very pretty pictures. Having watched a variety of videos on both the Bold and the iPhone, the BBCool unanimously chose the Bold’s smaller screen over the iPhone’s.
However, the dynamism of the BlackBerry Bold’s screen isn’t limited to its pixel density. Bold users will never again be concerned with their screen brightness, because it is no longer an issue. That doesn’t mean that the screen is dramatically brighter than previous BlackBerrys, but that the contrast range is so much greater, no matter the brightness setting, the Bold screen is luminous and crisp, displaying whiter whites and inky blacks. Concerns over environmental lighting are a thing of the past, with the Bold screen performing beautifully in broad daylight or the fluorescent-lit office. The Bold screen also features a broad hue range as well, often to startling effect: with the right image or video, the Bold can display both subtle pastels and shimmering tones.
Don’t think RIM hasn’t taken the opportunity to show-off what the Bold screen can do. Transparent menus are visible everywhere in the OS, and tucked within the Advanced Options menu is a new option called Accessibility, which allows you set the Bold to display all colors in reverse contrast or greyscale. It may seem like a novelty option, but I found the reverse contrast setting to make sifting through OS icons significantly easier. It also makes our custom BlackBerry Cool background look even cooler.
I have to agree with you about the slot for the SD card; I find it very difficult to use.
Wow!! What an informative and well written review.
Thankfully South Africa seems, for once, to be right up there when it comes to launching new Blackberry models. I upgraded to the Curve about a year ago and can’t wait for the Bold.
Wish I had not read the review
– already drooling.
Gary
I have never used a blackberry before, but I have heard you don’t have true threaded sms. Does the new OS change that, or is text messaging largely unchanged. This device looks hot, but that is an important feature for me to consider.
What about the browser?
Any issues with the 3G network? Does the Bold, like the iPhone, revert from 3G to EDGE sometimes, for no apparent reason? Or is that just a U.S. problem?
To echo Austin, what about the browser? I think most people would agree the poor native browser is Blackberry’s single biggest weakness in relation to other smartphones, and the fact that it’s not even mentioned in this review leaves me with more questions than before I read it. I own a Curve and won’t buy another Blackberry until the browser improves significantly; I wonder what it’s like on the Bold.
Nice review. Now if I can only get my hands on one. Damn you Rogers and your really, really sad Bold launch.
On a side note… Where can I get the Blackberry Cool Wallpaper you showed on page 4 about the Bold’s Screen?
Thanks
http://www.blackberrycool.com/wp-content/uploads/shirtlogo.jpg
Here ya go, Mike. I’ll cook up a few more dimensions in case you want it something other than a Bold, maybe even desktop if you dig us that much.
The design is from our t-shirt, available here…
http://www.cafepress.com/bbcool
Hi there. Is anyone else having trouble viewing the full review? Page 8 is the section on Words to Go, and then section 9 is the final conclusion, but the homepage indicates that there should be sections in between for Web Browser, Camera, Media Player, and Applications. Am I crazy?
Terry,
The only crazy thing is that people actually view the RIM offering as a better option than Apple’s iPhone. Sure you can spend $399 on a sub-par device for a 3 year plan….that my friend is the only crazy thing.
Are you certain about the maximum of a 16GB MicroSD card? I received the official Rogers spec sheet this week and it states up to 32GB for it.
shweet.
what about the mp3 player.
very important feature to me as I am a public transportation commuter. I didn’t love my curve for that. it lacked 2 basic abilities, playlists and equalizer controls.
any thoughts?
cheers
b
Hey guys,
Sorry for the issues. We’ve never tried to make a post this large before, and either Wordpress or our theme is refusing to display all the pages.
We’re working to figure out what’s going on right now. Won’t be too long hopefully!!!
I look forward to the media player review. Maybe it will be up after lunch.
BTW … great job on the review .. now ATT just needs to launch the Bold.
Sweet….. only two pages missing of the review now. Almost there guys! (OS & Media Player)
Thanks for the encouragement, B! OS is now up and Media Player will be up soon. They were the only two I couldn’t salvage and so they have to be rewritten.
Remember kids, always backup your work. Because the Internet hates you.
@Terry,
No issues with 3G at all. Obviously Ottawa isn’t the most metropolitan city in the world, but you might be able to chalk it up to Rogers > AT&T when it comes to 3G coverage.
@Sean,
Not certain about the maximum MicroSD capacity. We only have a 4GB lying around, so we’ll have to look into it. For the record, the 16GB number comes from the initial Bold press release in May, so things could have changed since then.
So when is it gonna be in the US?!
I hate blackberry!!
Wait for it….
NOT!!!
1st of all tanx bbcool for the superb review.. i fil this is one of the most complete reviews available for the BOLD.. i have a question.. how does it fit in ur chest pocket? how bout in ur trousers pocket? or jeans? probably u could post up sum pictures on the size of the bold compared to how it fits ur pockets.. ive seen sum reviews on the size of it but none which shows d Bold being tucked into ones pocket.. probly sum of us dun fil comfy clinging it onto the belt.. plus i dun wan my BOLD to be d target of snatch-thefts if i just cling it there.. i feel this (the BOLD’s size) is one of the problems for those who arent dat much in the business side but wants a rili great BB.. other than dat, its perfect~
1 Blaring Omission from this review is the Headphones! Is it just in Oz they are suction based ?
@ Bryan, these are features of 4.5 OS and well integrated into the 4.6 OS of the Bold
@ Blackberry Cool, HSPA to GPRS handover works extremely well here in OZ. Over 100km’s between work and home moves seemlessly between the two. Best review so far by the way, the screenshots made you beat out BGR’s
The calculator says boobs when you hold it upside down.
One MAJOR thing is missing that greatly hurts the BlackBerry, according to some friends I know:
An AppStore for BlackBerry. We need easier development, easier accessibility, for BlackBerry so that new users of BlackBerry can easily find a favourite application without needing to hunt many different sources on the Internet for it.
Apps doesn’t have to be exclusive to the BlackBerry AppStore, but a pre-installed well-stocked AppStore makes it irresistible for developers to provide copies of their application for the unified AppStore – since everyone would be able to access it and purchase applications that way.
There is some trickiness tiptoeing around corporate users whose admins don’t want such functionality, but if RIM want to be serious about selling more units to consumers, we need a built-in AppStore, as well as the addition of improved development environments.
(P.S. RIM API needs to really be overhauled, baby… There’s a lot of legacy stuff that’s holding it back.)
can you guy settle an argument I’ve been having with my coworkers?wwHat is the Bold’s target market? I think pro-sumers and my boss says CEO types. If pro-sumer, pricing and launch issues are crucial. If CEO types, then these are non-issues right? Shed some light readers?
Battery life is not so good comparing to the Pearl 8310 unless you don’t use the blackberry and keep it sleeping. The very nice screen seems to be a huge power sucker.
@Mark
Actually Mark, my Bold came with a Rogers Mall icon that launches into an online app store. I think RIM is more interested in leaving distribution to carriers, while still having references like the BlackBerry Solutions Catalog ( http://www.blackberrysolutionscatalog.com/ ) available for folks to peruse.
@Kyle
Considering the pricing, and how it’s replacing the BlackBerry 8800, I would place the Bold in the executive/enterprise category. Given, there’s a camera there that some companies might not be too happy with, and the slick screen seems a little too multimedia-friendly to be purely business, I think they’re more icing on the cake than anything else.
@dubz
Having pocketed the Pearl for a long time, the Bold definitely feels a little bulky. Right now I’m holstering it, but it actually fits in my front jean pocket no problem. It might be a little trickier if you’re putting anything else in there, though.
@dubz
Just to follow up, one part of my review I forgot to throw in was a mention of how I carried the Bold. I usually place my BlackBerry in the front breast pocket of my tweed blazer (from 7100 to 7130 to pearl to curve) and the Bold is the first one that doesn’t fit. But it’s fine in your pants pocket — just don’t put your keys in there too!
Can you show off some screen caps of the GPS working? How in depth are the GPS features?
Thanks, Derek
This is a great review. Thanks to Douglas and the whole BlackBerryCool crew!
AS
Douglas, you out did yourself with the mother of all BlackBerry Bold reviews. I loved it, especially for the table of contents at the beginning. This is definitely NOT bush league.
Excellent review. However, with the absence of A PDF creator and lack of Flash and Java support for web browsing, I have to wonder whether one perhaps should let the hype wear off for a week or two and then see if he or she still wants one.
Great Review. I can’t wait for ATT to launch the bold.
what is the screen size of this phone?
The screen size is 480 x 320
It is launched in the UK on Orange and there are problems with Maps not being implemented.
GPS? Can we see how it works? What about Google Maps? And Blackberry Maps?
hi..for the blackberry bold model …. does anyone know if u can delete/edit original text from an email you are forwarding on….? much appreciate if you can help!! thanks!
Will the Blackberry Bold’s email and phone work in Asia, e.g., Japan, Korea, and China?
No GPS info? Hardly an ‘ultimate’ review with zero information on the GPS. Honestly.
With living in South Africa we always get the tail end of the deals, will the BBB GPS maps work in SA or is it compatible with other maps that are available for download?
I’m thinking of getting a Bold and comparing against the iPhone and E71
One of the great things about the iPhone is that (once set-up) it will seamlessly flip from using wifi comms to mobile provider comms. So I sit in the garden looking at a site or two on the net and it is using my wifi link. I walk off and it automatically then moves to mobile comms to get web pages without me having to do a thing – nothing. And when I wander back it picks up the wifi and starts using that again. Can the Bold do this?
The reason I ask is that I have a Nokia E61 and this will not do the above. I have to endlessly click and do stuff to swap – and even to just pick up email it seems to want to keep asking me what comms to use. Very annoying. There is a third party app to help correct this but I’d prefer a phone (like the iPhone) which does the right thing from the off.
I do appreciate with the advent of 3G that wifi is not so vital perhaps but I do use my mobile device around the house a lot and I don’t want to be eating into my ‘all I can eat’ mobile data allowance – which is actually capped and expensive if I were to go above.
Thanks for you help and also such an informative review.
already using and loving it!
Can anyone tell me if there is a slot for a 1 gigabyte expansion? Can someone also tell me how many gigabytes The BlackBerry Bold Has?
there is 1 gb memory on the phone
but you can expand up to 16 gb with micro sd cards
wow! i cant wait to get mine!!
this shows Mpix has nothing to do with the pic-quality! no need for 8mpix if the photochip is crappy! Bold is a great proof of that!
I’ve had the Bold from Rogers for about a week now… and what can I say… AMAZING! I was a loyal fan of the Sony Ericsson before I moved into smartphones, then became a very very loyal fan of the HTC line-up of smartphones. When Rogers decided to discontinue the HTC Touch and not pick up the newer HTC phones, I was talked into buying a BlackBerry. As I’m a 21 year old male, I figured I needed the best, and folks, that’s exactly what I got! My phone seamlessly switches back and forth from 3G to WiFi and back (but the WiFi does drain a TON of power). As I’m still getting used to going from a Windows Mobile 6.0 to a BB OS .162, there are either things lacking, or I’m just not as tech savvy as I think I am. The documents to go is great, but having to pay to be able to creat new documents is a pain, so I just leave a blank file on there and edit and “save as”. Pictures load quickly and are actually displayed better than my digital camera! And for the review writer, you are incorrect about one thing: there is a stand-alone video recorder icon. You just have to search for it
(its in the applications folder).
My only complaints so far: lacking applications, which is what the WM and iPhone are killing the market with, the browser is really good, but could be better, storage card easy accesibility (its a bitch and a half trying to get that sucker out), and whenever I try to sync the phone with my computer for pictures, videos, and music, while it does it, it tends to slow my computer down and has actually caused a 30 minute freeze!.
Other than that, it’s an amazing phone, and while its $30/mos. more than a typical cell phone, I can’t figure out how I went without one for such a long time!
Turned off Wi-Fi, battery last one day. Need charging every night.
Does anyone know where I can find maps/gps for the blackberry bold?? I have purchased bb bold recently and I love it! On the box it said that it has built in gps but it’s not there??!! Very annoying…
Thanx in advance!!
Hi every body I just bought my BB Bold and it doesn’t have the GPS or map icon in the menu. Can any body help me with it?
First, thanks for the wonderful review, it really is the most thorough I’ve read yet.
I love this machine! And IMO it beats everything else hands down on most subject. I come from the Nokia world, and as much as they are hyped, they just can’t compare. And not only in the most familiar Blackberry areas…
First, I got an N95-8, which was relatively nice, if somewhat flimsy in parts, but it did a good job. Deal breaker for me was the fixed storage memory. Once you’ve filled the 8 gb, you’re out of luck. As I’m a voracious music consumer, and was looking for a handset that would be a really good music player among other things, I could foresee the 8 gb becoming too small after a while. On the 95, music quality (through headphones of course) was correct, lacking a bit of punch, with the slightest hiss, but overall good enough.
Swapped it for the apparent ultimate from Nokia, the E90, and that has to be the most overhyped handset in recent times. It does suck, pure and simple. The keyboard, as good as it looks in the pictures and everything, is simply close to unusable, so stiff are the keys. There is practically no response from them, and it does take a while to correctly type any length of text with it. The internal screen was nice enough, but seeing as most apps don’t make proper use of it, except for editing word documents or about, it’s just there for show.
As for sound quality for music, let’s not even go there… Hiss a-plenty, weak basses, murky rendition, the works. And that is with a very respectable set of cans (Koss KSC75T). Ah, and the 2.5 mm jack sucks miles, too. Using an adapter is not exactly user friendly.
Sound quality regarding calls were acceptable on both devices, with an edge to the 95, sounding clearer and less muffled, but nothing to write home about.
The straw that broke the camel’s back as far as the E90 was concerned was when the genuises at Nokia decided to completely lock their firmware, rendering installation of many, many unsigned third party apps impossible on the phone. So far, this hasn’t been cracked, I’m told… Sorry, but if I pay the major bucks to buy a handset, I do intend to use it as I see fit, and not as the manufacturer thinks I should use it in its great wisdom.
So, I decided it was time for Nokia to go screw themselves, sold the 90, and decided to turn to other solutions, and never having had a Blackberry before, I got wind of the Bold and decided to look closer, and finally got one…
MYYYYY! What a wonderful piece of gear it is! I was extremely pleasantly surprised in every way, I must say. From first contact, the thing oozes quality, whether it is the feel of it, the incredible screen, the keyboard! Ahhh the keyboard… It does put to great, great shame, the E90’s…
The OS is a straightforward, no-nonsense affair, and one does get used to it pretty quickly, despite the vast number of options. I appreciate the level of detail and customization, it makes things much easier in the end.
Call sound quality is mindblowing. Apparently there were hiss problems with the first few firmwares, but this has obviously been corrected and I hear all my correspondents crystal clear, and they do hear me just fine too, whatever the environment. Anyway, a major improvement to what I was used to with both Nokia’s.
As a multimedia device, which can be surprising for a BB, it destroys everything Nokia and co have ever put out. No honestly. Sound quality via headphones is very, very nice, very precise, no hiss to speak of, and deep, solid bass that will make your jaw tremble
It does sound better than an iPod (after comparing) AND an iPhone, which basically have the same audio circuitry, no matter what Jobs chants. And while the Media Player is simple and rather minimalist, it does the job more than adequately, and is very responsive and reactive, even with a (for now) almost full 8 gb card full of music.
I can’t quite tell about battery life for now (I’ve only had it for a few days), but while it seems good, it does not appear to exceptional. Good, but not fantastic. I think I’ll give a shot at the Innocell 1650 mAh battery from Seidio and see what gives…
I won’t relate all the other goodies the thing is capable of regarding push, email etc, they are well known, and they do work totally as expected.
I have to say the device gets snappier and snappier as FW updates roll out, and they do roll out a great deal, and it’s quite appreciable that RIM churn out bug fixes and improvements on such a regular basis. It does inspire confidence that you won’t be out of luck two or three months after the machine initial release when something better comes along (something a lot of other manufacturers could take as an advice… Especially in Finland. Ahem)
Plus, I do have the possibility of installing anything I like on it without having to say “please” and hearing “no” as a reply. Another hint here.
All in all, it’s so far a fantastic device to use, without any nasty surprise so far, and I’m not even thinking to go back to more so-called consumer oriented brands in any foreseeable future. This is exactly the device I wanted to have, and it does everything I need extremely well.
It odd that you got no clock during your test but while reading about your test on the Bold on the Bold I am getting the clock every
5 econds or so
blackberrybbs
Hi all, can some of experienced BB Bold users explane how is syncronization between phone and LotusNotes (on PC) working? I have actually Nokia and has no any problem to syncronize LotusNotes datas (contacts, calendar, ToDo) with phone. During the day I do almost everything on PC and then make syncronization, so this feature is critical for me. Would this the same with BB?
Thanks in advance.
i hate the blackberry bold! it was nice at first but then it started to get slow after about 2 months and all i really use it for is calling and texting. one of my buttons on the side were stuck so it made it hard when i was texting cuz it kept going off! my old one ended up breaking so i just got my new one and the speaker sounds muffled! i’m starting to think i should of gone with the iphone instead!
I want to buy one but does it have the world timer and converters (currency, weight,etc.) like the Nokia phones? I travel a lot so these are important features for me. Thanks!
All reviews of the blackberry bold
http://www.reviews.jeroenmarchand.nl/index.php?option=com_bookmarks&Itemid=1&catid=4&navstart=0&mode=0&search=*