The BlackBerry Bold’s Phone Quality
While most BlackBerry users can text as fast as the gunslingers of the Old West, that doesn’t mean that the phone functionality of a BlackBerry isn’t important: reception, voice dialing and speakerphone quality are all on the checklist of any serious BlackBerry road-warrior.
Thankfully, the BlackBerry Bold delivers on all three fronts. The most striking improvement has to be speaker volume and clarity: whether held to your ear or on speakerphone, calls come in clean and clear, and the external speaker is so powerful that you could be across the room and still be able to continue the conversation (or at least hear it). I also found the Bold’s voice activated dialing to be greatly improved over previous BlackBerrys. Rarely did I have to repeat a command to get the person I wanted.
Another item of note is the ability to choose where to direct an inbound call when paired to a Bluetooth headset, something that should save users the embarrassment of placing the BlackBerry to their ear only to hear a response from the headset they left on their desk. Also, don’t be afraid if you start to receive emails and text messages while on the phone — that’s just the wonderful world of a 3G BlackBerry.
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!