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RIM BlackBerry Bold 9000 (AT&T) Review

Posted by John Pastor • January 14, 2009 • Printer-friendly • Feed •

9000blk att topangle RIM BlackBerry Bold 9000 (AT&T) Review

In years past, BlackBerry has been innovating with product after product. With the new family of BlackBerry Bold, Storm, and 8900, they have a great lineup for the rest of the year. Today we’re taking a look at the sleek new BlackBerry Bold 9000 on AT&T.

What makes the Bold better than the Curve? I’ve been using the Bold off and on as my main cellphone of choice for the past month and it’s hard to switch back to the dated Curve. The Bold has a sleek black and silver design that’s reminiscent of an iPhone, which blends into the old school black leather finish on the back. It’s quite a bit bigger than the Curve but a little smaller than the 8800 series,

The Bold has a screen that is twice the resolution of the Curve (480x320 pixels) and simply looks amazing when you get your hands on it. The text is crisp and graphics pop out of the screen. When I switched back to my Curve, I felt like I was stuck in the past and not in with the new. The keyboard is a little bit more spacious than the Curve’s and didn’t take too much time to get used to.

For connectivity, it’s got everything. 3G (HSDPA), WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth, everything you’d need walking around the city. Testing the AT&T Navigator app, GPS was a little slow, and took a while to pick up on a route. The web browser doesn’t top mobile Safari, but it works and gets the job done.

Even though it seems like a strictly business-oriented smartphone, RIM has still bundled the Media application found on other BlackBerrys throughout the line. I played the Speed Racer trailer that was bundled with the phone and it looked and sounded amazing for a BlackBerry. The colors were vibrant and the stereo speakers were excellent.

Themes have been revamped with the latest 2008 line of BlackBerry products, with white-on-black menus and crisp modern icons. Just like BlackBerrys of the past, startup is a little sluggish but once you get past that, it’s blazing fast and snappy. Battery life is pretty good, and a whole day with 3G usage just barely drained the battery.

3G reception was consistent, but as expected, in underground areas of San Francisco, reception dropped to EDGE, and once to the now dated GPRS technology.

I can’t wait to see what RIM has up their sleeves next, the 8900 looks like it’ll push the Curve even further behind, and the Storm is a Verizon subscriber’s dream come true. We’ll have hands on with the Storm within the next couple of weeks hopefully.

The RIM BlackBerry Bold 9000 is available on AT&T in the United States, Rogers in Canada, and Vodaphone in the UK. Buy the AT&T version today at Amazon.com for $149.99 with a new service plan and a $100 rebate.

Pros

  • Elegant and sleek black and silver design.
  • Crisp and vibrant screen.
  • Connectivity galore.
  • Strong QWERTY keyboard.

Cons

  • Web browser still needs some work.


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