BlackBerry Bold 9900: The Best of Both Worlds, Vol. II
When BlackBerry released the Torch it opened the way to a new breed of hybrid smartphones that add the touchscreen flavor to the common mobile experience.
This approach was used in the new Bold from BlackBerry, at the first sight you’ll think to yourself it’s just a new Bold with a cool design, but when you start using it you’ll enjoy navigating within the phone using the touchscreen and there you will feel the difference. When compared to the previous edition, the Bold 9900 is slightly thinner, larger and heavier, the 9900 is 3.5mm thinner than the 9780, it’s the thinnest BlackBerry ever at 10.5mm, however it weights 8 grams more, while the screen in the new Bold is 2.8 inches compared to 2.44 inches in the 9780.
The hardware enjoyed some great improvements in the new 9900, the device is powered by a 1.2GHz CPU and runs on the new BlackBerry OS 7, memory had its share of improvements to reach 768 MB RAM and 8GB storage with the 9900. The camera is pretty much the same as the previous models, 5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels with LED flash, the only difference is that RIM had to lose the autofocus feature for design purposes, the new camera has an in-focus feature known as the EDOF, Extended Depth of Field. The Bold 9900 supports HD video recording as well as playback, it shoots HD videos at 720p with 1280×720 resolution.
This shot was taken by the Bold 9900 camera, click on it to see the full size:
But the most interesting part of the new Bold is the 2.8″ liquid graphics touch screen, which enjoys a performance of up to 60 frames-per-second and a resolution of VGA (640×480), 287 dpi. Adding the touchscreen to the Bold is defiantly a great step from RIM, you can navigate through the phone and execute almost all functions the device has to offer, except for the keyboard.
From the outside, the phone is really elegant with its wide shape and the plastic-chrome lines that cut through the phone and the stainless steel frame that wraps the phone, personally I think it’s the best looking BlackBerry so far, it feels good in the hand, the keyboard is really good and the touch screen is a really good touch, I’m loving it, it’s really cool!
There are some good native apps on the 9900 for social networks and IMs like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Google Talk, in addition to a fairly wide range of applications on the App World, many of which revolve around Facebook, including an interesting birthday reminder app that notifies you about upcoming birthdays using the data of your Facebook friends. Among the native apps is the Documents to go, where you can create and edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. In addition, you can find couple of apps that turn the device into a compass, a voice recorder and an organizer.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 specs:
• 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g
• 2.8″ capacitive touch screen display – VGA (640×480), 287 dpi resolution
• Ultra-easy QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad
• 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM
• 8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards
• NFC technology
• 5.0 MP camera, supports 720p HD video recording
• Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor
• Built-in GPS / aGPS
• Dual-Band Wi-Fi® – 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support
• Wireless Network support:
- 9900: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
- 9930: Dual-Band CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A, Dual-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
• 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery
• BlackBerry 7 OS
