BlackBerry Bold 9700 review: first look

Jonathan Bray October 26, 2009

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The Storm 2 might be attracting all the headlines right now, but it’s not the only phone RIM is championing right now. As we reported last week, its BlackBerry Bold 9700 (pictured left) has also just been announced, and we’ve had the chance for a brief hands on.

Those familiar with the BlackBerry range will instantly notice that the Bold 9700 is a lot smaller than the original Bold (pictured right). It measures 60 x 14.1 x 109mm and weighs in at a mere 122g. So small, in fact that it looks a bit like a Curve.

Those statistics might make the Bold 9700 more pocketable than its predecessor. But, worryingly, it also means the keyboard is smaller too. Given that the Bold’s amazing keyboard was its key selling point, this has the potential to ground the new phone before it’s had the chance to take off.

And it certainly feels a little more cramped that before – that much is inevitable. But despite this, the quality feel has been retained, the ingeniously shaped keys mean its just as easy to pick one key out from the next, and the “fretted” design – retained from the previous Bold – means the vertical key separation is still good.

In short, the keyboard is nigh on as good as the original’s, but the reduced width means we recommend those with large thumbs have a play in store before taking the plunge.

In another break from tradition, RIM has also dumped the clickable trackball in favour of a clickable, mini-trackpad. As with the keyboard, this felt remarkably sensitive and responsive in use, and it behaves just as the old trackball did. In fact, this could be an improvement over the original, with no moving parts to get clogged up with dust and a larger top surface to press down on and click.

Despite the reduced chassis size, however, some surprising improvements have been made. The TFT screen, for instance, looks as good as the original’s, with deep blacks and vibrant colours, but RIM has somehow managed to squeeze in a larger unit, measuring 2.44in across (versus 2.2in), and with a resolution 40 pixels higher too – 360 x 400.

The Bold 9700 also feels a lot more solidly put together than the original. In our review of the first Bold we voiced concerns over the rear battery cover, whose catch just felt far too flimsy. The mechanism has been changed here, with a far more solid-feeling slide-to-lock panel. Alas, the cheesy leatherette hasn’t been banished yet, though it has been reduced in size to occupy a small panel at the rear.

On board software is version 5 of the BlackBerry OS, and BlackBerry claims much better battery life with the new phone too. The battery remains the same 1,500mAh lithium ion unit, but the new 612MHz Marvell processor, BlackBerry claims, is more power efficient than before. The figures certainly look impressive, at up to six hours of talk time and 17 days standby – we’ll provide real world figures when we’ve had to the chance to test one properly.

Elsewhere, the Bold 2 is just as well-endowed as you’d expect RIM’s flagship smartphone to be, boasting HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and A-GPS. Impressively, the 3.2-megapixel camera boasts both an LED flash and image stabilisation.

And RIM continues to adhere to standards: the device can be charged over its Micro USB socket, has a 3.5mm headphone socket for listening to music and takes micro SD cards in an ingeniously-slanted slot, just above the battery.

The good news is that, when the BlackBerry Bold 9700 hits the shelves in a few weeks (there’s no official launch date yet) it won’t be exclusive to any network. And thanks to RIM’s new found keenness to push its products into the consumer as well as the business space, it will be available to Joe Public as well as corporate types.

Keep a look out for the full review, when we’ll pass final judgement on that keyboard, the new mini-touchpad, the battery life and the rest of the package.