BlackBerry Bold 9000 review

BlackBerry Bold 9000 Review

Reviewed by: Andrew Lim

Reviewed on: 12 August 2008

RIM understands that most people prefer using their own headphones to the ones in the box, so it's kindly included a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. We would have preferred it on the top or bottom of the Bold, but it's good to have it nevertheless. The music player is basic, but supports several formats and is usable enough.

Less satisfactory is the Bold's 2-megapixel camera. It didn't take great shots in daylight and with only an LED photo light, didn't overwhelm us at night either. It's fine if you just want to take the odd snap to send to your friends over MMS, but don't expect pictures to look great when you view them on a computer.

Performance
The Bold is a vast improvement over older BlackBerries and combined with a speedy processor (624MHz) offers a really punchy experience. You feel like it's delivering the kind of power you expect from a smart phone -- from browsing the Web to accessing apps, the Bold doesn't lag much at all.

It's worth mentioning that audio from the loudspeakers can be set to go very loud indeed, which is useful for hands-free or conference calls, although it still has the tinny quality you expect from a phone speaker.

Battery life is quoted at around 10 days standby and around 4 hours talk time. We found that with intermittent use of all the features it lasted around a day before needing to be recharged, which isn't bad considering everything you're likely to use it for.

Conclusion
For some time we were worried that RIM didn't understand the increasingly powerful consumer market. Businessmen were no longer content with boring business phones and the likes of Nokia were quickly moving in on its turf. But the Bold is a clear statement from RIM that it's listening to the market.

If you're a BlackBerry user, we seriously advise you to check out the Bold and even if you're only considering investing in a super-phone, we recommend you have a look too. This is RIM's pièce de resistance and will most definitely delight BlackBerry fans who refuse to get an iPhone.

Edited by Nick Hide