The BlackBerry Bold 9000 was one of the most highly anticipated releases from RIM in years. Originally slated for a late summer release, the BlackBerry Bold was finally made available to customers in the US in early November.  So, was it worth the wait?

What’s In The Box?

• BlackBerry Bold smartphone
• Handsfree 3.5mm stereo headset
• Holster Pouch Case
• BlackBerry Travel Charger
• USB Cable
• 1500 mAhr Lithium Ion Battery
• BlackBerry User Tools CD
• Getting Started Guide
• Quick Start Guide

Hardware and Design

The BlackBerry Bold or 9000 series is the replacement for the BlackBerry 8800 series. The first thing you’ll notice about the BlackBerry Bold is the display. In a word, the screen on the Bold is stunning. Coming from a BlackBerry Curve 8310, it’s a major upgrade. The specs are 480 x 320 pixels, but all you need to know is that it’s all kinds of awesome.

The Bold features a unique faux leather back that looks if it was borrowed from Coach. The backing makes it easier to get a good grip on the device.  The outer trim of the Bold is chrome, but more of an understated chrome that accents the device nicely.

The Bold is wider than the Curve and similar in width to the 8800 series it replaces. Although it’s wide, the Bold is capable of one-handed operation. While I wouldn’t recommend typing long messages using one hand, checking email, calendar appointments, etc. are accomplished easily enough on the BlackBerry Bold.

Let’s face it, the BlackBerry is known for it’s QWERTY keyboard and the Bold does not disappoint. There isn’t a great deal of separation between keys, but they are large and angled. For example, if you were to saw the Bold in half, keys on the left side slope left and the opposite for the right (see photo below). The design makes it easier to hit the correct key and prevents typos. The keys themselves are a slick hard plastic , but it’s the tactile response that is so impressive. When you depress the keyboard, you get a very defined click and the tactile response is perfect. If there was any complaint about the keyboard, it would be RIM’s reluctance to include a dedicated period button. Pressing the ALT-. can get a bit tedious.

The tactile response also carries through to the soft buttons, typically an area that I’ve found manufacturers sometimes have a tough time. Not on the Bold. The same tactile response found on the keyboard is also found with the soft buttons.  I found the trackball to be extremely responsive and it’s easy to select items with precision. Having typed on a number of devices, I can say the BlackBerry Bold is the best keyboard I have used and the hardware is a pleasure to navigate.

Looking around the sides of the device, you’ll find the programmable buttons. The right application button is set for the Camera app by default. There is no launch time when accessing the camera. You find yourself in camera mode faster than you can say, “Cheese”.  This can be useful for capturing shots and not having to wait for the camera app to load. The right side of the Bold also features the standard volume up/down controls.

The Bold ships with 1GB of onboard storage, but supports microSD up to 32GB. The microSD is difficult to remove. There is a spring mechanism that will allow you to pop out the card, however you will have trouble removing all the way. For me to remove the microSD card, it required a pair of tweezers. If you are someone who swaps microSD cards often, this could a major hassle.

 Finally, the Bold supports mini-USB to connect to your Mac/PC. Note: Mac owners will need a third party solution such as Mark/Space’s The Missing Sync for BlackBerry. BlackBerry does offer a free Mac solution called PocketMac, but I’d recommend Mark/Space’s product despite the added expense. In addition the miniUSB, RIM has included a standard 3.5mm stereo headset jack allowing you to use your favorite set of headphones without having to purchase an adapter.

 
The Bold includes a mute button at the top. It’s very hard to depress and requires that you use your fingernail. It’s even worse if you want to put the device in standby mode, as you have to hold the button down. I would have preferred they use a ringer switch.

On the back of the Bold, you’ll find a 2 megapixel camera with a flash. A quick trip to options turns the camera to video mode allowing you to shoot short videos.

The stereo speaker is one of the best, if not the best I’ve heard from a mobile device. Playing one of the included video clips or music, I was surprised out good it sounds. Simply the best sounding speaker I have experienced on a mobile device. While I assume most will not use the stereo speaker for multimedia, but it is there if you need it.

While I did not conduct any specific battery tests, I found the battery life on the Bold to be excellent. Even with light browsing, email checking and a few calls throughout the day, battery life was never an issue for me. The 1500 mAhr battery is removable, making it easy enough for business travelers and power users who might need extra power.

A quick trip to Manage Connections allowed for an easy set up of WiFi. Configuring the Bold to use my personal WiFi network was easy enough. The Bold also features built-in GPS, but there are on included apps outside of the pay-per-month AT&T Navigator, which is essentially TeleNav. This won’t replace stand alone units such as a Garmin, but does allow the Bold to do everything including turn-by-turn voice navigation. For some reason, AT&T has blocked BlackBerry Maps on the Bold. Check out our forums for information on how to add BlackBerry Maps to your Bold.

To sum it up, the BlackBerry 9000 hardware is exceptional and the build quality is fantastic. The BlackBerry Bold has a solid feel to it and the Bold just feels like a well-made device.

Operating System and User Interface

New to the Bold is BlackBerry OS 4.6 and it delivers a vibrant user interface. All new icons grace the screen of the Bold and you can customize which icons will appear on your homescreen. At the top of the screen, the Bold provides an assortment of information (battery level, ringer profile, unread messages, date and time, Bluetooth, WiFi and signal strength).  If you install Facebook for BlackBerry, those notifications will also appear at the top of your screen. One thing that you’ll notice is how crisp and clear the fonts are on the Bold. On the previous OS, the fonts made the OS look dated. Not so with the Bold.  Now, the actual OS doesn’t appear to have changed much. Being familiar with navigating my Curve, the Bold wasn’t much different, although it felt like a modern OS. The keyboard shortcuts is critical to navigating the still extensive menu options in many of the apps. For example, it’s much easier to type “c” for close than navigating using the trackball.

Under the hood, the Bold features a 624 MHz Intel PXA270 Processor. Combine the new OS with the Bold’s architecture and you get a super fast BlackBerry. The BlackBerry Bold will go as fast as I can go (and probably faster than me). When using the Bold, never did I find myself waiting for the OS. It is extremely responsive, fast and stable.

Email, Messaging and Internet

Email is BlackBerry’s forte and the Bold rocks at email. If you don’t have an existing BlackBerry plan, you’ll have to contact AT&T. A minimum of a  BlackBerry personal plan is required and that provides unlimited data along with BlackBerry push email. Those familiar with RIM’s email can expect more of the same. If you are coming form another platform, you are in for a treat. Setup could not be easier. You’ll only need your email address and password. There are no IMAP or SMTP settings. Within a few minutes, I was receiving messages. With the BlackBerry Bold, I never have to do the laborious chore of send and receive. As I receive email, RIM’s servers push it to the Bold. This helps with battery life and allows you to always stay in touch. You can set up multiple accounts and also manage your IMAP accounts directly from the Bold. BlackBerry also offers up a unified message mailbox, but personally I enjoy the ability to keep my personal email separate from my business email account. For some strange reason, the Bold doesn’t support threaded SMS and from my research RIM will not allow developers access to the SMS mailbox. With such attention to detail throughout the Bold, this one is a bit of shocker. I certainly hope RIM will consider an update that would bring threaded SMS to the Bold and other BlackBerry devices. I have an old Treo 300 that has threaded SMS.

The browser on previous BlackBerry devices left a lot to be desired. In a world with Internet Explorer Mobile, this was never a big issue since all mobile devices generally provided a sub-standard web browsing experience. Apple certainly changed this with the release of the iPhone and more importantly mobile Safari. To date, that browser offers the fastest and closest thing to the real Internet (mobile Safari does not support Flash). The BlackBerry Bold browser is much improved and does a very good job when it comes to rendering pages. In fact, it runs circles around Internet Explorer mobile when it comes to rendering. Thanks to AT&T’s 3G network, it’s much improved over the BlackBerry Curve 8310. That in mind, it is slower than I would have liked and it has a difficult time with javascript. If you attempt to load a javascript heavy page, the load times can be very frustrating. Even more frustrating is that RIM appears to be close to providing the real Internet on a BlackBerry, but falls short. The Bold is fast throughout, but not when it comes to the web and this was a disappointment.

Multimedia
Although it’s being marketed as a business device, the Bold is plenty capable when it comes to multimedia. First up is the video player. RIM includes two sample videos and they do a phenomenal job of showcasing the Bold’s video capabilities and the screen. I showed the Bold to a few friends who were staunch iPhone supporters and they were wowed by the Bold’s video prowess. Despite the screen not being as large as the iPhone, the pixel count and crispness of the display really delivers when it comes to watching videos. If you are considering the Bold, do yourself a favor and test drive the Speed Racer clip at your local AT&T store.

The Bold features a music player and allows you play tunes from the microSD. BlackBerry Media Sync allows you to sync with iTunes, making it easy to get your files on your BlackBerry Bold. Mac users who opt for The Missing Sync for BlackBerry can also sync iTunes playlists and files. Music purchased in the iTunes store is not supported on the device (or any device outside of Apple’s media players).  Either way, it’s not difficult to get your music on the Bold and support up to 32GB (with microSD card not included) there is more than enough storage space. The audio from the stereo speakers on the Bold is phenomenal.

More examples of the Bold’s multimedia capabilities can be seen while browsing the sample photos that are included. At this point in the review, I’m simply out of adjectives to describe how much I enjoy the Bold’s display. The included photos of a 2009 BMW 335i did nothing to change that opinion. Awesome.

Conclusion
The BlackBerry Bold is everything you could want in a mobile device. The hardware design is the perfect mix between beauty and brawn. The stunning display and superb stereo sound makes the Bold a surprisingly good multimedia device. The QWERTY keyboard is the best I’ve used on any smartphone, so whether it be a short text message or a long email, typing on the Bold is a breeze. At the heart of any BlackBerry is email and the Bold delivers with flying colors. The processor and new OS deliver a modern OS experience, although some of the menu navigation can become cumbersome. The browser is greatly improved, but still lags compared webkit based browsers such as mobile Safari and Google’s Android browser. Nothing was left off the feature list, with the Bold offering GPS, support for WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0. The final result is an elegant, powerhouse of a device and a BlackBerry that was well worth the wait.