Blackberry Bold hands-on review

Now that the Blackberry Bold has been released, we are starting to see some hands-on reviews coming on-line. Here is one from Down Under, courtesy of David Flynn at APC Magazine. David has done a fantastic job of reviewing this device. He has some great photos and in-depth review of its features. Speaking of features, here is a quick highlight of what he liked:

- Sleek design with rounded edges which is derived from Curve and 8800.

- Screen is bigger than the Curve at 2.6 inches diagonally. It is also wider than the Curve’s, 2.25 inches to 1.5 inches. Also, the display on Bold has higher resolution at 480X320. While the resolution is comparable to that of iPhone, but because of the size, the pixel density is higher on the Bold and therefore makes for a superior screen than the iPhone.

- The user interface has been redesigned to take advantage of the additional real estate and resolution. Also, RIM has added new softer fonts that make reading emails and web pages easy on the eyes. With the new 4.6 version of the operating system, RIM has updated the home screen with new, larger icons.

- The phone comes pre-loaded with Documents-to-Go software to read and edit Microsoft Office documents. Though there is no stand-alone viewers for PDF and RTF documents. You can only view them if they are attached to emails.

- Speaking of emails, RIM has finally enabled HTML support (though not native HTML yet) on its email reader so you get to see the email as it was meant to be seen, not like the current version where you get a mix of text and code.

 - The web browser is decent but no Flash support.

- Bold’s multimedia support is excellent and surprising. It takes advantage of its big screen to display AVI, MPEG-4 formats, the DivX and XviD codecs, along with WMV and 3GP video clips. You can also record video-clips and create playlists.

- The speakers are decent or you can use the included “Premium” headset with hands-free microphone or your favorite earphones.

- While the camera on Bold and Curve are both 2Mpxl, the results are way different. Bold has much better image-processing capabilities, producing “shots that were noticeably sharper, clearer and more colour-true over the Curve’s more muted captures.”

- RIM decided to go with a faster XScale processor for Bold which handles all the tasks very efficiently.

- Like with all other RIM products, battery life on Bold is good. It can lasts for days between recharge, except when you have to use Wi-Fi.

All in all, this is a great phone. David was pretty impressed with the phone and reading his in-depth review, I am sure you will too.

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