Research In Motion Blackberry Bold 9000 Quad Band Cellular Smart Phone -Unlocked

Sometimes being smart is being bold. The unlocked BlackBerry Bold smartphone was designed to take advantage of the speeds available on the HSDPA network. Together, this high-speed network and the 624-MHz processor help support your need to multitask and prioritize with access to your voice and data services at the same time. Enjoy premier image and video viewing, build playlists of your favorite songs and organize your media files. You can even use BlackBerry Media Sync to transfer desktop iTunes music files to your smartphone. Downtime may be rare, but the BlackBerry Bold smartphone delivers a wealth of entertainment. 2-Megapixel digital camera is on-board. The Bold 9000 has 1GB storage + a microSD slot to expand storage space.

With the BlackBerry Bold smartphone's long-lasting, removable battery, you've got the power to get things done, whether you're traveling, working away from the office or just on the go Up to 13 days days (Standby time); Up to 5 hours (Talk time) USB cable Wall charger Not sold with a USA manufacturer's warranty

Customer Review: The best Blackberry ever and stomps the iPhone and Nokia E71 / skip the Storm and get a Bold if you still want a real keyboard.

I "smuggled" this phone from Canada a few months back since Rogers and Rim have made it available for about six months now and I unlocked it then slipped the Cingular SIM card w/o any hassles. ( You have to use a "3G" SIM card from Cingular or AT&T to reliably use the data features / TMobile SIM's typically meet this requirement and have been for years )



Whether or not you're an existing Blackberry user, you'll be impressed by the Bold.



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Short Review

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+ The best keyboard we've ever used on a Blackberry or any other smart phone from Motorola Q or Nokia E71 and anything from HTC.



+ A screen that compares to HDTV and the brightest Blackberry screen ever made.



+ Streaming video support is first class, you can watch youtube videos and other streaming content without hiccup when in a 3G area and the audio is as loud as many external iPod speakers.



+ Lighter than an 8800, easy to remove battery cover and pleather case back helps to prevent the phone from dropping to the floor.



+ Built in eOffice to edit PowerPoints, Word docs and Excel files, this is normally a $45 add on package that is built in.



+ Most of your existing accessories work with the Bold, including the leather case from the Curve, the 8800's and the chargers, headsets plus the same Mini-B USB cable to dongle power from your laptop.



-- But there are a few imperfections: --



- The MicroSD slot is hard to remove memory cards from, the phones built in 1GB of RAM is enough to store MP3's but you can load 8GB Micro SDHC cards but ejection is difficult and you can risk damaging the card if you use tools.



- The camera sucks as any other cell phone camera, the flash is inadequate for low light or indoor conditions and the camera is best for outdoor photos in bright light. The video camera is better than nothing and Rim includes Geotagging as a standard feature.



- The battery drains faster than a fresh keg of Duff's at Moe's tavern, we're forced to recharge it every 16 hours or risk the phone disabling the radio before entering suspend mode. Plan on keeping a car charger and extra wall chargers in your attache case, office and your mistresses bedroom.



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The screen is just stunning, wider and taller than the Curve and even prettier than the 8800. Technically, the screen resolution is twice the resolution of the Curve and it is obvious when you see it and apparent when compared side by side.



The speaker phone and stereo speakers are actually too loud and the speaker rivals Logitech MM22 Portable Speakers for iPod my external iPod speakers.



The speaker phone (often cited as a Blackberry weakness) is fixed, we were in a conference room and experimented by using the BB 9000 speaker phone instead of our US Robotics tripod phone and the Bold worked just as well.



The Operating System interface is familiar to existing BB users and photos attached inside emails can be viewed as appendments or inline items instead of being opened in the pic viewer.



The OS and applications are blatantly faster than the Curve or 8800's, the improved CPU is especially apparent when using the spell checker.



The gapless keyboard is real Blackberry perfection, myself and other BB complain about the 8800 keyboard and how easy it is to double hit letters or fat finger the adjacent keys.



Curves and most other BB's have spaced keyboards and are excellent for fast typing and the 8800 and earlier Pearl gapless keyboards resulted in howls of pain from the user community.



Rim improved on the Bold my elevating the pitch of the scalloped keys on the Bold, in short it means they've made it harder to fat finger and double hit keys and the keys are the best feeling Blackberry keystrokes I've used.



The camera doesn't seem much better than the camera in the Curve, and the brighter screen drinks the battery while supporting up to 1600 x 1200 pixels. The flash and video functions are rudimentary and shouldn't be used for indoor or cozy light settings.



The camera does include geotagging capabilities to imprint the location coordinates into the photo data, and it works fairly well indoors. Geostamping is an expensive feature found on newer Nikon cameras and very few cell phones. Earlier Pearl models with cameras didn't include Geotagging as standard but after market add ons and Rim's adoption of the functionality remains in the Bold 9000.



The browser is excellent and has native support for Adobe Flash so you can watch YouTube videos when you have nothing else better to do, the pocket versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are surprisingly decent for a mobile device and even better than the versions included with Windows Mobile / Pocket PC.



NOTE: The MicroSD slot can be sticky and almost impossible to remove the card after the spring eject. Sometimes we have to use tweezers to remove the MicroSD and this is hazardous since the top portion of the SD card is where the flash data chip resides and can be destroyed if handled poorly. We are able to use 8GB cards from different manufacturers w/o any compatibility issues.



The WiFi LAN speed is comparable to any other PC but it didn't seem faster than using AT&T's 3G over the air network.



Be prepared to be interrupted by strangers and BB lovers who want to know more about it, I've been approached by more strangers than the tour guide at the Heffner mansion.



Customer Review: Great phone...

Great phone...However with a snag or two. Name recognition suddenly stops working and you have to remove battery so that it starts working again. I had the BB 8300 and it was flawless. The software was just real solid. RIM should have something soon to fix the software snags.



I love all the bells and whistles (Add-ons) it comes with, you can download themes that make it look just like an iPhone, but obviously with BB functionality. A must buy.
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