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BlackBerry Bold 9700 review

By Clare Hopping, 19 Nov 2009

Rating:

Price as reviewed:£347.83 ex. VAT. From free on contract.
Best price: £5.20

The Bold 9700 is the latest in RIM’s flagship line up and its sleek design has got our mouth watering. Does it really deserve to be range topper though? We review it to find out.

Simply opt to invite another BlackBerry user by barcode and you’re taken to the camera. Line the viewfinder up with your colleague’s barcode (providing they also have the latest version of BB Messenger) and the camera will focus and detect it. Inside the barcode is embedded the user’s BlackBerry PIN and email address, so when this is read, you’re effectively entering details manually into your BlackBerry Messenger app.

One big change in looks is the way that messaging is displayed. You’ll find text messages look much more like threaded messaging – your replies are a slightly different colour to those you’re conversing with, which makes it much clearer to see who’s said what and when.

Another addition to BlackBerry OS 5.0 is in the multimedia. Although RIM hasn’t changed the interface of the music player or image gallery, the multimedia menu has been updated with the option to choose between music, videos, ringtones, pictures, voice notes, video camera and voice notes recorder all in one place.

A let down however, is the lack of updated browser. It was rumoured that OS 5.0 would bring with it an improved browser with tabbed browsing, but alas, you’ll still need to download Opera for such functionality.

The touchpad does ace for moving around web pages though, so if the BlackBerry browser is your preferred option, the hardware makes browsing easier for you.

Even with email set to push, Wi-Fi activated, and the Bold 9700 continuously searching for signal in deepest, darkest Norfolk, we still managed to keep the battery going for a full three days.

Granted, there was limited signal for calling on one day out of three, but this is still an impressive show, considering our experience of the original Bold on standby leaves a lot to be desired in the juice department.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a more than able RIM device. It brings with it a whole collection of connectivity options and won’t leave you high and dry when it comes to battery life.

There’s not a trick missed here apart from the improved browser, but hopefully that update will come in a future firmware upgrade.

Click here to see what business deals Vodafone has to offer on the BlackBerry Bold 9700.