Blackberry Bold 9700 Mobile Phone Review – The QWERTY Quadband With Optical Trackpad

?And from the RIM stable, along comes the Blueberry Bold 9700 – hot on the heels of the Tour (which it definitely relates to) – heading it?s way to ergonomic excellence and surfing on the go.

Announced only in October, RIM does not waste any time getting the latest models onto the market – in this handset?s case – it was scarcely a month later, in November of 2009.

The Blackberry Bold is pure functionality in a tiny, ergonomically designed little can. This particular model measures a mere 109 x 60 x 14 mm. At 122g in weight, it will hardly put a dent in your pocket – the one you carry it in, that is.

Driven by a 624 MHz processor, the Blackberry OS 5.0 operating system chews its way through both 2G and 3G networks, functioning on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 on 2G and HSDPA 850/1900/2100 or HSDPA 1700/2100/900, depending on the model.

It uses Class 10 (4+1/3+2slots) GPRS at 32-348 kbps, but does not support EDGE. On 3G it achieves 3.6Mbps on HSDPA, supports WLAN in the form of Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and UMA. It does have Bluetooth – v2.1 with A2DP, microUSB v2.0 but does not have an infrared port.

For recording your social life, or a beautiful scene, the 3.15MP camera catches 2048×1536 pixel photos, with autofocus, image stabilization and LED flash. There is no secondary camera but video recording is possible.

Possibly the most important part of this little handset is the exterior, with the exceptionally designed renowned full QWERTY Blackberry keyboard. The trackball is no more, having been replaced by an effective touch-sensitive optical trackpad. The display is TFT and shows 65K colours on 480 x 360 pixels in a screen which measure 2.44 inches in size. Brightness (or lack thereof) is never a problem, and more so in this model, due to the light sensor which allows automatic display brightness adjustment.

In terms of memory, the Blackberry Bold 9700 has an internal storage capacity of 256MB, and comes with a 2GB (add up to 16GB) microSD card included in the box. The ample storage allows for phonebook, Photocall and call records.

Connecting with your friends or business colleagues need nod be a concern, for this handset allows messaging via SMS, MMS, Email and Instant Messaging. The browser support HTML and yes, the handset does support games – plus you can download more if you have plenty of time to play.

Losing your way (or finding it) is easy – the Bold 9700 offers GPS with A-GPS support and Blackberry Maps. It comes with a Document Editor which reads Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF.

If it?s entertainment you want – the Media Player supports MP3?WMA/AAC+ files and the Video Player will read DivX/WMV/XviD and 3gp. It also has the traditional Organiser for in case you need to know what day of the week it is, and voice memo/dial which is useful for handsfree calling when you want to be ?legal?.

The Blackberry Bold 9700 has in its casing a standard Li-Ion battery which, when fully charged, will provide up to 408 hours of stand by time and up to 6 hours of talk time.

We felt that this phone was a slight upgrade of the Tour – it shares the same layout on the front, but there are subtle improvements which we liked, for example the buttons have been improved.

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