BlackBerry Bold 9700 review

Eighteen months after the first 3G QWERTY email machine from RIM, the BlackBerry Bold, the follow up is here. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 promises all the superfast net access and pimped out email of the original Bold, in a handset that’ll slide nicely into that trendy phone holster. But can a ‘Berry compete in a world crammed with iPhones, Pres and Droids? Read on and find out in our BlackBerry Bold 9700 review.

The short answer is yes. From the new, sharper and deeper screen to the smaller but just as blitzable keypad, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a killer feat of engineering. BlackBerry OS runs faster than ever, there’s no slack on the leather back cover, and the optical trackpad works perfectly and spells the end for trackball blockage.

In fact, our only problems with the build were that the camera sidekey is a bit too recessed, and the GPS signal was strangely weaker than on our Curve 8900, struggling to pick up location near tall buildings.

What surprised us most though about the BlackBerry Bold 9700’s hardware though was the battery life. Where the original Bold sucked up juice like Daniel Day-Lewis drinking a milkshake, the more powerful BlackBerry Bold 9700 lasts around the same time as the 2G 8900, even with apps running in the background and push email on, so you’ll easily get a day out of it, even with heavy usage, and it’ll go through most of a weekend without a charge.

Read our BlackBerry Curve 8520 review now

It’s the little touches in the new OS, such as the ability to see the date at all times as you scroll through your inbox, that help keep it relevant while other companies busy themselves syncing all your social network streams. BlackBerry Maps has also been speeded up – its search function is still poor though so you’ll want to use Google Maps instead.

There is, however, no getting around the BlackBerry browser. 3G speeds things up greatly, if you remember to turn Javascript off, but it could be zippier, and there’s still no tabbed browsing, leading to the ridiculous situation where you’ll find yourself running both it and Opera Mini at the same time. We’re staggered that RIM’s still not fixed things more than two years after the iPhone arrived to show what a mobile web browser should do, but it’s our only major gripe, and Wi-Fi solves your woes in hotspots.

It’s true that the BlackBerry Bold 9700 feels like the end of the line for the form factor – RIM’s now pushed it as hard as it can go and needs to start expanding that screen. In the meantime though, what the BlackBerry Bold 9700 leaves you with is the best messaging smartphone ever made. Buy it.