Following RIM’s announcement of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones this morning, the first question on our minds what how does this Bold stack up to its predecessor, the Bold 9780? Let’s drive right in and see how the new Bold 9900 and 9930 raise the bar for BlackBerry smartphones and whether or not this is the right Bold for you.
The BlackBerry Bold has been the staple of RIM’s smartphone offerings since the Bold 9000. With the Bold 9700 we saw a slight bump in imaging and a jump from 128MB to 256MB onboard memory, but the major upgrade was in the design. Last year, the Bold 9780 raised the bar ever-so-slightly with a 5-megapixel camera, 512MB onboard memory, nearly twice the standby and 40 percent more talk time (4.3hrs to 6hrs).
Size and Weight
The Bold 9900 is slightly heavier, taller and wider than it’s predecessor, but there’s one area where it excels – its thickness. As the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone to date, the Bold 9900 measures just 10.5mm thin. For the technical spec enthusiasts, the Bold 9900 is 115 x 66 x 10.5mm and approximately 130 g. The Bold 9780 is 109 x 60 x 14 mm and 122 g.
Display
Many would argue the heart and soul of a smartphone is in the display. The Bold 9780 used a 2.44-inch half VGA 480 x 320 pixel TFT LCD display. The Bold 9900, code named the Bold Touch, receives a slight bump in screen size, it’s now 2.8-inches and runs at VGA 640 x 480 pixel. The 287 pixel density is a treat, but still short of the iPhone 4’s Retina Display. The most important feature is the touchscreen technology, which combined with liquid graphics should deliver quite the user experience
Processing Power, memory
The need for speed is at the heart of the Bold 9900, now powered with a 1.2 GHz processor and 768MB RAM. Compared to the 624 MHz processor and 512MB RAM found in the Bold 9780, the new Bold should have more than enough horsepower to deliver top notch performance in line with our expectations of BlackBerry 7 OS. Both the Bold 9780 and 9900 support microSD cards up to 32GB, but the new Bold also features 8GB of internal memory for a possible combined 40GB of storage.
Imaging: camera and video
In terms of optics, both the Bold 9780 and new Bold 9900 use 5-megpixel cameras with autofocus and flash. The Bold 9900 adds 720p HD video recording, which is a nice touch, but we can’t help but feel jealous of the 1080p recording capabilities of the PlayBook.
Software, software, software
The smartphone world has changed drastically over the past four years. Prior to the iPhone, an industry-wide dependence on touchscreen slate-style smartphones did not seem remotely possible. Along with the need for touch, the industry quickly became focused on software — most importantly apps. BlackBerry 7 OS looks to take the bull by the horns, offering faster and easier communication, multimedia and productivity. Combined with improved web browsing and voice-enabled universal search, the BlackBerry experience is finally make the bold leaps.
Other goodies
RIM has thrown in a few treats in the Bold gift basket this time. NFC technology is a go as is 802.11 a/n at 5GHz and a full array of sensors (accelerometer/magnetometer/proximy sensor). The Bold 9900 is a triband HSPA+ smartphone with quad-band GSM/EDGE support. A second version for CDMA networks, the Bold 9930, will be dual-band CDMA/EVDO Rev A, dual-band HSPA+ and quad-band GSM/EDGE.
Wrapping it up: should you upgrade?
At first glance the Bold 9900 might seem like a minor upgrade, but when you weigh out the entire feature set, the improvements certainly register on the scale. The bump in processing power, RAM, internal storage, ultra-slim form factor, high-resolution display, NFC, and BlackBerry 7 OS make for a very compelling package. While I no longer personally rely on a BlackBerry, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say a little part of me would like to make a return to RIM’s camp for the Bold 9900 — somedays you can’t help but miss a hardware keyboard.
Coming Soon | RIM | TBD
