BlackBerry Bold 9700 Review
In brief
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is an easy to navigate smartphone with a clear screen, laptop-style trackpad and finger-friendly QWERTY keyboard.
Look and Feel
A little thicker and heavier but the same size as the
BlackBerry Curve 8900, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a smaller version of the original Bold phone. The screen has been reduced to 2.44 inches and retains a high resolution display for comfortable video, internet, photo and document viewing. The colours on the screen are bright and the images sharp.
The keyboard has smaller keys than the
Bold 9000 but still offers sufficient spacing to avoid wrong presses, even if your hands are not small. Above the QWERTY keyboard are four buttons for calling, bringing up the menu, going back, and ending a call/ powering the phone. On the sides of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 are convenience keys for accessing your chosen features – simply set them to open your favourite applications.
Unlike its predecessor, the Bold 9700 has trackpad navigation. Not only does this look good but it offers laptop-style control of your phone. Glide your finger across the pad to scroll through the menu or highlight an icon and then simply tap to access the chosen item. The trackpad is particularly good for scrolling and lets you effortlessly flick between web pages or browse the BlackBerry App World for additional applications for your phone.
Communication is easy on the BlackBerry Bold 9700 as it comes with support for instant messaging, email, text, picture messaging, fast internet connection, and Bluetooth and a microUSB port for downloading or transferring files. Your documents are secure on your phone as it features password protection and auto lock.
Special features
The BlackBerry 5.0 platform provides the BlackBerry Bold 9700 with vibrant images and clearer icons, which allows you to effortlessly find what you are looking for. The phone also has more RAM and a speedier processor than the original Bold, making for quicker navigation. You can play music, sync music and download music from the pre-installed Amazon MP3 Store – while never missing a call or a message. Like the
iPhone 3G S, the phone will alert you of incoming activity so you can relax and enjoy your tunes.
The Bold 9700 has a 3.2-megapixel camera, like the Curve 8900 phone, with autofocus, a zoom, a flash and a video camera.
Particularly good for business, the document editor function means you can amend Word files, update Excel spreadsheets or add to a PowerPoint presentation. You can also view PDFs on your phone.
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a slender version of its predecessor in terms of its physical size. However, with a quicker processor and improved RAM, as well as all the features you’d expect from a BlackBerry, this phone is sure to delight BlackBerry fans.