Review: BlackBerry Bold 9930

A smartphone is the new generation mobile phone which combinea a personal digital assistant (PDA) with an ordinary mobile phone. Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of BlackBerry is striving for developing the new generation smartphones to beat the ever growing market. RIM has come up with the BlackBerry Bold 9000 series in 2008, 9700 series in 2009, 9650 & 9780 series in 2010, and 9900 & 9930 series in Aug 2011. The BlackBerry Bold 9930, the thinnest BlackBerry as on date, with a blend of both touch screen and typing interface has finally been launched and is available in the major stores around the Globe from the last week of Aug 2011.

BlackBerry Bold 9930

You will feel at ease while typing on Bold 9930 as the keys are modified in this version with the exact amount of smart movement. But, the small drawback in Bold 9930 is its 1.2 GHz single core CPU when compared with the latest gadgets available in the market which are running on dual-core CPUs. But, don't worry! The quality of this phone is unbeatable and overcomes CPU drawbacks.

The newly added touchscreen helps the users to easily navigate and get things done faster. It operates on next generation BlackBerry 7 OS, which enables you browse fast and much more.

What is it?

It's a new version of BlackBerry Bold and is thinner, sophisticated and stylish than the previous old versions of BlackBerry Bold series. BlackBerry Bold 9930 is having the advantage of both the touchscreen along with QWERTY keypad and optical illuminated trackpad when compared to the existing smartphones of BlackBerry Bold range. It's operating on the next generation operating system - BlackBerry OS 7, which enables faster browsing the web and also provides innovative applications.

With the NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled feature, you can connect with other NFC-enabled devices for data transfer or make wireless connections between two NFC enabled devices.

For example, if you have stored your credit card information in your NFC enabled phone, you can pay the bills for your purchases in a shopping mall by just moving the phone near the reader, without using your actual credit card.

You can swipe, pinch, zoom-in, zoom-out on the liquid graphics touchscreen of Bold 9930. You need not worry about loss of your connection while on a move as you can be stay connected with the support of Wi-Fi wherever you go.

Key features:

The following are the Key features of BlackBerry Bold 9930:

Operating System - BlackBerry OS 7

Central Processing Unit (CPU) - Single core 1.2 GHz Processor

Keyboard - QWERTY keyboard with illuminated optical trackpad

Browser - HTML5 supported

Message - Push mail, email, Instant Messaging (IM), SMS, and MMS

Games - Inbuilt and downloadable

Radio - Not provided

Camera - 5.0 Mega Pixel with LED flash

Videography - 720p HD video recording

Data - GPRS/GPS/3G Enabled

Bluetooth - Enabled v2.1

Infrared Port – Not applicable

Java - Enabled with all latest feature like BlackBerry maps, Document Viewer, Digital Compass, Near Field Communication (NFC) support, MP4/MP3 player, etc...

Network:

2G - Supports GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900 and CDMA 800, 1900

3G - Supports HSDPA (14.4 Mbps) 900, 2100 and CDMA 2000 1xEV-DO

Band - Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, dual-band

Display Type - Thin-film transistor (TFT) capacitive Touchscreen with 16M colors

Dimensions:

Size - 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm

Weight - Around 130 grams

Display Size - 2.8''

Display Resolution - VGA 640 × 480 pixels

Memory Capacity:

Internal Memory - 8 GB

Extendable Memory - 32 GB supportable microSD slot

Random Access Memory (RAM) - 768 MB

Phone Book - Unlimited entries

Call Records - Enabled

Battery:

Type - 1230 mAh Li-Ion

Talk time - 2G - 400 minutes and 3G - 350 minutes

Standby - Both 2G & 3G - up to 307 hours.

What’s innovative?

Camera and flash are divided and placed at optimum positions at upper-right and upper-left respectively for taking better photos. Display is having higher resolution than previous versions of BlackBerry Bold series. It's operating on the next generation operating system - BlackBerry OS 7, which enables faster browsing and also provides innovative applications.

Price and availability:

At present, the BlackBerry Bold 9930 is costing $249.99 with a contract of two years. But, if you opt for no contract, then it costs $509. It is offering free activation and free same day shipping for few days (RIM has not mentioned the exact cut-off date) as an inaugural offer.

The up side:

The following are the advantages of BlackBerry Bold 9930:

1. Display is wider about 2.8'' and phone is thinner.

2. Its liquid graphics touchscreen with BlackBerry OS 7 enables you to zoom-in or zoom-out with your fingers easily and quickly. It has sharp and bright display at all angles, and in day light too.

3. It also has QWERTY keyboard with illuminated optical trackpad.

4. The 5-megapixel camera with 4x zoom and flash for better photos.

5. With the NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled feature, you can connect with other NFC-enabled devices for data transfer or make wireless connections between two NFC enabled devices.

The down side:

The following are the drawbacks of BlackBerry 9930:

1. Single core 1.2 GHz CPU in comparison with the double core latest gadgets.

2. High price for 3G smartphone.

3. The interface of OS 7 is not having much difference with that of OS 6.

4. It is a 3G phone and not compatible with 4G.

Our experience:

It has most fashionable design, sleek look and approximately 10 mm thickness. Probably, it is the thinnest phone of BlackBerry Bold series. Its size is only 4.53'' x 2.6''.

Its piano like QWERTY keyboard consists of solid keys and guitar fret like dividers in between the rows. So, you can accurately and quickly work with keyboard without typing any mistakes.

For many people, camera is also an important feature of their interest in cell phone. Unfortunately, the high-cost 3G smartphone - BlackBerry Bold 9930 is not sound enough in its autofocus camera feature. The manufacture (RIM) should need to improve this very soon as the other feature are pretty much good. As like other smartphones, Bold 9930 also have extravagant new shooting features such as scene modes and face detection.

The bottom line:

BlackBerry Bold 9930 is a high-end version of BlackBerry smartphones. But, when compaed with other BlackBerry or Bold series, BlackBerry Bold 9930 is much attractive due to its additional touch screen feature along with QWERTY keyboard and its new generation BlackBerry OS 7. But, you may not like much BlackBerry Bold 9930 if you are comparing with the iPhone.