AT&T and RIM announced today that the highly anticipated BlackBerry Bold will be available in the United States on Tuesday, Nov. 4, selling for $300 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. Check out our hands-on impressions of the smartphone here:
The RIM BlackBerry Bold 9000 is a truly impressive BlackBerry device, and it might change the way people think about BlackBerry phones. We were struck by its beautiful screen and tight build the moment we picked it up. The specs had already impressed us, with its HSDPA networking (a BlackBerry first) and 1 GB of onboard storage, but it was the interface that had us curious. Now we can safely say that the BlackBerry Bold is a dramatic improvement for BlackBerry.
The screen on the BlackBerry Bold is dazzling. At 480 by 360 pixels, it packs as many pixels as the Apple iPhone, but it fits them into a tighter space, which makes the interface seem very crisp and clean. But it was the glossiness and the super-high contrast levels that really impressed us. The phone simply glows, and it looks much better in person than any of our high definition television sets back home. Dare we say the screen even surpasses the iPhone's display? Perhaps, but we'd like to see them side-by-side before we declare a winner.
Still, it's easy to declare the BlackBerry Bold the best BlackBerry device we've seen. The improved interface design extends into the phone's applications, especially the new media player, which is a nice improvement over the stodgy media player featured on current BlackBerry phones like the BlackBerry Curve. Unfortunately, the calendar and e-mail apps haven't seen much of an update, though the new color scheme for the phone's long, text-heavy menus does look much nicer on the beautiful display.
The phone also felt very well-built. The keys were nice and stiff, similar to the keyboard on the BlackBerry 8820, but a little more stiff, which felt nice while we typed on it. It is also a very light phone. Even with the battery installed, it felt much lighter than its size would imply. RIM assures us that battery life will be on par with our high expectations for BlackBerry devices, so we're excited to put that claim to the test.
Stay tuned for our full reviews of both the BlackBerry Bold for AT&T and the BlackBerry Storm for Verizon Wireless in November.
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