The BlackBerry Bold brand has always been reserved for RIM’s highest featured handsets. The BlackBerry Bold 9000 entered the market as the company’s first 3G handset while the Bold 9700 was the glossy new premiere of the coveted optical trackpad and new BlackBerry plastics. The BlackBerry 9650 is the next handset to enter the Bold family and rounds out the line up with its world-class capabilities.
Last July, RIM launched the BlackBerry Tour 9630 with Sprint and Verizon. It provided travelling BlackBerry users with an updated version of the BlackBerry 8800 world-phone. Since then, RIM has been trying to streamline their many brands – subsequently pushing the Tour under the Bold brand.
Offered by Sprint and Verizon, the features of the 9650 encompass all of great features from the 9000, 9700 and 9630 Tour and wraps them up in a slightly new design.
Price: $449.99 from Sprint or $509.99 from Verizon
With a 2-year contract the device will set you back $199.99 from Sprint or $149.99 from Verizon
Greats
Like I mentioned before, the phone is essentially a mash-up of what is good about the latest Bold family with added network capabilities.
Hardware
Size wise, the phone is a hair larger than the 9700 (Taller, Wider and Thicker). The keys are the same accordion style/guitar frets we see in the Tour and previous Bold devices.
If even for just the addition of the optical track pad, the older Tour deserved an update. The wildly popular ball-less pad is a bit more raised on the 9650 compared to the 8500 making it a bit easier to find and to use. The optical trackpad is as quick and responsive as all other models with this feature. This interface is a giant improvement from the inconsistent and unreliable mechanical track ball.
As for the O/A Form-Factor and housing design, RIM could have done more – but why fix what ain’t broke! The plastics are identical to that of the Tour, so much so that the backing of the previous tour can be used interchangeably with that on the 9650. Fortunately, the carbon f(o)bre look is gone. Heavier than the 8500, the phone holds very steady and has a weighty palm feel. Given the Tour was widely accepted among BlackBerry users as having the best BlackBerry exterior (previous to 9700), we couldn’t be happier with the exterior of the 9650.
RIM is also looking to increase their memory capacities. Internal memory in the 9650 was doubled to 512 MB. Strangely enough, this is still less then the OG 900, which contained a 1GB MoviNAND.
Software
The Bold 9650 comes out of the box equipped with the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 (specifically 5.0.0.6990). As is with all BlackBerry interfaces, the buttons are crisp and clean. Booting up from a battery pull or cold reset is about 30 seconds faster then a BlackBerry running OS version 4.6. Not much but it’s a start in tackling BlackBerry’s notoriously long boot time.
The two most unique features of the 9650 would be the phone’s WiFi connection and OpenGL support. The Tour’s lack of WiFi was a source of complaint from many users. Despite the phone’s wide selection of radio connectivity, a travelling user may find it difficult not being able to take advantage of free WiFi connections in areas of low-connectivity or just for the sake of saving possible roaming fees.
OpenGL support is a new offering from BlackBerry handsets and the 9650 is the first phone (and currently the only phone) to have it. This addition makes the 9650 capable of 3D graphics. This means it’s only a matter of time before some awesome 3D apps become available.
Middle Line Features
The 3.2 megapixel camera is really the only run of the mill feature of the 9650. At PW, it’s understood that megapixels do not always equate to better pictures, but we would love a 5MP CMOS.
It isn’t totally awash however as BlackBerry does include a host of camera options to enhance pictures. You can get a variety of effects using these options. We took the liberty of presenting some below.
Image A – Default Settings, Autofocus = OFF
Image B – Default, White Balance set to Florescent
Image C – Default with AF set to Macro
Image D – Default with Image Stabilization
All images are taken with automatic flash setting. Autofocus provides the most clarity although other options such as White Balance and Image Stabilization are nice features to have. The camera also gives you the ability to enable Geotagging, a feature native and akin to the iPhone. These new options redeem the cameras lack of resolution however not enough for it to be a strength.
Gripes
To be honest, there is little to really pick apart on the 9650. Overall, it does it job of a smart phone very well and shows that BlackBerry definitely takes user feedback into consideration when defining new handsets. The only drawback may be the media player which doesn’t seem to appear as sharp as that of the Bold 9000. The speakers are also not as powerful in terms of volume as the 9000 either. However, pictures are still vibrant and beautiful as always.
The one major weakness of the 9650 is the side loading performance. The memory options are very confusing. With the recent movement to MTP support, BlackBerry has tried to remain flexible and provide users the ability to do mass storage class. A nice gesture but a little confusing to the general user. The default memory setting enables both MTP and MSC however, data movement through either method is unbearably slow. When MTP is shut off, MSC is still not as fast as we would like to see on PW. And of course, when MSC is disabled, MTP is slow, no news there. Overall, the side loading performance is a bust.
As always, the BlackBerry browser could be improved. This is not a fault of the phone but more so a fault of the BlackBerry OS. Hopefully new updates (BB 6.0 and the Flash enabled WebKit browser) will alleviate this common gripe.
Conclusion:
BlackBerry was right in lumping this handset with their high-end products. It certainly delivers in both functionality and style. Although they could have done a bit more in terms of feature enhancements (camera and display). RIM has released so many handsets in the last few years and this phone wraps up all of their best components and presents them beautifully. That said, RIM seems to be falling behind the curve – we can’t wait for BB 6.0 and their inevitable re-hash on touch screen devices.
BlackBerry Bold: 8.5/10Stay Tuned for the Teardown. Don’t forget to follow us!
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The BlackBerry Bold brand has always been reserved for RIM’s highest featured handsets. The BlackBerry Bold 9000 entered the market as the company’s first 3G handset while the Bold 9700 was the glossy new premiere of the coveted optical trackpad and new BlackBerry plastics. The BlackBerry 9650 is the next handset to enter the Bold family and rounds out the line up with its world-class capabilities.
Last July, RIM launched the BlackBerry Tour 9630 with Sprint and Verizon. It provided travelling BlackBerry users with an updated version of the BlackBerry 8800 world-phone. Since then, RIM has been trying to streamline their many brands – subsequently pushing the Tour under the Bold brand.
Offered by Sprint and Verizon, the features of the 9650 encompass all of great features from the 9000, 9700 and 9630 Tour and wraps them up in a slightly new design.
Price: $449.99 from Sprint or $509.99 from Verizon
With a 2-year contract the device will set you back $199.99 from Sprint or $149.99 from Verizon
Greats
Like I mentioned before, the phone is essentially a mash-up of what is good about the latest Bold family with added network capabilities.
Hardware
Size wise, the phone is a hair larger than the 9700 (Taller, Wider and Thicker). The keys are the same accordion style/guitar frets we see in the Tour and previous Bold devices.
If even for just the addition of the optical track pad, the older Tour deserved an update. The wildly popular ball-less pad is a bit more raised on the 9650 compared to the 8500 making it a bit easier to find and to use. The optical trackpad is as quick and responsive as all other models with this feature. This interface is a giant improvement from the inconsistent and unreliable mechanical track ball.
As for the O/A Form-Factor and housing design, RIM could have done more – but why fix what ain’t broke! The plastics are identical to that of the Tour, so much so that the backing of the previous tour can be used interchangeably with that on the 9650. Fortunately, the carbon f(o)bre look is gone. Heavier than the 8500, the phone holds very steady and has a weighty palm feel. Given the Tour was widely accepted among BlackBerry users as having the best BlackBerry exterior (previous to 9700), we couldn’t be happier with the exterior of the 9650.
RIM is also looking to increase their memory capacities. Internal memory in the 9650 was doubled to 512 MB. Strangely enough, this is still less then the OG 900, which contained a 1GB MoviNAND.
Software
The Bold 9650 comes out of the box equipped with the new BlackBerry OS 5.0 (specifically 5.0.0.6990). As is with all BlackBerry interfaces, the buttons are crisp and clean. Booting up from a battery pull or cold reset is about 30 seconds faster then a BlackBerry running OS version 4.6. Not much but it’s a start in tackling BlackBerry’s notoriously long boot time.
The two most unique features of the 9650 would be the phone’s WiFi connection and OpenGL support. The Tour’s lack of WiFi was a source of complaint from many users. Despite the phone’s wide selection of radio connectivity, a travelling user may find it difficult not being able to take advantage of free WiFi connections in areas of low-connectivity or just for the sake of saving possible roaming fees.
OpenGL support is a new offering from BlackBerry handsets and the 9650 is the first phone (and currently the only phone) to have it. This addition makes the 9650 capable of 3D graphics. This means it’s only a matter of time before some awesome 3D apps become available.
Middle Line Features
The 3.2 megapixel camera is really the only run of the mill feature of the 9650. At PW, it’s understood that megapixels do not always equate to better pictures, but we would love a 5MP CMOS.
It isn’t totally awash however as BlackBerry does include a host of camera options to enhance pictures. You can get a variety of effects using these options. We took the liberty of presenting some below.
Image A – Default Settings, Autofocus = OFF
Image B – Default, White Balance set to Florescent
Image C – Default with AF set to Macro
Image D – Default with Image Stabilization
All images are taken with automatic flash setting. Autofocus provides the most clarity although other options such as White Balance and Image Stabilization are nice features to have. The camera also gives you the ability to enable Geotagging, a feature native and akin to the iPhone. These new options redeem the cameras lack of resolution however not enough for it to be a strength.
Gripes
To be honest, there is little to really pick apart on the 9650. Overall, it does it job of a smart phone very well and shows that BlackBerry definitely takes user feedback into consideration when defining new handsets. The only drawback may be the media player which doesn’t seem to appear as sharp as that of the Bold 9000. The speakers are also not as powerful in terms of volume as the 9000 either. However, pictures are still vibrant and beautiful as always.
The one major weakness of the 9650 is the side loading performance. The memory options are very confusing. With the recent movement to MTP support, BlackBerry has tried to remain flexible and provide users the ability to do mass storage class. A nice gesture but a little confusing to the general user. The default memory setting enables both MTP and MSC however, data movement through either method is unbearably slow. When MTP is shut off, MSC is still not as fast as we would like to see on PW. And of course, when MSC is disabled, MTP is slow, no news there. Overall, the side loading performance is a bust.
As always, the BlackBerry browser could be improved. This is not a fault of the phone but more so a fault of the BlackBerry OS. Hopefully new updates (BB 6.0 and the Flash enabled WebKit browser) will alleviate this common gripe.
Conclusion:
BlackBerry was right in lumping this handset with their high-end products. It certainly delivers in both functionality and style. Although they could have done a bit more in terms of feature enhancements (camera and display). RIM has released so many handsets in the last few years and this phone wraps up all of their best components and presents them beautifully. That said, RIM seems to be falling behind the curve – we can’t wait for BB 6.0 and their inevitable re-hash on touch screen devices.
BlackBerry Bold: 8.5/10
Stay Tuned for the Teardown. Don’t forget to follow us!