The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is Finally Out

Ever since the original announcement of the BlackBerry Onyx, people have been looking forward to this upcoming Blackberry smart phone. Following the trend of the BlackBerry Curve is the new Bold (officially the successor of the original BlackBerry Bold) that brings together the best features of the Curve and Bold series together.

There are lot of impressive things about this new BlackBerry model that has fans all excited. The 624 MHz processor provides ample speed for this little smart phone. It is also a lot smaller than its predecessors making it very versatile and easy to use. The Bold 9700 will be released in both the UK and the US, with the American version modified for T-Mobile. Local versions of the Bold might get picked up by AT&T and other European carriers, but so far no official announcement has been made.

Where the Touch Screen Ends

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 has a 2.44 inch TFT LCD that can display of 65,000 colours with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels. It's an amazing display, but unlike most devices, it is not a touch screen. Instead you get a full QWERTY keyboard on the bottom half of the face of the device, and a smorgasbord of extra buttons for accessing features and a few customizable buttons for your own custom shortcuts.

This is technology straight from the last decade, but surprisingly it works. While we are impressed with the Palm Pixi’s small touch screen, there are times when a mobile phone can afford to do without the convenience of the touch screen. The Bold 9700 works fine without a touch screen interface. Instead, BlackBerry has equipped this mobile phone with a touch sensitive track pad. Similar to the BlackBerry Curve, the old track ball has been removed in favour of a more accurate trackpad.

Pad Over Ball

Since the release of the Curve, many BlackBerry fans have quietly enjoyed the transition from the original BlackBerry trackball. The trackball was an innovative user interface, but it had its limits of sensitivity and was a magnet for pocket lint (old school BlackBerry users will remember this the most). The touch pad on the other hand, is more accurate and is able to handle input commands better. Over all, BlackBerry is officially letting the trackball retire as the touch pad technology takes it place. Of course, it would still be nice to see a BlackBerry Bold with a touch screen interface.

Decent Specs for the Bold

The spec sheet of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is unimpressive when it comes to how much power it actually packs. But it still shines with its practical hardware. It is only 122 grams, not quite the lightest device but still lighter than other smart phones. It has 256 of internal memory and a hot swappable microSD card slot allowing you great versatility in terms of file and storage management.

The 3.2 mega pixel camera is an unexpected upgrade from the original Curve; the Bold 9700 also has auto focus, image stabilization and 2X optical zoom. It will support 3G and 2G signals, but expect some special alterations to this if a carrier decides to pick this up for exclusivity.