 "BlackBerry Bold 9780- Best BlackBerry Yet")
What do you say about a smartphone that’s not radically different from a great predecessor , but comes with cosmetic changes, 256 MB of extra memory and a camera that can shoot larger pictures? As one smart aleck pointed out on Twitter and in far less than the 140 characters Twitter allows: “BlackBerry 9780=9700+OS 6+256 MB RAM+5 MP camera.”
That would be one way of looking at it, and if you want the really short version, there you go–the BlackBerry Bold 9780 reviewed. But my take is that while on the surface things seem the same, you need to dig a bit deeper–I believe the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is the best BlackBerry out there and here’s why, though I must warn you, it takes a bit more than 140 characters to tell the story.
Form Factor
Classic BlackBerry–I’m nuts about QWERTY smartphones and this is the best that RIM has produced in this form factor. A classy smartphone that seems guaranteed to generate envy both in the boardroom as well as at the nightclub.
While I had no issues with the looks of the Bold 9700, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is classier. And that’s because the chrome rim has been blacked out. You may not like it if you’re into shiny toys, but for someone like me who can’t even wear a wedding band because I’m allergic to the yellow metal, this makes the BlackBerry Bold 9780 look divine.
Weighing in at 122 grams, this BlackBerry smartphone also has a much improved, finer leather finish on the back cover that blends in well with the rest of the device, as compared to the back cover on the Bold 9700, which to put it mildly was a bit of an eyesore.
The rest again is classic BlackBerry–‘Lock’ and ‘Mute’ keys are available on top with a 3.5 mm earphone socket, and a convenience key on the left; volume/zoom buttons and another convenience key on the right. The display is a high-res 480x360 screen that the Bold 9700 sports too. Plus, there’s the same old, same amazing optical trackpad. Keypad’s the same as the 9700 too and although I must mention I still miss the Bold 9000 only for its keypad, this one is great too.
Features & Performance
Ah! Now we’re talking. I’ve written earlier of leaked BlackBerry OS 6 versions for the Bold 9700, but this is the real deal. OS 6 without any problems, nothing turned off and no serious memory leakages that require a daily maintenance hard reboot.
But before that, the 624MHz processor is the same as the one on the Bold 9700 but RAM has been bumped up from 256 MB to 512 MB and that makes BlackBerry OS 6 far smoother than it can ever be on the Bold 9700. Fact is, it also makes it smoother than on the Torch 9800 too, in my opinion.
Reboots are much, much faster than on BlackBerry smartphones running older versions of the OS–alas, the days of having the time to brew and enjoy my favourite cup of Rooibos Vanilla tea and finish a book chapter while my BlackBerry rebooted are history.
On to OS 6 and I won’t write reams on this because it’s been much written about already. There’s Universal Search, where you can search for anything right from the home screen and your BlackBerry will throw up answers by searching across apps, folders, the Web, e-mail and more. Then there’s Social Feeds, a new social networking app that aggregates your social networks since we live in social times, and of course the nice new WebKit-based Web browser with tabs, albeit with Flash support still missing.
The home screen has application icon views that can be scrolled vertically, with horizontal scrolling for categories like Favourites, Media, Downloads and Frequent. There’s also a drop down notification view and a wireless networking view. I wish there was an option to disable horizontal scrolling though–often, the screen scrolled beyond what I wanted; it seems like the horizontal views are designed keeping touchscreens in mind.
While the leaked OS on the Bold 9700 forced me to use Social Feeds because my favourite social app, SocialScope Lite was crippled, there were no such issues on the Bold 9780. So, I gladly skipped Social Feeds, though I’m sure some out there may prefer it to other social apps. For more on BlackBerry OS 6 please click here .
And interestingly, though the same OS, processor and RAM combo on the Torch 9800 threw up the tiny, square BlackBerry hourglass clock much too often, I was very happy to see much less of my not-so-welcome friend on the Blackberry Bold 9780. Perhaps it’s because of the bigger touchscreen on the Torch 9800. Overall, I found performance top-notch and OS 6 worked well very indeed.
__PAGEBREAK__
Media
In the audio department, the Bold 9780 is as good as the Bold 9700. Things have improved on the camera front though, with a 5 megapixel shooter (the same camera featured on the Torch 9800) that seems to perform pretty well and comes with an improved interface thanks to OS 6, as well as scene modes. Plus, there’s a bonus on the video front too–in the Normal Mode, video recording is improved from 480x352 to 640x480. Since I often use my BlackBerry for filming my 21-month old toddler’s fun antics, videos look much better now, especially so when I play them back on a PC.
Battery
Classic BlackBerry again. And although the Bold 9780 features the same 1500 mAhr Lithium Ion battery as the Bold 9700, I felt it had a bit more juice than the 9700. I used the smartphone on BES and easily got a day-and-a-half on heavy use and two days with light use. And I must mention here that my little BlackBerry boy prefers to watch videos on the BlackBerry over the television and hence media usage is a bit on the higher side for me. So, the 9780 left me very impressed and reassured that the battery is one for the long haul despite the new OS.
Peeves
One annoying fact I must mention here is that if you set your device to automatically lock itself, say after two minutes, it will do so even if you’re in the middle of watching a video. While I found it annoying, today’s generation may find it unacceptable. Once while watching one of his cute animal videos, my toddler calmly handed over the 9780 to me so I could key in the password when his video was cut short. He did it twice again, but at the fourth instance, he simply chucked the 9780 away in frustration. Surely RIM needs to sort out annoyances like this soon.
Connectivity
Ready to go anywhere in the world you wish to take it, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 has most connectivity options you’ll need. Only glaring omission is the missing Wi-Fi 802.11n support that’s available on the Torch 9800 and Pearl 3G. And of course, with 3G being rolled out across India, this would be a good companion for your 3G journey. Other modes of connectivity include Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR with A2DP/AVCRP.
Specs
**
Bottom Line**
RIM claims the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the best BlackBerry out there, but I beg to humbly disagree. While I’m starting work on a Bold 9780 versus Torch 9800 showdown, my initial take is that the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is the best BlackBerry your precious money can buy, especially if you like the classic BlackBerry strengths–they have only been beefed up on the 9780.
Plus, there’s price–for me the Rs 27990 price of the 9780 sounds far sweeter than other RIM price tags I’ve seen recently. When you consider that the Bold 9700 is sold for Rs 26990, you’re getting quite a bit extra for just Rs 1000 more. The Bold 9780 versus Bold 9700 is a no-brainer now if you’re getting a new device. Of course, if you’re upgrading from the Bold 9700 to the Bold 9780, do consider all that’s new on the Bold 9780:
BlackBerry 6 from the word go. No official BlackBerry 6 release yet for Bold 9700, though it will come. But RIM isn’t saying when.
Double the RAM at 512 MB, as opposed to only 256 MB on the Bold 9700.
A better camera (up from 3.2 MP to 5 MP).
Improved video recording in Normal Mode–up from 480x352 to 640x480.
Classier, blacked-out rim, as opposed to chrome rim on the 9700.
So even as I anoint it as the best BlackBerry yet, I think this classy smartphone has what it takes compared to other top-of-the-line competitors and if you’re looking for a buy in the premium smartphone category (or even the mid-range, considering its great price tag), the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is at a very sweet spot.
RATING: 4.5/5
GOOD ASPECTS
Improves the great BlackBerry Bold 9700
Features BlackBerry OS 6
Good camera
Great price tag
Quick UI
**
BAD ASPECTS**
Not a radical new Bold if you were expecting one
BlackBerry 6 still has a few kinks to be ironed.
- User cannot disable Horizontal views.