OS 6 On The BlackBerry Bold 9700, Finally!

 The BlackBerry Torch 9800 was a disappointment for me because I felt it didn’t live up to the launch hype. Besides, I’m not a touch screen devotee. The BlackBerry device I’ve been desperately waiting for has been the BlackBerry Bold 9780. The smartphone, aka Bold 3 is just out in North America, and with release cycles in India now just a few months behind North America, it should be hitting Indian shores around a month from now (give or take a few weeks).

The biggest reason behind my anticipation was BlackBerry OS 6, which the Bold 9780 would feature, besides double the RAM (512 MB as opposed to the 256 MB on the Bold 9700), and a camera with a higher 5 megapixel rating than the Bold 9700’s 3.2 MP shooter. I did get to play around with OS 6 on the Torch 9800 and while the experience didn’t leave me awed, I was quite eager to check out how the new Os 6 would fare on the Bold 9780.

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Thousands of other Bold 9700 users were also keenly waiting for the 9780, as evidenced by the many forum posts on sites dedicated to BlackBerry. So, when Crackberry.com announced on November 2 that they had a leaked OS 6 release for the 9700, all hell broke loose.

I’ve been using the BlackBerry Bold 9700 on a long-term review for around 4 months now, and while I usually don’t try out a leaked OS release, this one was too good to resist. So, rather than write a plain vanilla long-term review of the 9700, I thought I’d spice things up by telling you about my experience with OS 6 on the 9700.

Getting some basics out of the way, my Bold 9700 has performed like a dream. The smartphone is built tough and has the best QWERTY BlackBerry keyboard ever (in my opinion, even better than the one on the Bold 9000). Battery life is very good and usually gave me between one-and-a-half to two days on heavy BES usage, accompanied by social apps like SocialScope Lite, lots of RSS feeds on Viigo, BBM and media usage, besides a range of other apps running on the 9700. I’ve found the 9700 so good that after reviewing the Torch 9800, I still felt the 9700 was a better choice and hence, when OS 6 leaked for the 9700, it made my day.

Before getting into specifics of OS 6 for the 9700, let me clearly state to those readers who may not know this that a leaked OS is not an official BlackBerry OS and installing one definitely voids your warranty if you have one. Plus, leaked OSes are buggy because some features may be turned off or missing to facilitate testing. Of course, you can roll back to your previous official OS, but the fact is- this is not for the risk-averse.

Having got that out of the way, here’s the link to the original forum post about the leak. Download links are also provided though you must know that thanks to copyright issues, the original ones won’t work and you’ll find working links in the latter posts on the same thread. Well, don’t complain- you have to work a bit to get something so keenly anticipated!

Also, before you install the leaked OS, read this link, which explains the dos and don’ts that you should follow.

My tips are fairly similar. I also used BBSAK rather than Desktop Manager for installing the leaked OS after backing up and wiping the 9700. But I realised much later and after a bit of a headache that backing up apps using BBSAK didn’t work too well with this release as all apps were built for OS 5. So, I finally reinstalled all apps that I wanted and it’s been a smooth experience ever since.

Okay, okay, enough with the suspense. How did it go for me? Well, after nearly 15 days of use, I totally love OS 6 on the 9700 and I can confirm that while I’m still looking forward to the 9780 the level of anticipation is much lower today. Leaked versions usually have lots of bugs and basics like battery life can go kaput, but I’m glad to report that while there are bugs in this leaked OS 6, overall, I’m thrilled and find no reason to roll back to OS 5.

Battery life is just as good and perhaps even better. OS 6 works amazingly well- it’s so good that I’m rarely seeing the irritating BlackBerry hourglass/clock that I found so often even on the Torch 9800! And a full reboot is much faster than on OS 5 and also as compared to OS 6 on the 9800. Frankly, despite the far lower RAM, I think the leaked OS 6 works better on the 9700 than the official release works on the 9800. While OS 6 is not revolutionary, it is a welcome upgrade and provides a much needed more in-tune-with-the-times user experience. You can scroll horizontally now and rather than folders, you have screens for Media, Downloads, Frequent and All. There’s also a drop down notification view and of course, the much talked about Universal Search. From the home screen Universal Search enables the 9700 to throw up answers to your query (say, a contact or a song) across apps, folders, the Web, e-mail, Facebook, and much more. You also have new ringtones (there are ways you can get your old ringtones back if you don’t like the new ones). The new Webkit browser is great too, with tabbed browsing finally available. To know more about all the goodies in OS 6, click here.

Of course, there are bugs too. For one, I need to reboot at least once a day because the browser stops working at least once in a day. Then, the calendar goes back to the ‘Day’ view despite setting it to my preferred ‘Month’ view. Links don’t work on my favourite Social Media app SocialScope Lite. Don’t work on Seesmic and other apps too. However, I saved the day by using the much-hyped Social Feeds feature which comes with OS 6. Although nowhere as good as SocialScope Lite, I still manage to get by. There are minor issues with the Menu button and there’s also memory leakage, but that’s where the daily reboot helps. If you read through some of the various BlackBerry forum posts, you’ll come across other minor bugs too.

But, the bottom line is this. None of these bugs could make me go back to OS 5 or deteriorated the BlackBerry experience to an extent where I was forced to roll back. Despite the bugs, I’m still happy I chose to install the leaked OS and generally, the feeling on various BlackBerry forums is similar.

Now, the question on your mind would be: “Should I then buy the 9780?” Well, let’s put it this way- if a leaked OS can work so well on the 9700 that has half the RAM as the 9780, imagine how much better the 9780 experience will be. That said, it all depends on pricing. The Bold 9700 currently retails for around Rs 27,000 in India. If RIM announces the 9780 at a price point around Rs 30,000 it may be worth your while to pay for the extra RAM, a better camera and slightly better looks. However, if it’s far more expensive, it may not be worth it. Perhaps that also explains why a lot of BlackBerry users are alleging that RIM is not releasing the official OS 6 for the 9700 because then very few will find the Bold 9780 a compelling proposition.

I don’t know the truth about these things, but my take is simple- if you have the Bold 9700 and want a phenomenally better experience (albeit with some risk), then you must try OS 6 for your 9700. If you’re on any other BlackBerry and are considering buying the 9700, hold on till the 9780 is released. And if it’s too expensive as compared to the 9700, you now know how to get your 9700 to a level almost as good as what the 9780 promises.