Fresh on the O2 Shop right now is RIM’s latest all-mighty emailing smartphone, the BlackBerry Bold 9900. The latest in the wildly popular professional Bold line, it’s the first to add a touchscreen into the mix. So is it a winner? Let’s see what the experts had to say.
TechRadar
TechRadar’s Philip Levine was smitten by the brand new screen on the BlackBerry Bold 9900. “On the front is an incredibly sharp touchscreen. It's 640 x 480 pixels over 2.8 inches and easily looks as good as anything with 'Retina' branding,” he said, noting that the “touchscreen is capacitive and highly responsive.”
RIM hasn’t skimped on the trademark keyboard however, ideal for power emailing with your thumbs, with the publication giving it top marks, calling it “frankly excellent”.
Add to that RIM’s top notch email system, and you’re on to a winner. “The Bold 9900 looks very cool and BlackBerry is a secure system that has proven to be useful and effective…The screen borders on the magical, striking the perfect mix between stylish and functional…if email is your bag, you can't do any better.”
CNET
CNET’s Niall Magennis meanwhile made note of the phone’s new hardware. The 1.2GHz processor is as fast as they come, and along with “the speed tweaks that RIM has made to the OS, it's also supremely responsive”.
Along with that is another BlackBerry first, an NFC (Near Field Communications) chip, which leaves the BlackBerry Bold 9900 future proofed. “In the future, this may allow you to use the phone for contactless payments, in much the same way as you use Oyster cards on the London Underground,” he points out.
“If you're a die-hard BlackBerry user, you'll appreciate the Bold 9900's pin-sharp screen, speedy processor and operating-system improvements” he wrote. “It's undoubtedly one of the best phones RIM has made.”
The Telegraph
Matt Warman at the Telegraph paid tribute to the BlackBerry Bold 9900’s plush look and sturdy build. “The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 is a beautiful piece of engineering: it feels solid, expensive even, with its metal rim round the edge and its carbon fibre-esque backing panel.”
He too thought the QWERTY layout was the finest on the market right now. “The keyboard is as good as a physical keyboard can get. The camera, the speakers, everything impresses and feels right. Turn it on and the vivid, bright screen looks as good as any on the market, iPhone included, and the touchscreen is responsive.”
CrackBerry
We’ll leave the final word on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 to the devotees at CrackBerry.com. They thought RIM’s design team had been working overtime, crafting one of the most premium phones out there thanks to its slick metal band: “The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is well-built, feels great in the hand, and the styling is tastefully luxurious.”
"The superb keyboard is reason enough to buy the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Add in the touchscreen and blazing processor, BlackBerry 7 OS and a great web browser, and you have a recipe for pure CrackBerry bliss!"
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