New Details Leaked Regarding BlackBerry Music?

Posted By Ray Nicolini
Via BlackBerryOS.com

The Wall Street Journal's child website, All Things D, reports that the new BlackBerry Music service will cost $5 a month for 50 songs. These songs can then be shared with friends via BBM. More details include:

• A full-fledged rollout is planned for the first three territories later this fall.
• RIM is negotiating global licenses with the music companies, and expects to launch in other territories in 2012; the big idea is to piggyback on the success of RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger service, which has more than 45 million users worldwide.
• Subscribers won’t be able to export their music to PCs or other hardware, with the exception of RIM’s much-maligned PlayBook tablet.
• Subscribers will be able to share songs with friends who are also BBM Music subscribers.

The article also suggest a September beta launch...

The music industry sources believe RIM is aiming for a beta launch in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom in early September. A RIM rep declined to comment.

A look at the all-new BlackBerry Torch 9810

Post By Ray Nicolini

When we learned earlier in the year that RIM would release a slew of new devices in 2011, none had me more psyched than the Torch 9810. Sure, I’d been waiting for something like the Bold 9900 for years, and I was curious to see what a touchscreen BlackBerry sans SurePress would feel like. But the Torch was one of my favorite BlackBerry devices to begin with, and the new version figured to correct some of my biggest issues with it. Specifically, the faster processor should have made everything smoother, creating an ideal BlackBerry environment.

I’ve played with the Torch for about a week now, and I have to say that it’s lived up to expectations. Here’s a full breakdown.

It’s no iPhone or Android

Before I even dive into the specifics, I want to make clear that the BlackBerry is not the iPhone. It is not Android. It is not, really, for someone who wants cutting edge technology in their mobile devices. The BlackBerry, as always, is for those who want a simple, stripped down mobile experience with a focus on messaging.

In that way, the Torch delivers. It’s gives you easy access to multiple messaging formats, and then adds features on top of that. It makes for a smooth, easily navigable device that takes care of all the business you need.

BlackBerry 7

The Torch is among the new crop of BlackBerry handsets to run the latest version of the operating system. It’s billed as BlackBerry 7, though it’s really more like 6.5 or even 6.1. That is, there aren’t a ton of changes from BlackBerry 6. As I mentioned, there are subtle differences, such as the ability to limit your home screen panels. Almost every change is in this mold: a subtle improvement that, while welcome, doesn’t really represent a brand new version of the operating system. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I liked OS 6 plenty in the first place.

One addition that I, along with basically every other BlackBerry user, appreciate is the ability to add numbers to an existing contact. There were apps that did this, but it’s nice to have it finally along with the native OS. There are goodies like this throughout the OS, though I really haven’t noticed too many of them. That’s both a negative, because I’d like more small improvements, but also good, because I’m not really noticing any deficiencies. It really is a smooth smartphone experience.

I’d expound on this a bit more, but it’s more accurate to reiterate that it’s nearly identical to the older OS versions. It’s a lot smoother, sure, and I’m sure software improvements are behind that. But the faster processor, which we’ll get to in a minute, plays a large role.

Social Feeds

One specific software aspect I want to hit is Social Feeds. This debuted with the original Torch and OS 6, but this time around I’m finding a bit more use for it. As you can see in the screenshot, you can control almost every aspect of your non-email messaging from here, from instant messaging to BBM to Facebook and Twitter. The ability to remain logged into all of them is a definite plus.

If there’s a downside to this, it’s that those who follow a lot of people on Twitter might not have the best experience. My main feed is basically Twitter through and through. I had to scroll through about 30 minutes of tweets before I got to a Facebook update. And then it’s basically all my Twitter, followed by all my Facebook. A more even distribution — that is, real-time updating — would be better. But this is still a good app that can store all of your social information.

(And, as a quick tip, you can add a view under Settings -> Manage Views. This way you can follow specific people, rather than your entire Twitter feed.)

On the next panel is RSS, which allows you to add feeds from RIM’s internal list, or you can find feeds of your own. Again, because of overflow reasons I suggest keeping this to the essentials. Social Feeds is basically a quick and dirty way to stay updated with things that are of high importance to you. There has to be some manual filtering, or else it will get cluttered. For example, I have BGR, Wall Street Journal, and Wired in my RSS. That’s about all I need for quick and essential information.

Finally, you can add podcasts to your feed, too. I found this a bit hard when it concerned podcasts not in RIM’s database. But if you have enough savvy you can work around that and find the ones you want. Or you can just select from RIM’s library. Again, this is all about getting the information all in one place. It’s probably my favorite addition to OS 6, and it got a bit better, and smoother, in OS 7.

The feel

Now that we’ve established the software side of things — i.e., that nothing really has changed — we can move onto the feel of the devices. As you can see from the shot above, the device is identical to the Torch 9800. Everything, from the weight to the keyboard, feels exactly the same. That means it’s still a little awkward to type on the physical keyboard, but not too awkward. That is, it took me a while, again, to get used to the shallow keyboard rather than the full-depth one on my 9650. But it only took a little adjusting. It’s good enough, again, that the on-screen keyboard is mostly useless.

(Well, the keyboard does feel a bit more solid, but that might be because the 9800 is a year old. But it’s worth a parenthetical note, I guess.)

That said, the Torch doesn’t feel any bulkier than a standard BlackBerry. In fact, it’s the exact height and width of the 9650, and maybe 1mm deeper. That 1mm makes a difference to approximately no one, so you can consider this a standard BlackBerry with a few hidden tricks.

Really, the more I play with the Torch, the more I wonder why I would ever go with a standard-sized BlackBerry again. I’ve always been a fan of the standard style, since it’s stripped down and simple. It has an adequately sized screen and the best keyboard in the biz, so I never thought I needed more. But the Torch delivers more, without creating any problems in the way. The touchcreen interface is great for navigating the device, and the keyboard only comes out of hiding when I need it. That it’s the same size as a standard BlackBerry puts the Torch over the top, in my mind.

The processor

And finally we get to the element that brings together the device. The old Torch had a 624MHz processor, which put it in a class far, far below the other smartphones released in 2010. It made for a lot of lag, which got really frustrating after a while. In a way, I was relieved when my time with the original Torch was up. It felt like a huge tease. The elements were all there, but it was just too slow. Screens lagged, applications took forever to load, and it was generally a rough experience.

The Torch 9810, along with the other new BlackBerry models, features a 1.2GHz processor, which is right in line with today’s high-end devices. That makes for a much smoother experience, one that leaves me with little to no frustration. Even App World boots up in a snap. Again, while I’m sure that tweaks to the operating system played into the improved performance, I have to think that the processor plays an even bigger part. It’s physically faster, meaning it can handle more apps, more tasks, and more inputs.

At the same time, it does not negatively affect battery life. This is the most amazing part, to me. One reason RIM kept with its slow processors is because it believed that its customers valued battery life over speed. With the Torch they’ve found a balance between the two. The battery still lasts two days with moderate to slightly heavy use, just like my old BlackBerrys. And yet it’s worlds faster. This might be the Torch’s greatest accomplishment.

Overall impression

It’s fair to say that I’ve come away from my time with the Torch impressed. Again, if you’re expecting a revolution that vaults the BlackBerry in line with Android and iPhone, you’ll come away disappointed. The Torch is not that. No BlackBerry will come close, at least until they have QNX running smoothly on a dual core handset. But for what it is, a messaging-focused device with plenty of bells and whistles, the Torch delivers. It might be the only thing that would keep me with Rogers for my next BlackBerry upgrade.

Even better, Rogers is offering it on-contract for $149.99. The Bold 9900, meanwhile, is $199.99. I don’t think a BlackBerry deal  of this caliper gets better than that.

Via www.bbgeeks.com

Rogers and TELUS BlackBerry Torch 9860 dummy devices start arriving, launch imminent

Posted By Ray Nicolini

Via Mobile Syrup.com Ian Hardy

The third of 4 new confirmed BlackBerry devices is almost here. A solid sign of progress is the arrival of dummy devices to show prospective buyers. The Torch 9860 dummy device has arrived at both Rogers and TELUS today. As for launch dates, TELUS is expected to drop on August 29th and as for Rogers is still unknown but sometime before the month is up. The Rogers Torch 9860 is looking like it’ll come in at $524.99 on a no-term and $199.99 on a 3-year.

Until the all touch BlackBerry lands on Canadian soil, check out the quick vid that Mobile Syrup shot from the BlackBerry Fan night in Toronto here.

We’ll have more info soon!
(Thanks tipster!)

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review

Posted By Ray Nicolini
Via CrackBerry.com

"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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The Video - Bold 9900 Full Walkthrough Everything you need to know about the BlackBerry Bold 9900 in 10 minutes! Check out CrackBerry Kevin's walkthrough of the best BlackBerry ever to come out of Waterloo.  Youtube Link (expand video for full view)

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Best keyboard ever! We love the addition of a high-resolution touchscreen display to the classic BlackBerry design. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is well-built, feels great in the hand, and the styling is tastefully luxurious. BlackBerry 7 improvements and solid tech specs deliver a super-fast user experience. It's the traditional BlackBerry experience on steroids.	We could rant on there not being enough apps available, but we realized the economy was in better shape before people started playing Angry Birds on their phones - so we'll let it slide since the 9900's full keyboard design is more focused on productivity and communication than wasting time. That said, we're sad the battery got downsized. We want all the BlackBerry juice we can get!
It's the best BlackBerry we've ever used or reviewed. Period. Exclamation Point!

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review

Five new BlackBerry 7 Smartphones in three distinct form factors:
BlackBerry Torch 9810 (slider), BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 (full keyboard), BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860 (touch only)

After months of anticipation, we're now witnessing the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones, with Research In Motion rolling out five models of BlackBerry 7 Smartphones to some 225 carrier and distribution partners around the world. With the new phones all based off the same hardware and software platforms and delivering mainly similar features and performance, perhaps the most critical decision to be made by would be purchases is determining which design form factor is right for you.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Bold 9930 are of the iconic BlackBerry design, showcasing a front-facing physical keyboard. The Bold 9900 is the GSM version of the phone (ie. AT&T, T-Mobile), while the Bold 9930 will be heading to CDMA carriers (ie. Verizon, Sprint). The Bold 9900 reviewed here is from Rogers in Canada, which was the first carrier to start selling it. From a hardware design and software standpoint, the Bold 9900 and Bold 9930 are the same device, so this review is representative of both. Be sure to check out ourBlackBery Bold 9900 / 9930 Carrier Pricing and Release Date for more info on the Bold of your choice.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Hardware Impressions

The Bold 9900 brings back the wide body of the original Bold (left), in a much sleeker design   

Having used and reviewed a LOT of BlackBerry Smartphones over the years, it only took a few minutes with the Bold 9900 in hand to realize this is the best BlackBerry RIM has built. Within the BlackBerry family of smartphones, the Bold brand is positioned as the premium offering, representing the best of everything BlackBerry, and more than any Bold before it, the 9900 lives up to its name.

While the Bold 9000 definitely made a bold statement with its sizeable dimensions and big keyboard, the abundance of plastic-chrome and faux-leather trimmings yielded an image of a BlackBerry that was blinged up in cheap jewelry. Don't get me wrong, it was still eye-catching and probably my favorite-designed BlackBerry up until the 9900, but it felt more like feigned luxury. With the next generation BlackBerry Bold 9700/9780 (and Tour 9630/Bold 9650 for that matter), RIM took a more conservative approach - downsizing the Bold to be more Curve-like in stature, and going with styling that while tasteful, was maybe a bit too understated to be considered Bold.

From top: Bold 9000, 9900 and 9780. The Bold 9900 is the thinnest BlackBerry ever!

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 exemplifies what the Bold brand is about - luxury by design. The 9900 makes a welcome return to the wide-body design of the original 9000, but in a much sleeker package that makes use of premium materials throughout. Goodbye plastic-chrome, hello metal! With the addition of a touchscreen on the outside and hardware platform upgrades on the inside that deliver more performance than we've ever seen from a BlackBerry Smartphone, this is the BlackBerry Bold we've been waiting for.

Appearance, Form Factor, Build Quality

The iconic BlackBerry design, updated with a touchscreen. Notice how the phone looks like its smiling?

At BlackBerry World I attended a media briefing conducted by RIM's senior VP of Industrial Design, Todd Wood, who walked us through the creative process and design philosophy behind the BlackBerry Bold 9900. It was interesting to learn that before the designers get to the fun part of modeling, it all begins with the "product inspiration board." The inspiration board Todd showed us for the 9900 targeted a fictitious urban male in his 30s and the other kinds of products he owned. On the board and inspiring the design team for the 9900 were other classically luxurious products including a BMW sedan, a Panerai watch (the exact same model that appears in a few of the photos in this review actually!) and Prada leather boots. By infusing that inspiration with a respect for BlackBerry's own lineage, many iterations of design later the BlackBerry Bold 9900 were born.

Knowing the inspiration behind the Bold 9900, its readily apparent that RIM succeeded in their design goals. The Bold 9900 oozes luxury and feels more like a quality product than an electronic gadget. At 10.5mm, it's the thinnest BlackBerry to date, and also the most solid. A big part of the reason for this solid feeling is the brushed stainless steel band that surrounds the perimeter of the phone, adding a touch of class (and no, I didn't see an iPhone 4 on RIM's design inspiration board!). In the hand, the Bold 9900 feels great. At 4.59oz (130g), it weighs less than you expect it to, and the width is perfect for a phone with a full physical keyboard. With its "PopTart" like shape, the overall footprint of the phone is fairly large, even when compared to the Bold 9780, but thanks to its thinness I've found the 9900 to still be easily pocketable in the front of my jeans.

At a glance, from the front the Bold 9900 actually looks a lot like the original Bold 9000, with the update from the trackball to trackpad being the most immediately noticeable difference. Closer inspection reveals many other subtle changes. Below the display, now gone is the color from all buttons. The keypad buttons went all white on the Bold 9700, and now the Send/End keys have lost their green and red coloring. Aesthetically, I love the change.

The glass composite door looks high tech. It's a bit easy to smudge, but we're digging it.

Above the keyboard (which we'll talk about more in a bit) is the expected row of BlackBerry controls, which allow for the one-handed navigation experience BlackBerry owners like myself value so much. Instead of individual buttons, the Send, Menu, Back and End keys are all part of the same piece, with the trackpad centered in the middle.

The trackpad on the Bold 9900 has received an awesome update - it now lights up in the dark! Taking things to a new level, RIM's designers worked with the engineering team to even design the power-off sequence of the Bold 9900. When the backlighting times out, first the keyboard dims off, followed by the display, then the BlackBerry navigation buttons and finally the trackpad. It's an awesome effect. One less-awesome thing about the trackpad to be mindful of is its close proximity to the display. Now that there's a touchscreen, if you're sloppy with your trackpad up scroll you could find yourself accidentally swiping on the screen without wanting to. I wouldn't call this a problem by any means, but it might take some re-adjustment if you've been using a non-touchscreen BlackBerry and have been swiping onto the display all this time. Above the navigation is the new touchscreen display, and above that on the top right is the good ol' crack light - the blinking LED. The LED on the Bold 9900 is now circular in design, vs. the more rectangular design on previous Bolds.

The back of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is stylish yet functional. The outer perimeter receives soft-touch rubber treatment, which aids in gripping the phone. The battery door has a high-tech carbon fiber look to it, and is made of a composite glass material RIM developed that is friendly to RF transmission (actual carbon fiber is not). I like the look of the battery door a lot. My only complaint is that it's easy to smudge and can make the phone a little bit slippery if you're holding it in such a way that you're not making contact with the soft touch rubber. The battery door holds on tight and is pried off from the bottom where there's a little gap, which also serves as the audio port where sounds emerge from the phone. 

Brushed stainless steel looks great and makes the Bold 9900 feel solid. Even the buttons are metal.

The usual buttons and ports surround the perimeter of the BlackBerry Bold 9900. The right side of the phone has the standard volume up and down keys, with the mute key relocated from the top of the phone to be in between the volume keys. They serve double duty as media keys when playing music as well, for skipping tracks and play/pause. At the bottom right is the programmable convenience key.

The left side of the Bold 9900 is kept clean, with just the 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB port present.

The left side of the Bold 9900 features two ports. At the top is the 3.5mm headset jack, and below that is the microUSB port for syncing and/or charging. Because the port is cut into the stainless housing, it makes for a nice snug fit on the connector, eliminating the sloppiness we've noticed in the past on some models.

At the top of the phone is a single button, for locking/unlocking the screen.

Centered at the top of the phone is a single button for locking and/or unlocking the screen. At the bottom are two contact points for the BlackBerry Charging Pod, which are mounted on a thin plastic strip which spans across the bottom. The brushed-plastic here is done so well I just assumed it was also metal.

The two circles are charging contacts for the always-popular BlackBerry Charging Pod

Under the battery door, RIM has engineered things to fit nice and tight, with room left for the removable battery, microSD memory card and SIM card. My only gripe here is that unlike the Bold 9700/9780, you can't insert or remove the memory card while the battery is in the phone. If you try and remove the microSD card while the battery is in place, you'll find yourself wedging the card into the battery, which puts you in a difficult situation.

Things are kept tidy under the battery door, with room for the battery, memory card and SIM card.

This really is an exceptional BlackBerry from RIM. I love the design and style direction they've taken with the Bold 9900. From a hardware and manufacturing standpoint, it's the best I've seen. Over the years I've had a habit of ensuring my BlackBerrys are Made in Canada units, but the four Bold 9900s I bought and unboxed were all Made in Mexico and seem pretty perfect. As for durability, I think the Bold 9900 should be able to stand up pretty well. During the filming and videoing for this review I managed to drop it a couple times -- once from chest height onto a hardwood floor - and the 9900 emerged unscathed.

Processor / Chipset / Performance

All of the newly-announced BlackBerry 7 Smartphones, including the BlackBerry Bold 9900, are running the Qualcomm Scorpion MSM 8655 processor clocked at 1.2GHz on the Snapdragon chipset. An Adreno 205 GPU (graphics processing unit) is also onboard, powering BlackBerry 7's hardware-accelerated graphics, which RIM has dubbed "liquid graphics." At 1.2GHz, the processing power is roughly double the speed of previous generation BlackBerry Bolds. In addition to more speed, this hardware platform upgrade addresses a lot of the other nagging wants we've had for a while now, including 3D graphics support (has been lacking to date on GSM BlackBerrys), HD video recording and more.

While there may be faster processors and even dual-core phones on the market already on other platforms, when it comes to the BlackBerry OS I don't think what matters is the exact spec -- be it 1GHz, 1.2Ghz 1.4Ghz, etc. - but rather the experience it delivers. And 1.2Ghz on the BlackBerry OS is like injecting it with steroids. It actually took some getting used to the overall snappiness of phone and responsiveness of touchscreen. Honestly, it almost felt too fast at first, until I adjusted. Basic OS tasks like opening and closing apps are instant for the most part, and in five days of use I really haven't experienced any sort of hiccups or slow downs. The only time I've really seen the evil hourglass is while installing apps from App World, but even then I've been able to continue to use the phone.

It honestly has been a night and day difference compared to my Bold 9780, which even on the most recent OS builds has been running slow and hourglassing like crazy as of late. Some things still take some time on the Bold 9900, like booting up the phone after a battery pull, but so far I have yet to experience the need to be forced to pull the battery. Between the hardware and BlackBerry 7 software, everything seems to be running smooth so far. I hope this speed holds up as I get out of review mode and into even more real world use (I'm curious to see how it performs after I turn the wireless connection back on after being on a four flight - an action which normally makes my 9780 unusable for a few minutes). I'm thinking it also might be time for another BlackBerry Stress Test! Stay tuned for that.

Keyboard / Typing

The best keyboard ever put on a smartphone.

Best. Keyboard. EVER. Seriously. The previous holder of this title was the keyboard on the original Bold 9000, which I thought was unbeatable, yet RIM managed to improve upon it. The Bold 9900's keyboard is actually 5% wider than the 9000's keyboard, and the keystroke itself has improved. It takes very little pressure to press a key down, yet the rebound is still extremely fast. The keys make that definite click action and sound, which help you get into a great typing rhythm. If you want to experience something magical, try typing on the BlackBerry Bold 9900's keyboard.

BlackBerry Bold Keyboards. From top: Bold 9900, Bold 9780, Bold 9000.

I actually upgraded Miss CrackBerry from her Bold 9700 to the Bold 9900, and having never having experienced the original Bold 9000's keyboard she was absolutely blown away the ease and speed of typing on the 9900. Her exact words were, "It's like typing on air... or clouds, yeah, it's like typing on puffy clouds." Not exactly the most technical reaction, but she made me realize a good point. The keyboard on the Bold 9900 isn't exhausting. I've pounded out some super long emails on the Bold 9900 now, and by the end my fingers don't feel like they've put out any effort, which hasn't been the case for me on previous BlackBerry keyboards.

If you spend any significant amount of time each day on your phone sending emails, texts, tweets, Facebook messages, BBMs, etc., do yourself a favor and try out the keyboard on the Bold 9900. Your thumbs will thank you.

Touchscreen Display 

Adding a touchscreen to the iconic BlackBerry design adds to the overall user experience 

Finally! It's almost comical to think about how long it took RIM to get a touchscreen into the traditional BlackBerry form factor, but it's finally here. It's responsive, it's smooth and it really adds to the overall usability of the device. After a few days on the 9900 I picked up my Bold 9780 again, and literally within seconds found myself tapping the screen and cursing that it didn't have a touchscreen. Oh, how the times have changed!

In addition to touch functionality, the display itself received a nice bump in physical size, color and resolution, from the previous generation of Bold. The BlackBerry Bold 9900's 2.8-inch (diagonal) 24-bit display runs VGA at 640 x 480 pixels, for 287ppi. By comparison, the Bold 9780's 2.44-inch display delivers half VGA at 480 x 360. The BlackBerry Bold 9900's display really is nice. Colors are crisp and vivid, and the display is bright - even at the default 70 percent setting. RIM tells us the display is made of "extra hardened glass," so there's no plastic here.

Now that we have a touchscreen on the iconic BlackBerry form factor, I have two new missions for RIM's designers and engineers for the next BlackBerry Bold:

1. Find a way to increase the height of the display by 25 percent or so. While I'm a huge fan of the pinch to zoom functionality in the web browser, I think a little additional height would make the display that much better for a touchscreen. Let's take that empty space currently above the display (and below the speaker/LED) and stretch that that screen out.
2. Find a way to work the BlackBerry PlayBook's bezel gestures in here. As a PlayBook owner, on more than a few occasions now I've found myself swiping down from the top of the 9900's display in anticipation of an option menu popping out. I'm hoping/assuming this functionality will come with a future BlackBerry/QNX SuperPhone, but I sure wish I could do it on my Bold 9900 instead of having to tap the menu key. Side note, if you're a keyboard kind of person and on the fence between getting the BlackBerry Bold 9900 or waiting for the first QNX SuperPhone, the rumoured BlackBerry ‘colt' is going to be a full touchscreen device (no keyboard). So don't wait. Get the Bold 9900 now and upgrade later when the time is right.

Overall, the Bold 9900 sports a great display and I'm loving the touchscreen experience!

Memory

Application Memory after five days of use and a handful of apps installed.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 ships with 768MB of RAM and has an additional 8GB of onboard memory for media storage. Additionally, there is an expansion slot that supports up to 32GB microSD cards (whether or not a microSD card comes in the box will be carrier dependent - the Rogers unit reviewed here did not ship with a microSD card).

The 768MB of RAM is up from the 512MB found on current in-market BlackBerry Smartphones, but unfortunately the user in terms of additional Application Storage doesn't realize this increased capacity. We found Application Storage Free Space out of the box to be 229.9MB (with unused languages removed), which is actually less free space than my Bold 9780 had on it when I made the switch to the 9900 (it was sitting at 242MB of free space). I reached out to RIM here to see what was eating up all this additional memory and received the following response:

The additional RAM is used to power the capabilities of Liquid Graphics and the higher resolution displays found in these BlackBerry 7 devices. The amount of free application space remaining on the device is dependent on the number of languages preloaded on the phone, applications and user data in memory. In the Applications Management screen users can manage/delete their applications as needed and delete unwanted language packs. In addition, many applications efficiently utilize both the on-device Device Memory and Media Card to store portions of the application. This is true for many of the larger, graphics intensive applications such as the 3D Roller Coaster Rush Jurassic 2 game.

So is this slight drop in Application Storage memory a big deal? With 512MB of RAM in BlackBerry 6 devices, I've personally never come close to running out of memory, so I don't foresee it causing an issue for the vast majority of BlackBerry owners. It just sucks from a value proposition standpoint - I think most CrackBerry readers, myself included, we're under the impression that the jump to 768MB of RAM would mean a ~200+ megs of additional memory to take advantage of, and that's not the case.

Battery Life

The 9900's 1230mAh battery is smaller than previous Bolds, but should get most people through the day OK.

BlackBerry smartphones have a track record of having pretty amazing battery life, so I winced when I learned RIM chose to downsize the 1500mAh battery found in the Bold 9700/9780 to the new 1230mAh JM-1 found in the Bold 9900. If anything, batteries are something I'd like to see get bigger - not smaller! The new battery is very thin, so I'm assuming this downsize was a forced compromise in attaining the status of thinnest BlackBerry ever.

Considering the new Bold has a faster processor and bigger, higher-resolution display, even prior to release we were concerned about battery life. But talking to BlackBerry Product Managers at BlackBerry World and BlackBerry 7 Fan Night, we were told that the Bold 9900's target battery life was a full day of use. RIM continues to make gains in their power management on the BlackBerry platform, and I can only surmise they'd be ok with shrinking the battery size if they knew they could hit their target. 

Here's how RIM rates the battery life on the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930:

• CDMA Talk Time: up to 6.6 hours; CDMA Standby Time: up to 12.8 days (9930 only)
• GSM Talk Time: up to 6.3 hours; Standby Time: up to 12.8 days
• UMTS Talk Time: up to 5.9 hours
• UMTS Standby Time: up to 12.8 days
• Audio Playback Time: up to 50 hours
• Video Playback Time: up to 7.4 hours

So how's the real world battery life been?

Since getting our hands-on the new Bold, the crack team has been tracking battery life closely (see our initial Bold 9900 battery life analysis here). Our initial observations have been positive overall, with the 9900's battery typically getting us through the day with a little BlackBerry juice left in the tank, even with gadget-lust type use. Under more average usage conditions we've even seen the battery indicator read above 50 percent come bedtime after an 18-hour day. Not too shabby.

That being the case, average users shouldn't have to worry much about daily battery life, if at all. Heavier users may find themselves wandering into the low battery zone more often than they'd ideally like to see, but for the most part should be able to make it through a day of regular use. As for the hardcore CrackBerry addicts, no battery lasts long enough. It's a good thing we sell BlackBerry chargers and BlackBerry Bold 9900 batteries!

It's still early days for the BlackBerry Bold 9900, so I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic about the battery life but put the Happy Dance on hold for now until we experience it running on more carriers. As much as we've seen the battery last a full day and then some, we've also been hearing a few reports from some Bold 9900 owners claiming their battery needs a top-up by midday and that its not performing as well as their previous or other BlackBerry under similar conditions. We're going to keep out our eyes glued on our battery indicators over the days ahead, so keep it locked to CrakBerry and we'll follow up with our ongoing findings.

Phone, Audio, Data

Yes, the car is parked! Phone in hand while driving is bad. Don't do it!

When it comes to using the BlackBerry Bold 9900 Smartphone as a phone, it appears to handle that task just fine. Throughout testing I've had no real issues with sound quality or voice quality when talking to the people I normally talk to. My mom of all people volunteered up (without any prodding on my end) that I sounded more clear than normal, so maybe there are some subtle improvements here over previous generation BlackBerry models. ... Mothers have a way of knowing these things.

The microphone pickup is a tiny slit on the front bottom right corner of the phone, the slit is on the plastic chin below the keyboard, right next to the stainless housing. As long as you hold the phone normally when talking you'll always be good to go. I did find that by kinking my neck left and sandwiching the phone between my left shoulder and left ear, it positioned the phone in such a way that I was blowing directly into the microphone which caused some loud annoyingness for the recipient on the other end.

We did quite a bit of testing of the speakerphone, and found it to be pretty good. As mentioned earlier, the port for sound to come out is located on the back of the phone at the bottom of the battery door cover, but with the shape of the device its positioned in such a way that isn't blocked when lying flat.

On the data front, the new hardware platform on BlackBerry 7 Smartphones now sports a 14.4 Mbps HSPA modem, which is a big jump up from the 3.6Mbps modem on BlackBerry 6 Smartphones. On the Rogers network, my homescreen no longer shows a 3G icon for activity, but rather a H+ one denoting HSPA+. Is it really a 4G BlackBerry? You're going to see the new BlackBerry 7 Smartphones get marketed different ways by different carriers. The bottom line is that there's a 14.4 modem on board, so while data will be quicker, the whole 4G vs. FauxG issue is up for debate. If you want more insight into this, check out our article on Clarifying 4G vs FauxG.

Cameras / Video Recording

Hooray for HD video recording on a BlackBerry. Finally!

HD Video Recording: FINALLY we have HD video recording on a BlackBerry Smartphone. The Bold 9900 records video at 720p (1280 x 720 resolution) and I've been really impressed with the quality so far.

5 Megapixel EDOF Camera: One of the only real disappointments I have on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the loss of autofocus functionality from the camera. We reached out to RIM to see what was up here, and got this response:

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 has an always in focus 5MP camera (also known as EDOF, Extended Depth of Field) which allows for excellent image quality and it has an ultra thin footprint, which allowed us to achieve the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone to date. The EDOF camera keeps subject matter in focus while offering high quality images and 720p HD video capture.

Essentially, this was a design decision that only affects the Bold 9900. Where there's a will, there's a way - I'm sure RIM could have figured out how to get it in there, but I'm guessing it was cost-prohibitive and the business decision was made to simply go with EDOF only. As for the other newly-announced BlackBerry 7 Smartphones, the new BlackBerry Torch 9810 and Torch 9850/9860 all retain autofocus. The EDOF camera still takes some great photos, including the one below I snapped on the 9900, but there are definitely times when autofocus will make for a better photo. How much this affects you is going to depend on your camera usage. I'm definitely hoping the next Bold brings back the autofocus functionality, and maybe adds a front-facing camera to the mix as well.

Taken on the Bold 9900's 5mp EDOF Camera

NFC

The Bold 9900's NFC Antenna is built into the battery door. ... Clever!

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the first BlackBerry to support NFC, or Near Field Communication, which is a short-range wireless technology (4cm or less) that allows two devices to communicate - there's always an initiator and a target. On a device like the Bold 9900, that can mean a few things, like bringing the phone close to a poster to launch an action such as downloading an app, or pairing accessories together, or even making wireless payments. RIM is committed to NFC so expect to see a lot of progress here over the months and years ahead as you start using it for more and more things. The photo above shows exactly how RIM put the NFC antenna into the BlackBerry Bold 9900. They built the antenna into the battery door! On the Bold 9900, you can turn on NFC from the homescreen by pulling down the Manage Connections menu. You'll want to start training your brain to spot the NFC logo everywhere you go. 

It's an emerging standard, so much so that I couldn't find anything NFC-enabled to test the Bold 9900 out on yet while working on this review. To learn more on NFC you can read up on it here and be sure to check out the demo video we recorded of NFC in action on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 back at BlackBerry World.  

Other Internals - Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi , Other Sensors

I'm not sure why the Bluetooth on my Bold 9780 was shaky, but it's rock solid on the Bold 9900.

Bluetooth: Bluetooth isn't something to get excited about these days -- the functionality is a given -- but I have to give props for the Bluetooth in the Bold 9900/BlackBerry 7 as it solved whatever issue me Bold 9780/BlackBerry 6 was having with Bluetooth pairing in my car. I think the issue was really specific as I could never find a solution to it (I could occassionally pair once after a battery pull, and it would never repair after that), but whatever the problem was it no longer exists with the 9900. 

GPS: The Bold 9900 has GPS on board, and the few tests I've done so far have found my location very quickly and very accurately.

WiFi: WiFi connectivity is present in the form of Dual-Band Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz.

But what about the ability to turn your BlackBerry Bold 9900 into a Mobile Hotspot? Back in early 2011, when we first saw the roadmap leak for the new lineup of phones, we saw that this functionality was on the feature list. After all, the chipset definitely supports it and we've even seen/heard of earlier builds of the BlackBerry 6.1/BlackBerry 7 OS that had the functionality built-in. We reached out to RIM on this one too, and got this for a response:

Mobile Hotspot functionality is not available. 

Obviously there's no explanation here for us, but we can hypothesis a few scenarios: either RIM chose not to include the functionality (they tried and it just didn't work well on the BlackBerry OS), or that it's still coming but just isn't available yet, or it was ready to rock but they didn't get carrier support for it and pulled it out. I'm not sure what the story is exactly, but I'm still holding out hope that we'll see this feature get rolled out via a software update, as compared to what Bell shows. 

Other Sensors: The BlackBerry Bold 9900 includes a few other sensorts that add to the capabilities of the device, including an accelerometer for device orientation, a magnetometer that acts as a digital compass, and a proximity sensor that turns off the touchscreen display when you're on the phone.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Accessories

With the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 offering an all-new design, you're pretty much going to be on the hook for all new BlackBerry Bold 9900 accessories, especially when it comes to BlackBerry Bold 9900 cases and BlackBerry Bold 9900 batteries (you'll be good to go with any microSD cars you own, and we *think* most microUSB chargers should work ok but are going to do some testing there to make sure). RIM has even changed up the look of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 Charging Pod away from the old silver design to a black stand-like version simliar to that of the BlackBerry PlayBook. Depending on your mindset, perhaps the ultimate accessory to the Bold 9900 is the PlayBook. I've found the 9900 to handle the BlackBerry Bridge app better than my Bold 9780 did, and tethered web browsing feels quicker thanks to the faster modem on the 9900 (followup posts on that to come).

Perhaps the utimate Bold 9900 accessory is the BlackBerry PlayBook!

For more information and to buy accessories for your BlackBerry Bold, be sure to visit our ShopCrackBerry.com store.  Canadians be sure to head to our CrackBerry Canada store. Keep it locked to CrackBery for reviews of all the new accessories as we get them!

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Hardware Wrap-Up 

The BlackBerry Bold 9900's hardware gets two CrackBerry thumbs ups!

On the outside, the Bold 9900 is a drop dead gorgeous BlackBerry bombshell. I can't even think of one thing I would change about it. Honestly, I'm smitten. I've actually caught myself staring at it unknowingly on multiple occasions now. I love the way it looks and I love the way it feels - the way I can swipe on it and especially the way I can type on it. I know it sounds lame, but honestly, I can't help but feel that RIM designed this phone just for me. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the best BlackBerry ever built and answers the call to everything I've been wanting in the iconic BlackBerry design.

But you know what they say ... it's what's on the inside that counts. And on the inside, the Bold 9900 delivers as well. The new 1.2GHz processor and Snapdragon chipset provide an overall level of performance that has to be experienced to be appreciated. It's FAST. But to attain that gorgeous exterior and thin form factor, a couple of compromises had to be made on the inside. The battery had to be downsized and autofocus functionality was dropped from the camera. I'm going to overlook these as minor character flaws... That's what you do when you're in love, right?

BlackBerry 7 OS Impressions

BlackBerry 7 - it's like BlackBerry 6, but faster

The BlackBerry OS got a major overhaul last year with the debut of BlackBerry 6 on the Torch 9800, which modernized the user experience and optimized it for touchscreen displays (see our in-depth BlackBerry 6 Review). In addition, it introduced a WebKit rendering engine that addressed BlackBerry's historically poor web browsing experience.

While BlackBerry 6 fundamentally changed the homescreen and user experience, BlackBerry 7 refines it and adds new features based on the capabilities of the updated hardware platform. This is the primary reason RIM re-branded what was originally BlackBerry 6.1 to BlackBerry 7. Because many of the improvements found in BlackBerry 7 are tied to the hardware -- hardware that doesn't exist on the current in-market BlackBerry Smartphones -- BlackBerry 6 Smartphones won't be able to update to BlackBerry 7. Distancing the OS numbers helps deliver this message. Plus BlackBerry 7 just sounds cooler than BlackBerry 6.1.

The biggest hardware-related OS change is the implementation of "Liquid Graphics," a term RIM has trademarked that reflects the hardware-accelerated graphics experience of BlackBerry 7. While it seems a bit silly to brand something that's been on other platforms for years, we love the results - this is a much more responsive, smoother BlackBerry interface.

 
If you hate the side to side panel scrolling of BlackBerry 7, you can remove it entirely! 

Complimenting the improved Liquid Graphics experience, the homescreen experience gets a minor but welcomed facelift, with new application icons and the ability to manage panels. I like the new icons! They feel more app-like than the wireframe-styled icon set in BlackBerry 6. And I love that I FINALLY have the ability to manage the homescreen panels, going so far as to disable all additional panels.

The BlackBerry 7 Web Browser is Much Improved!

Saving the best for last, the web browsing experience is greatly improved in BlackBerry 7. RIM tells us it's 40% faster than BlackBerry 6 and 100% faster than OS 5. In a head to head web browser shootout against the iPhone 4 and Google Nexus S, the Bold 9900 showed it was competitive. Finally! Between the web browser optimizations, the faster processor and faster modem, the web browsing experience on BlackBerry has moved from being one of tolerance to one of enjoyment. There's always room for improvement though - I want to see BlackBerry kill the competition in browser speed.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Conclusions

CrackBerry Budai is smiling because he LOVES the BlackBerry Bold 9900!

Bottom line, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the best BlackBerry to date. We love the design, and the upgraded hardware platform delivers a ton of performance to the end user. It really is the best of BlackBerry as we have known it.

That said, there's nothing fundamentally different in BlackBerry 7 that's going to change the way you use your BlackBerry. For some that's not a bad thing. For others it may be. There has always been a lot to like in the BlackBerry OS. And this is the same BlackBerry OS, with the same strengths and the same weaknesses. It's still by far the best mobile platform for communication and it's still lagging in areas like the quality third party apps.

But if you're buying a phone with a keyboard in the year 2011, it means you place communication and messaging as a priority in your Smartphone Hierarchy of Needs. The BlackBerry OS suits that priority. As does the BlackBerry Bold 9900's keyboard. Seriously, the keyboard alone is reason enough to buy the BlackBerry Bold 9900. Don't believe me? Go try it!

BlackBerry Bold 9900 Summary

Pros

• 1.2 GHz processor is FAST
• Much improved web browser
• Welcome return to the "wide body" design
• Best keyboard ever!
• Touchscreen adds to the usability of the iconic BlackBerry form factor
• Luxurious use of materials
• Excellent build quality
• HD Video Recording finally here!
• NFC support is nerdy cool, even if we don't know what to do with it right now

Cons

• Smaller battery than on previous Bolds
• No autofocus on the camera
• More RAM but less usable memory

Things We're Watching For

• Battery Life - we hope it holds up to more real world use!
• WiFi Hotspot - will it come with an OS update?
• Apps - are developers going to get onboard with BlackBerry 7?