The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is due in stores late November, with the parent company RIM hoping for a repeat of the well-regarded original BlackBerry Bold.
The biggest departure from old Bold to new, is the replacement of the navigation method, with a small trackpad on the Bold 9700 replacing the old trackball. Based on my quick play with the device it seemed user-friendly, and alleviates the problem some users had knocking the trackball around while carrying the phone in pockets and bags.
The Bold 9700 is a 3G phone, with built-in GPS and Wi-Fi, 624 MHz processor, 3.2 megapixel camera (up from the previous Bold’s 2MP), and a 6.19 cm screen with 480 x 360 resolution.
The 9700 is also a little more svelte than it’s predecessor – 109 x 60 x 14.1 mm (L x W x D) for the new Bold, against 114 x 66 x 15 for the old.
Specifications
- Size: approximately 109 x 60 x 14.1 mm (L x W x D)
- Weight: 122 g (battery included)
- Memory: 256 MB internal flash memory and 256 MB RAM
- Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g, UMA support
- Expandable memory: supports up to 32GB microSD card
- Battery: 1500 mAh removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell
- Battery life: GSM talk time: up to 6 hours; GSM Standby Time: up to 21 days; UMTS Talk Time: up to 6 hours; UMTS Standby Time: up to 17 days
- Music playback time: up to 38 hours
- Keyboard: 35 key backlit QWERTY
- Display: High resolution 480 x 360 pixel colour display. Transmissive TFT LCD supports over 65,000 colours, 2.44″ (diagonally measured).
- Camera: 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus, image stabilisation, flash and 2X digital zoom
- Videocamera: Normal Mode: 480 x 352 pixels; MMS Mode: 176 x 144 pixels
- Voice input/output: Integrated speaker and microphone, hands-free headset capable, Bluetooth headset capable, integrated hands-free speakerphone
- Ringtones: 32 polyphonic – MIDI, SP-MDI, MP3, WAV
- GPS: integrated GPS with A-GPS (assisted GPS) ready
- Media player: video codec support: MPEG 4, H.263, H.264, WMV 9. Audio codec support: AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, MP3, WMA9/10 standard & professional
- Picture format support: bmp, jpg, gif, png, tif, wbmp
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth v2.1; Mono/Stereo Headset, Hands-free, Serial Port Profile, Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP/AVCRP) and Bluetooth SIM Access Profile supported
- Headset: 3.5 mm stereo headset capable
- Power adapter: +5V DC/500 mA AC power adapter with interchangeable location specific plugs
- Network Support UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1, 2, 5/6), 2100/1700/900 MHz (Bands 1, 4, 8). GSM: 1900/1800/900/850 MHz
Price and availability
BlackBerry would not pass along any information regarding which telcos are to carry the Bold 9700, so it’s a case of wait and see which telcos and how much. Stay tuned.
