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- T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 9360 Launching September 14th?
- Official: T-Mobile Bold 9900 Launch August 31st – Business Customers August 17th
- BlackBerry Bold 9930 7.0.0.308 Leaked – Hopefully Fixes Back Button Bug
- IM+ for PlayBook Stuck in App World Approval Limbo for 3+ Months
- The QNX BlackBerry Colt Plot Thickens With More Rumors
- NYC BBM Hackathon Wrap-up – Developer Collaboration
- AT&T Confirms BlackBerry Torch 9810 Pricing at $49.99 w/2-Year Contract
- T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 Still Coming August 31st?
- Bell Canada BlackBerry Curve 9360 Coming August 29th?
- BlackBerry Bold 9900 & 9930 Review
- Review: The Torch 9810, a solid touchscreen phone that is distinctly Blackberry
- Review: The Torch 9850, a slate-like Blackberry with a unique character of its own
- BlackBerry OS 7 Review: Improvement Through Refinement
| T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 9360 Launching September 14th? Posted: 17 Aug 2011 03:15 AM PDT
While the Curve 9360 would have looked hot a year ago it really pales compared to the latest BlackBerry 7 devices like the Bold 9900. Still there will definitely be a market for it in the low end BlackBerry form factor which the Curve line invented. We heard that T-Mobile will hopefully get the Bold 9900 on August 31st according to a new leak from TmoNews it looks like it will be followed up by the Curve 9360 coming September 14th to T-Mobile. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 17, 2011, 6:15 am. | T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 9360 Launching September 14th? | Leave a comment |
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| Official: T-Mobile Bold 9900 Launch August 31st – Business Customers August 17th Posted: 16 Aug 2011 09:35 PM PDT Well T-Mobile took their sweet time with this one but now it is official. They just sent us the launch details for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 with the launch date pegged for August 31st. There is also an expected pre-sale of the Bold 9900 to T-Mobile business customers starting August 17th. The real kicker is that the 9900 will be selling for $299.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate card. That is a serious case of sticker shock for the discount wireless carrier. Also worth noting is a new preloaded app called T-Mobile MobileLife Family Organizer powered by Cozi. It offers centralized calendars, shopping lists, to-do lists, and family journals that allow family members to share updates with each other on the go. More details at www.t-mobile.com/calendar. T-Mobile Launches the BlackBerry Bold 9900, Its First 4G BlackBerry Smartphone Featuring the new BlackBerry 7 operating system, the smartphone will be T-Mobile's fastest BlackBerry to date, leveraging a 1.2 GHz processor and America's Largest 4G Network BELLEVUE, Wash. — Aug. 17, 2011 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the upcoming nationwide availability of the first 4G BlackBerry® smartphone to run on America's Largest 4G Network™ — the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900. Available today in an exclusive pre-sale for T-Mobile business customers and launching nationwide on Aug. 31, the 4G-capable BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone ever (at only 10.5mm) and the first to offer the perfect union of a high-performance keyboard and brilliant touch display integrated within the iconic BlackBerry Bold design. Featuring a range of powerful hardware enhancements including a 1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics™ technology 24-bit high-resolution graphics and advanced sensors, the new smartphone is designed to deliver the ultimate in communications, multimedia and productivity. "T-Mobile is excited to add a BlackBerry smartphone to T-Mobile's best 4G product lineup ever," said Andrew Morrison, vice president, product management, T-Mobile USA. "With the new BlackBerry Bold 9900, we are offering our socially-active and business-minded customers a powerful device with a unique proposition — the pairing of a nationwide 4G network with the mobile communications efficiency that has become synonymous with BlackBerry smartphones." The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is powered by the new BlackBerry 7 operating system, which introduces a next-generation BlackBerry browser with a significantly faster, more fluid Web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. Additional enhancements to this next-generation BlackBerry browser have also optimized zooming and panning for smoother Web navigation and optimized HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences. "We continue to deliver innovative products for our customers, and we're excited to offer our first 4G BlackBerry smartphone," said Femi Lakeru, vice president of business sales, T-Mobile USA. "Since T-Mobile offers 4G speeds in more places than any other wireless broadband network in the U.S., CIOs can trust that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 will give their employees the ultimate combination of speed, productivity and security." T-Mobile's high-speed 4G network continues to expand and is now available in more than 190 markets, reaching more than 200 million people nationwide*. With the addition of the BlackBerry Bold 9900, T-Mobile now offers a wide variety of 4G devices including smartphones, tablets, laptop sticks, a netbook and a mobile hotspot. Running on America's Largest 4G Network, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 helps make life truly mobile — all at 4G speeds. Whether accessing email, sending an invoice, getting directions or uploading photos, T-Mobile customers stay connected and informed virtually anywhere life takes them. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone continues the tradition of delivering a leading mobile communications experience with a highly refined and integrated suite of phone, email, messaging and social apps to keep users connected and productive throughout the day. Recent enhancements include the newest release of BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger), and an updated Social Feeds (2.0) app. The new Facebook® for BlackBerry smartphones (2.0) app introduces features like Facebook chat and BBM integration that make it easier for users to connect with their Facebook friends in real time. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is also the first device to come preloaded with T-Mobile's new MobileLife® Family Organizer application. Powered by Cozi, MobileLife Family Organizer makes managing families' busy schedules easier with centralized calendars, shopping lists, to-do lists, and family journals that allow family members to share updates with each other on the go. Calendar reminders can be sent by text or email allowing customers to avoid missing their kids' soccer practice or an important shared appointment. More information about MobileLife Family Organizer can be found at http://www.t-mobile.com/calendar. Availability The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is expected to be available in an exclusive pre-sale for T-Mobile business customers beginning today, Aug. 17. The smartphone is expected to be available at T-Mobile retail stores and at select dealers and national retailers nationwide starting Aug. 31. For more information about T-Mobile products and services, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com. T-Mobile's 4G network has expanded to additional markets, including Atlantic City, N.J., and Florence, Ala. A complete list of all the markets where T-Mobile's 4G network is live can be found at http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/articles/4g-fact-sheet. For more information about T-Mobile's 4G products, please visit http://www.t-mobile.com. *T-Mobile's HSPA+ 4G network not available everywhere If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 17, 2011, 12:35 am. | Official: T-Mobile Bold 9900 Launch August 31st – Business Customers August 17th | One comment |
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| BlackBerry Bold 9930 7.0.0.308 Leaked – Hopefully Fixes Back Button Bug Posted: 16 Aug 2011 02:33 PM PDT
You can pick up OS 7.0.0.308 for the BlackBerry Bold 9930 @ fileserve.com Warning: This OS will not install on any other BlackBerry besides the one mentioned above and is not an official release.If you do not know how to upgrade your BlackBerry OS please start by reading this step by step guide.Don't forget to delete the vendor.xml file located in c:program files>common files>research in motion>apploader to install it on a different carriers device. Don't forget our usual warnings: do not download and install these updates if you don't know what you're doing. Incorrect procedure or just bad luck could render your BlackBerry inoperative or unstable. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 5:33 pm. | BlackBerry Bold 9930 7.0.0.308 Leaked – Hopefully Fixes Back Button Bug | Leave a comment |
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| IM+ for PlayBook Stuck in App World Approval Limbo for 3+ Months Posted: 16 Aug 2011 01:47 PM PDT This is really starting to get a bit ridiculous. We have told you in the past that Shape Services IM+ has been waiting for approval in App World since June 2nd of this year. The last time we mentioned it the app had been waiting for approval for 2+ months and RIM finally responded that it would be approved within 5-10 business days. That was 15 days ago. I get that RIM might be a bit busy with all of the BlackBerry 7 device launches but this is getting ridiculous. It has been well over 3+ months since the app was submitted to App World and VP level execs at RIM have been involved. This is truly a shame since RIM is going to such lengths to encourage BlackBerry development and entice more developers to create BlackBerry apps. Shape is one of the most well known BlackBerry developers since 2003 and they are waiting months for their app to be approved. Its not even like the app competes with a RIM native app or does not perform a useful function. It is a multi platform chat client for the PlayBook. In other words an app that would probably easily become one of the best selling apps on the PlayBook. I pinged some of my contacts at RIM about the issue and hopefully this time they will finally get it approved. Still from what we have heard from Shape this has already been taken pretty high up at RIM. Maybe RIM is going for a record of "Longest time we can make a developer wait for their app to be approved" for the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge… Thanks Del for pointing out the update from Shape's Maria Dyatlova If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Luis Merlos for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 4:47 pm. | IM+ for PlayBook Stuck in App World Approval Limbo for 3+ Months | 8 comments |
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| The QNX BlackBerry Colt Plot Thickens With More Rumors Posted: 16 Aug 2011 12:01 PM PDT We first heard rumors about a QNX BlackBerry Colt super-phone not to long ago. The rumor then was that current dev versions are running a single core 1.2Ghz processor that everybody seems hung up on. It also would not be supported on BES at launch and will instead use ActiveSync and pack a 4.3" screen. The main catch was that this device was coming in Q1 of 2012. Now the Dutch website Tweakers.net (via Engadget) claims to have heard from sources that the QNX based BlackBerry Colt may even come by the end of the year or Q4 2011 according to their trusted industry sources. It supposedly will also have a resolution of 900px+ or so whatever that means and run the same 1.2Ghz Qualcomm snapdragon processor as the 9900. They also created the mockup you see above. So anybody want to start throwing more fuel into the rumor mill? Let us know if you spot anything else! If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 3:01 pm. | The QNX BlackBerry Colt Plot Thickens With More Rumors | 25 comments |
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| NYC BBM Hackathon Wrap-up – Developer Collaboration Posted: 16 Aug 2011 11:28 AM PDT
With all the craziness surrounding the BlackBerry 7 device launches and the reviews for today we missed posting a wrap up for the BBM Hackathon last week. Day one was awesome and day two followed through with many of the devs showing off their work as a sort of skeleton app. What I was more or less seeing was the type of app a developer could expect to create over a weekend with the basic functionality for a app concept. To give you an idea of some of the app ideas here are some of the ones that were presented:
All in all I am pretty excited to see what devs do with these apps in the next few weeks. Practically all of them were committed to bringing their app to market and RIM plans on helping the devs get their apps into the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge. They also heard developers loud and clear that RIM needs to help improve communications between developers so they can help each other out. The level of collaboration we saw at the Hackathon was amazing and I think RIM needs to do whatever they can to help foster that. It was great to see the RIM employees communicating directly with BlackBerry developers to foster the development of better BlackBerry apps and showing RIM how they can improve the development process. I was also glad to see how well all of the BlackBerry developers got along. I know many of the devs made great contacts while at the event that will help them succeed as BlackBerry developers. Now we just need that collaboration to work on a larger scale. So who plans on competing in the next BlackBerry Hackathon?
If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 2:28 pm. | NYC BBM Hackathon Wrap-up – Developer Collaboration | Leave a comment |
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| AT&T Confirms BlackBerry Torch 9810 Pricing at $49.99 w/2-Year Contract Posted: 16 Aug 2011 11:06 AM PDT We told you yesterday that RIM let slip about the AT&T BlackBerry Torch 9810 launching on August 21st. JD pointed out to us that AT&T confirmed that date on Facebook along with pricing set at $49.99 with a 2 year contract. That price is way more aggressive than the $249.99 price range that the Bold 9900 & 9930 are playing in and the $149.99 price range of the Torch 9850 & 9860. Something tells me these will be moving quickly off AT&T's shelves. Now if only they could launch the flagship 9900 soon… If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 2:06 pm. | AT&T Confirms BlackBerry Torch 9810 Pricing at $49.99 w/2-Year Contract | 12 comments |
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| T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 Still Coming August 31st? Posted: 16 Aug 2011 09:33 AM PDT Many T-Mobile customers are wondering what the story is with no BlackBerry 7 announcements for their carrier. We heard rumors before that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is coming on August 31st to T-Mobile but nothing concrete. This is weird because when the Bold 9900 was announced at BlackBerry World in May T-Mobile was the first and only US carrier to confirm they would carry it. Now they are oddly mum. To counter any concerns that T-Mobile will not be getting the 9900 is some confirmation from TmoNews showing internal docs confirming the device is listed as "Coming Soon." Also worth noting is that it does not have WiFi UMA calling or Wi-Fi hotspot features listed but hopefully both of those are coming. Hopefully the August 31st date pans out! If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 12:33 pm. | T-Mobile BlackBerry Bold 9900 Still Coming August 31st? | 5 comments |
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| Bell Canada BlackBerry Curve 9360 Coming August 29th? Posted: 16 Aug 2011 08:57 AM PDT With RIM releasing the Bold 9900 & 9930, Torch 9810, and Torch 9850 & 9860 this month you would think the Curve update would have lagged behind a more. The latest rumor and leaked screenshot scored by MobileSyrup shows that the Curve 9360 will also be landing up north this month. The rumored launch date is August 29th for the BlackBerry Curve 9360 on Bell Canada. The Torch 9860 is also confirmed for Bell on August 22nd. That means 4 new BlackBerrys lines in one month! This leaked spec sheet confirms the 2.44-inch screen (resolution of 480 x 360), QWERTY keyboard, 800Mhz processor, BlackBerry 7 OS, 5 megapixel camera and Wi-Fi radio. No word on NFC. Anybody considering this device? I am just super glad that RIM finally revamped the device with a nice screen and processor in the Curve line. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 11:57 am. | Bell Canada BlackBerry Curve 9360 Coming August 29th? | 4 comments |
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| BlackBerry Bold 9900 & 9930 Review Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:01 AM PDT Since we first heard about the BlackBerry Bold 9900 I was hoping it would be codenamed the Phoenix. For years I have been going to BlackBerry conferences begging RIM to bring back the BlackBerry Bold 9000 form factor with beefed up hardware and software. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 proves that they have unquestionably delivered the best BlackBerry experience coupled in a stunningly beautiful design.
For the last few days I have been using a Verizon BlackBerry Bold 9930 as my main device and it has truly been beautiful. The device takes packs the pedigree of the BlackBerry Bold 9000 and improves upon it tenfold. My first impression when I unboxed the device was one of awe. I had played with the 9900 quite a few times but now that it is finally available I feel like a kid on my birthday. The keyboard is simply expansive and the wider larger form factor fits perfectly into the palm of your hand. Once I powered on the device and switched all of my info to it I was floored with the speed. Even activating the device on our BES took less than 2 minutes. The best description of what RIM has done to the BlackBerry OS with BlackBerry OS 7 is "liquefy" it which is probably why they call the main improvement "Liquid Graphics." The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 packs a 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor which is just a tad shy of double the processing speed of the last few generations of BlackBerry devices. The RAM has also been upped to 768MB and the screen is stunning. RIM has not only raised the resolution to 640×480 pixels but has also added a very responsive touchscreen that easily glides under your finger. You still have the touchpad for one hand use but the touchscreen really rounds out the device.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 Design & EngineeringThe BlackBerry Bold 9900 finally does away with the plastic siding of previous and really makes a statement with its beautiful metal siding. This is actual metal instead of plastic painted with chrome. Even the buttons seem to be made out of metal. The back battery cover is made of a glass composite they told us about at BlackBerry World which has a very slick pattern imprinted on it. Surrounding the battery cover is a rubberized plastic that helps you grip the phone.
The Bold 9900 is also the thinnest BlackBerry ever clocking in at 0.41 inches or 10.5mm. On the other hand from the front it looks almost exactly like the original BlackBerry Bold 9000 but with more luxurious buttons and a trackpad instead of a trackball. Everything about the BlackBerry Bold 9900 exudes style combined with function including a trackpad that now lights up. The metal siding is not sharp against your palm and fits perfectly in your hand despite its thinness. The call, BlackBerry, back, and end call buttons surrounding the touchpad are all made out of the same piece but they are much easier to press than the BlackBerry Bold 9700 and are very responsive. Another interesting change is that RIM has made the microphone hole almost imperceptible by making it just a tiny sliver on the bottom right side of the front bezel. They have also rounded out the blinking notification light to look like the 9800 instead of the 9700 style. RIM has moved the lock button to the top middle of the device and it is nicely recessed yet easy to press though it no longer mutes phone calls. For that RIM has placed a new button between the volume up and down buttons on the right side of the 9900. That middle button now acts as the mute button. They also placed the only convenience key on the right side. On the left side RIM placed the headphone jack and the MicroUSB jack partially into the metal bezel which creates a very slick profile. The bottom of the device has charging contacts which will probably be used for a charging pod though hopefully CaseMate is working on a Fuel case using them! All in all I have to say I am impressed with what RIM has done with the device design. Unlike the BlackBerry Bold 9700 or the Torch line the Bold 9900 is just begging to be shown off in the executive boardroom.
Internal Hardware (Aka "the Guts!"):One of the main things RIM has overhauled in the BlackBerry Bold 9900, along with the rest of the BlackBerry 7 line, is the internal hardware. For over 3 years RIM was using the same 624Mhz Marvell processor in all of their top BlackBerrys. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the first to break that mold with a huge jump to a 1.2Ghz processor along with a built in graphic processor. This combined with the updated 768MB of RAM and screen resolution bump to 640×480 with a 287 ppi pixel depth 24 bit display lead to what RIM calls "Liquid Graphics." I call it the BlackBerry OS you love on methamphetamines (speed) dunked in the fountain of youth. The screen on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is stunning and beautifully crisp making use of every pixel. I sort of miss the extra real estate on my Torch 9800 screen but the keyboard is well worth the compromise. RIM has also packed in a compass and GPS into the device to allow for augmented reality apps. On top of that we also have 8GB of storage built in to the device which you can expand with a MicroSD card. The only downside is you have to pull the battery to swap the SD card. The Wi-Fi radio was also updated to the newer 802.11n standard like the latest of the previous gen BlackBerry 6 devices. The battery on the 9900 has also changed from previous Bold devices actually bringing down the capacity from 1500mAh to 1230mAh. I was really worried about this because the device is now packing a processor that runs at twice the speed. From the last few days of usage I have noticed that battery life is pretty much on par with my previous BlackBerry Torch 9800 easily lasting through a day. I did run into one day of heavy usage (screen on all the time and testing the browser) where the battery died in about 12 hours but hopefully there will be Fuel cases and extra batteries to solve that for hardcore users.
Camera Photo & Video Recording:One of the compromises RIM made to make the 9900 so thin was to put a different camera in there from previous gen devices and the other BlackBerry 7 devices. The 9900 camera is fixed focus instead of autofocus. In my real world tests that resulted in sharp pictures for everything but macro shots. That means taking pictures of events or people came out perfectly but taking pictures of text or receipts close up was fuzzy. On the other hand the 9900 has almost no shutter lag. You press the button and the picture is taken. Oddly this also seems to be why the right side convenience key does not have two push down stages like the 9800 which let you press down half way to focus. In short some people are going to enjoy the camera and for others it is a place RIM could improve on in future Bolds. On the other hand video recording on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 got a nice boost to HD. You can now record 720p HD videos which means 1280×720 resolution. The videos look amazing and the audio comes out loud and clear instead of crackly. I had image stabilization turned on but my sample videos came out sharp especially when taken in daylight. I had some issues with darker settings but that is practically every video recorder.
Phone calls, Audio, Reception, Data SpeedOne of the things I was really interested to test out was the audio quality on the new Bold 9900. The Bold 9000 had a great speaker phone and phone calls were always clear. I found that the Torch 9800 was good but not great so I was really curious to see where the 9900 stacked up. I am happy to report that the earpiece on the 9900 is crystal clear and really easy to make out what people are saying. I asked friends how I sounded and even in low reception they had no issues hearing me though that could be Verizon's service instead of the dreadful AT&T call quality I am used to. What I also really liked is the touchscreen proximity sensor on the 9900 works MUCH better than the 9800 and I have yet to have my face push a button while on a call. The speakerphone on the 9900 is located at the bottom of the batter door right where the device arches up towards the metal side banding. That allows the audio to get out without being muffled against a table. I found the audio out of the speaker acceptable for phone calls though not amazing. People had a bit of trouble hearing me though I was testing it out in a relatively noisy environment. The speakerphone was decent for listening to podcasts but I found that music sounded "tinny". To summarize the audio is solid for phone calls with a better than average speakerphone experience. In terms of reception I found that unlike the BlackBerry Bold 9650 the 9900 picked up reception almost immediately when I came back into coverage. I would jump between towers quickly on Verizon and right when I got out of the subway I would get my emails. I cannot comment on how the GSM variant of the device works but we will be testing that soon. In terms of data speed this 9930 is running on the 1xEVDO network which is considered 3G instead of Verizon's 4G LTE network. While 4G LTE would be nice you can see that the battery life on current 4G phones is abysmal. NFC Radio:One of the things I was really excited about the 9900 was that it was packing NFC radios. This Near Field Communications technology promises to be a disruptive one with uses ranging from mobile payments to simply exchanging information like contacts or URLs. Sadly Verizon has decided to disable the NFC radio on the Bold 9930 at launch though hopefully that will change shortly once uses for NFC start cropping up. Until then I asked RIM why carriers are disabling it and this was their official response:
In other words it looks like a chicken before the egg problem. Carriers are trying to find a solid application for NFC technologies that leads to money in their pockets. On the other hand for such a solution to come to fruition devices need to have NFC built in and enabled… Hopefully this won't be another case like Verizon and GPS where they will fight tooth and nail to disable it unless they can make money from it. Included Accessories (Verizon Bold 9930)One of the things that really impressed me about the BlackBerry Bold 9930 from Verizon was not the actual device. The retail packaging for the Verizon 9930 includes a slick holster case that has to be one of the best BlackBerry cases I have used to date. It has a great feel and the locking flap magnet is much stronger than previous cases. It also has a nice ratcheting clip that stands up to more pressure. The Verizon 9930 also comes with a USB wall adapter with a MicroUSB cable to charge using that adapter or sync to your computer. Oddly it did not include headphones though I hear these bundled accessories are up to each carrier individually. ConclusionFor a majority of BlackBerry users the BlackBerry Bold 990 will be THE BlackBerry to own. That is until QNX powered BlackBerrys start up. The only real complaint I have about the device is that even with the 1.2Ghz processor the device does still hourglass when installing, updating, and deleting applications. Other than that I have only seen the hour glass once or twice while trying to do multiple heavy operations on the device at the same time. The 9900 speeds up practically everything you do with a BlackBerry from typing on its huge keyboard to using the touchscreen to interact. It all simply feels fluid and effortless compared to previous generation devices. The browser is super responsive and the messages app now opens HTML emails instantaneously. It makes me wonder if I will ever be able to go back to my old Torch 9800 or Bold 9700. If you are in the market for a new BlackBerry I highly recommend the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930. The 9900 is truly an engineering breakthrough for RIM with software that makes it shine. It really shows you that RIM is a player to contend with in the smartphone space. Now all we need is a QNX subsystem for BlackBerry smartphones to open up the platform to more developers and increase the number of feature rich 3rd party applications. If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 9:01 am. | BlackBerry Bold 9900 & 9930 Review | 13 comments |
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| Review: The Torch 9810, a solid touchscreen phone that is distinctly Blackberry Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT As many of you know, this week RIM introduces 3 brand new Blackberrys all running the brand new Blackberry 7 operating system. The trio–the Bold 9930, Torch 9810 and Torch 9850–will likely constitute RIM’s flagship lineup until a QNX based operating system arrives sometime next year. The Torch 9810, an updated version of last year’s Torch 9800, appeals to those who want the best of both the tactile and touchscreen experience. But unlike last year’s premature release, the Torch 9810 is a respectable step forward for RIM–a device that respects the best of Blackberry past and adopting the best of what’s out there to create a Blackberry future. Read on! The Blackberry Torch 9810 Looking at the press release for the three new Blackberrys, the Torch 9810 seems like the biggest non-story. Last year RIM announced the original Torch 9800 with high expectations. RIM thought the form factor would be a huge success–satiating its traditional base by implementing a slide-out version of its legacy QWERTY keyboard and satiating those with touchscreen envy with a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen. But with an underpowered 624MHz processor, reviewers, including myself, were unimpressed. The laggy experience, full of delays and clocks of death, soured the overall experience–causing most to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Hang in there, my history lesson has a point. The new Blackberry Torch 9810 is a perfected version of last year’s Blackberry Torch 9800. The combination of a revamped exterior, a beefed up processor and a new operating system, provides a smooth experience that reminds me of the RIM of yesteryear–a smartphone company that put out phones that above all else were simple, reliable and functional. The Torch 9810 is a reliable modern smartphone that is distinctly Blackberry.             Form factor: While not actually new, now that the Torch is (sorry to be harsh) a usable smartphone, I have really started to take a liking to the Blackberry Torch 9810 as a slider. The slide out keyboard really seems like the perfect way forward for Blackberry. New young consumers are all about content consumption and want the screen to take up the entire face of the device. Yet anyone who has tried to type out a decent length message knows that you just can’t beat the traditional physical RIM QWERTY keyboard. Processor: The processor is DOUBLE as fast as its predecessor–1.2GHz–and it shows. In two days of testing, I have not experienced any lag nor encountered a single black clock of death (is there already a catchy name for that dreaded black-clock?). Blackberry OS 7: Every phone/computer device is a combination of both its hardware and software. Hardware improvements and general spec upgrades are great, but without knowing how the software interacts with the new hardware it is nearly impossible to make judgments on the overall experience to the consumer–the only real thing that matters. While Ronen covered Blackberry OS 7 in depth, I want to take a minute quickly highlight a feature of the new operating system that makes the updated Torch 9810 a more pleasant experience than its predecessor. Blackberry OS 7 uses “Liquid Graphics TM technology for fluid animations, instant response times and stunning graphics.” (Source: Press Kit) For an operating system that relies more heavily on touch controls than previous iterations, the added emphasis on the smooth interactive screen experience was a good investment. An instant and smooth on screen response to finger inputs creates a truer feeling of interactivity, making me almost forget that I was using a computer (smartphone). Memory: The 9810 comes with 8GB onboard memory and supports microSD cards up to 32GB in size. In contrast, the original Torch 9800 only came with 4GB onboard memory. (Update: this section has been corrected.) Camera: While the camera remains the same for the most part, the 9810 supports geo-tagging, has face detection software, and records video in HD. Power: Batter power has been extended from the original 5.5 hours of talk-time to 6.5 hours of talk time. Updated casing: While the original Torch 9800 was all plastic, or so it felt, the new Torch 9810 has a distinctive metal casing. The metal feels like brushed aluminum (unverified) and feels more substantial than the original. The back plate has a checkered pattern that is both a aesthetically pleasing and functional, providing a better grip than any other Blackberry I have handled. Conclusion: While there are larger more subtle issues to be discussed later (like the upcoming QNX based Blackberry operating system), it is refreshing to see RIM back in the game. With the new trio of superfast phones, it seems as if RIM has finally recognized what it is good at–reliable speedy devices with physical buttons–and built a modern experience on top of that. But most importantly, it is nice to feel excited again about a Blackberry product. Well done RIM. Now keep em comin Note: a test unit was supplied for this review If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by David for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 9:00 am. | Review: The Torch 9810, a solid touchscreen phone that is distinctly Blackberry | 6 comments |
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| Review: The Torch 9850, a slate-like Blackberry with a unique character of its own Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT As many of you know, this week RIM introduces 3 brand new Blackberrys all running the brand new Blackberry 7 operating system. The trio–the Bold 9930, Torch 9810 and Torch 9850–will likely constitute RIM’s flagship lineup until a QNX based operating system arrives sometime next year. The Torch 9850, a re-polished and updated Blackberry Storm2 9550, forgoes the iconic Blackberry hardware keyboard for a 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen–making it the most atypical Blackberry of the three and positioning it as a serious contender in a market full of iPhones and Androids. The Blackberry Torch 9850 A unique phone in a crowded market: To be honest, the Torch 9850 threw me for a loop. I spent the entire first day comparing it to the iPhone 4, after all they are both slate-like devices. But in reality, the philosophy differences are huge. The iPhone looks like a clean slate device because the iPhone has a single hardware button and relies on on screen navigation bars at the top and bottom of most apps for navigation. It was only when I compared the Torch 9850 to Android devices that I understood its place. Androids and the Torch 9850 have a lot in common. Both believe that users want to feel grounded with stationary menu buttons beneath the screen. However, the problem for most Androids is that those buttons are touch sensitive–making them almost indistinguishable from the screen in both appearance and function; and trust me, nothing is more frustrating than accidentally hitting a touch-sensitive button below the screen and exiting an app in the middle of something important. The Torch 9850 avoids these problems by using four raised stone-like buttons. While I was skeptical at first, after some extended use, I understood the comfort of having real reliable stationary option buttons below the touch screen–a minimalist take on the Blackberry love for physical hardware buttons. Like the old school T9 text editors, the brain learns to memorize physical buttons, something harder to do with ever changing software buttons. In testing, I initially consciously focused on what was on the screen and used the touchscreen often. But within a few hours, my fingers would instinctively hit the hard menu buttons when needed, speeding up my overall experience. It created a comforting muscle-memory response that grounded what could otherwise be a terrifying leap into a fully software dependent world. It is the experience created by these physical buttons that makes the Torch 9850 a unique entry into the space and makes the Torch 9850 stand out from among its competitors.              Details Body design: The Torch 9850 is a handsome phone. The upper and lower portions taper outwards and the sides taper inwards, making the phone look like a tall slim device. Even though the Torch 9850 isn’t much taller than the iPhone 4, (4.72 inches v. 4.5 inches) the Torch 9850 packs in a larger screen than the iPhone 4 (3.7 inches v. 3.5 inches). A metal looking plastic band wraps around the sides of the Torch 9850 and across the top and bottom backing of the device–creating a contour where the back of the device is a little thicker on top and bottom of the device so that it doesn’t slip out of your hands. Buttons: RIM tried something interesting with the side buttons on the Torch 9850, making them razor thin. But while they look slick, they do not feel comfortable to use. The thinner buttons put more pressure on a single point, making it feel as if the button is digging in to the meat of the finger. Similarly, a play/pause dot between the volume up/down buttons feels like a finger prick every time it is pressed. Processor: Like the Torch 9810, the Torch 9850 is immediately responsive and a pleasure to use because of the massive increase in processor speed. The processor is 1.2 GHz. The bump is something that is immediately recognizable. So far I have not encountered any black-clocks of death or general lag in my weekend of use. Blackberry OS 7: Every phone/computer device is a combination of both its hardware and software. Hardware improvements and general spec upgrades are great, but without knowing how the software interacts with the new hardware it is nearly impossible to make judgments on the overall experience to the consumer–the only real thing that matters. While Ronen covered Blackberry OS 7 in depth, I want to take a minute quickly highlight a feature of the new operating system that makes the Torch 9850 a more pleasant experience than the older Storm. Blackberry OS 7 uses “Liquid Graphics TM technology for fluid animations, instant response times and stunning graphics.” (Source: Press Kit) For an operating system that relies more heavily on touch controls than previous iterations, the added emphasis on the smooth interactive screen experience was a good investment. An instant and smooth on screen response to finger inputs makes all the difference, creating a truer feeling of interactivity. Etc: The Torch 9850 has 4GB of storage that is expandable with a microSD card up to 32 GB; a 5MP camera that support geo-tagging, face detection and can record HD video in 720p; and enough juice for 6.8 hours of talk-time. Conclusion: While there are larger more subtle issues to be discussed later (like the upcoming QNX based Blackberry operating system), it is refreshing to see RIM back in the game. With the new trio of superfast phones, it seems as if RIM has finally recognized what it is good at–reliable speedy devices with physical buttons–and built a modern experience on top of that. But most importantly, it is nice to feel excited again about a Blackberry product. Well done RIM. Now keep em comin Note: a test unit was supplied for this review If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by David for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 9:00 am. | Review: The Torch 9850, a slate-like Blackberry with a unique character of its own | 15 comments |
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| BlackBerry OS 7 Review: Improvement Through Refinement Posted: 16 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT
I have had the chance to go full on with a BlackBerry Bold 9930 for the last few days and I have to say the thing that keeps coming up over and over again is the refinement. RIM did not make any drastic changes in BlackBerry 7 other than focus on speed. On the other hand you can see that they took some time to refine many of the features they added in OS 5.0 and 6.0. This refinement is something that has been lacking from RIM recently and I am really happy to see it coming back. I won't focus on the speed and OpenGL graphics improvement in the review of OS 7 since that will come with the device reviews but I will focus on the improvements I have seen so far and let me know if I missed anything. When I picked up my first BlackBerry the thing that amazed me the most was how fluid and thought out the communications process is. I have tried many other devices and every time this refinement is what brings me back. The example I always use is when you open an email and want to reply. You hit the menu button and the first highlighted option is reply. You type your reply and hit the menu button and now the default option is send. You see this type of fluid workflow at the core of the BlackBerry OS and now it is being refined and expanded in OS 7.0. Here are some of those refinements that I am enjoying: Enhanced Gmail Features are now available in the main "Messages" application
This is something I have asked for RIM to add since they added the Enhanced Gmail Plugin. With OS 7.0 you can now star, archive, label, and "report spam" from the main messages application. You used to have to go into each email separately to get this feature but now it works in the main messages app which combines all your email. All I can say is THANK YOU to whomever implemented this. You can now add contact information to an existing contact through the menu
This is another feature that I used to rely on 3rd party apps to fulfill. Say you had a contact but wanted to add another email address to it. Now you can through the menu! BlackBerry ID is now integrated into the OS We saw quite a bit from BlackBerry ID since App World introduced it but now it is part of the core OS. You no longer need to sign into your BlackBerry ID multiple times for apps like App World. It simply remembers you unless you want to purchase an app. Full version of Documents To Go with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Viewing, Editing, & Creating!
You used to have to pay at least $30 for the full version of Documents to Go. With BlackBerry 7 that is now free and works like a charm! The browser is MUCH faster and now has Developer Tools built in! The developer tools give BlackBerry developers a way to debug their BlackBerry browser apps and gives you the ability to easily view the source code of a page! No other mobile platform offers this! On top of that you can see that the new 1.2Ghz processors really speed up website loading and scrolling. Its a much more fluid browsing experience with a refined Torch Mobile browser. HD Video Recording! I am not sure if we should count this as an OS or hardware improvement but I love it! You can now select your own Homescreen Panels In BlackBerry OS 6 RIM introduced Homescreen Panels. Now with BlackBerry 7 you can select which panels you want. Improved Media Options
In BlackBerry 7 you can now select if you want the volume control buttons to control your tracks in case you have thick thumbs like me. You also have improved slideshow transitions that did not exist before. Grouping emails together gets its own menu option With the processor bump in BlackBerry 7 you can now group emails by subject with serious speed. RIM has also added the ability to toggle the feature to the menu. Backup your device or switch devices using your SD Memory Card!!!
This is a feature I have wanted RIM to add for years. You can now backup and restore all of your on device information to your SD card! Thank you RIM! Universal Search gets improved with Voice Search
With the faster processor comes faster Universal Search. It is now no longer indexing every time you want to use it and it throws in a new feature allowing you to search using Voice to Text. It actually works really well and I am really hoping RIM improves it with Voice Control of the whole OS! An easy way to view your storage use
I am not sure if this is new to OS 7.0 but I have never seen it before. I was on the homescreen icon for slacker and when I hit the menu button it let me select "view memory usage" which showed me the info shown above. Improved texting app RIM has improved the integration of the SMS conversation view. It now also only shows you how many characters you have left when you get under 15 which is less distracting. There have also been some other visual refinements. Improved Social Feeds app
The Social Feeds app in OS 7.0 also got a nice bump. It now has more than the two panels and even lets you create your own panels. Favorites and Flagged Items also get their own panels along with Podcasts. All in all I am loving these small updates in OS 7.0 and I really hope RIM has more in store. These are the small things that make BlackBerry my platform of choice. As I said before these are not huge improvements but rather small refinements. Other devices tend to just add headline worthy features but never integrate them or refine them. RIM is getting back to their roots by providing a more integrated and customizable experience. Let me know if I missed anything! If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:
Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 16, 2011, 9:00 am. | BlackBerry OS 7 Review: Improvement Through Refinement | 3 comments |
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I have been waiting for a solid leak for the CDMA BlackBerry Bold 9930. The OS Verizon ships with the 9930 is 7.0.0.254 which has a really annoying bug. For some reason every once in awhile my back button refuses to work and suddenly decides to fire up the task switcher instead. I have confirmed with 2 Rogers users that this was the case on previous OS versions for the 9900 and was fixed in later releases. Hopefully this does the same for the 9930. Thanks to the 
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