Customer Reviews

BlackBerry Bold 9650 Phone (Verizon Wireless)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I acquired the Blackberry Bold 9650 as part of my annual phone upgrade. I was able to get a 2 for 1 deal so my wife got one as well. This is the first smart phone for both of us. After having it for a little while I feel I can make an educated review.

My Service is Verizon Wireless. In my area I get excellent coverage with very few dead zones (haven't found any yet). The Verizon 3G is extremely fast and reliable and I have yet to use the wifi as the 3G is as fast or faster than wifi in my area.

The phone is a nice size. My friend has the Curve 8830 and they are almost identical in size. The Bold is slightly longer and slightly thinner than the Curve (were talking fractions here, almost undetectable). First thing one will notice is that this phone feels sturdy. I wouldn't toss it off a roof, but it definately feels very well made. There is also some weight to this phone. I don't know how it compares to other BlackBerry's weight wise, but you definately feel like your holding a phone. The phone is not heavy though and I can hold the phone all day long as it is a very comfortable fit.

For previous BlackBerry owners, the keypad has been redesigned. The keys are slightly larger than those on the Curve. The keys have also been pushed together whereas on the Curve there is some spacing between the keys. This helps to keep the phone narrower and also help keep food / liquid out of the gaps. The keys are easy to push and again feel solid. The keypad for me is easy to type on though you will make a few mistakes. It does take some getting used to the keyboard. The keyboard is the standard QWERTY type so should be familiar to most users. The keyboard is backlit for easy visibility and the phone adjusts the backlight depending on surronding light levels. The track pad is easy to use and is a vast improvement over the trackball on previous models. The trackpad works the same way as a touchpad on a laptop.

The screen is bright and easy to see. I would recommend a screen protector to anyone buying this phone. The screen is also smartly organized with the icon positions. Like the keypad, the screen will automatically adjust its intensity to the surrounding light levels. The screen is level with the case with no where for dirt or lint to get trapped.

The apps and programs for this phone are what make Blackberry number 1. I really enjoy blackberry messenger and app world. The programs are very simple to use and straight forward. I will caution anyone that the Verizon Apps (vcast, vz navigator, etc.) are an extra charge on top of the data plan fees. For those like me that don't want to pay the extra charge a quick search in BB AppWorld will find you as good or better apps to replace the VZW ones. My one complaint is VZW loaded some games onto the phone which are demos and require you to purchase them. If I want to buy a game, a quick search in BB AppWorld will let me pick from a large selection. BlackBerry is mostly for business use, but don't let that fool you. There are plenty of fun apps with more coming out all the time.

I have never had an issue with the battery life. One will find that the smartphones will go through a battery faster than a standard phone. However, if you turn wifi off and make sure you exit all of your apps then battery life isn't an issue. I suspect that people reporting poor battery life either don't know how to turn off their apps properly or are leaving the wifi on.

I have yet to use the wifi feature as VZW 3G is extremely fast in my area. I do my web browsing through the google app and find that a page will load in 10 seconds or less. The web browsers fuction the same as any web browser on your computer. Imputing webaddresses is slightly slower since you wont be able to type as fast but still easy.

The call quality is excellent. People often tell me they forget that I am on a phone. It is by far the clearest phone I have ever owned. Included with the phone are a belt case and earphones. There are also international adaptors for the plug so you can plug your charger into any outlet. The belt case is well made and good for casual wear. I am in public safety and the case is inadequate for my needs so I ordered an OtterBox. The case should hold up for your average person. There is a magnet located inside the case that will automatically put your phone into sleep mode when you insert it. This helps to conserve battery life, yet you can still hear incoming calls.

There are a few negatives to this phone. First is where Research In Motion (RIM) decided to put the mini usb port used for charging. They located it on the right side of the phone about mid way up. This makes it a pain in the butt to type while charging your phone. Charging ports should be on top or bottom of the phone. Also, the convience keys on the side of the phone are a pain in the butt when pulling your phone out of its case. I have disabled them to make it easier for me. The earphones that come with the phone are horrible. They are clear sounding and do have a built in mic so you can use them as a handsfree device. They are also stereo which is good. However, that is the end of their good points. The earphones are extremely uncomfortable to wear. I wore them for about 40 mins and was left with ear pain for about an hour afterwards. The earphones do not allow you to hear in comming calls so if your phone is not on your hip you will miss a call. They are good for occasional use but I would recommend a bluetooth.

Accessories I would recommend for this phone are a car charger, Bluetooth, and an aftermarket case and screen protectors.

I have had a Blackberry 8830 (Verizon) for a couple years, and was recently given the 9650 as part of a periodic refresh at work. While I've been mostly happy with the 8830, it is showing its age; compared to the iPhone and various Androids, it feels slow and dated, Verizon's disabling the built-in GPS in the 8830 is aggravating, and the 8830's scroll wheel is mechanical and notoriously trouble-prone.

When I was offered the 9650 as a replacement for the 8830, I was excited. No more crippled GPS (and in fact, the GPS on the 9650 is great -- with A-GPS enabled, it acquires position in seconds). The new optical trackpad is a huge improvement over the 8830's scroll wheel. And it has WiFi, much more memory, a much faster processor (624 MHz vs 223 MHz).

After I got the 9650 on Tuesday, I charged it, and took it home. Wednesday morning I turn it on, except it won't turn on. Turns out the battery is drained. Thinking I hadn't charged the battery long enough, I charged it again. Wednesday afternoon when I left work, it was at 100%. Yesterday morning I once more woke up to find the 9650 completely drained. Actual standby time appears to be much closer to 15 hours than 300 with WiFi enabled, which is pretty awful. Yes, I can disable WiFi, but shouldn't the phone's own power management functions do a much better job? My friends with Droids and iPhones don't seem to be having these issues.

Also disappointing: even though it has a much faster processor, it still feels as slow as the 8830. Booting can take several minutes(!!!) after installing apps. And for some reason, SMS and MMS messages now have a separate inbox you have to navigate to to read; on the 8830 they came in the same inbox as your regular email. This is hopefully configurable, but I haven't figured out how.

Mild annoyance: RIM switched from mini-USB to micro-USB between the 8830 and the 9650 *and* moved the jack position, so you need to put the phone in the holster upside down if you want to charge it while holstered.

Sorry RIM, but no sale. This one is going back.

I am a blackberry user through and through. When my Blackberyy curve broke, the verizon store set me up with this new variation of the blackberry.

I am not impressed. Here are a few of my issues with the phone. Whereas I could put my old blackberry in my purse and not mistakenly call people on accident, this phone calls people on its own all the time. There is probably a lock feature but I never had to use it on the curve model so it irks me that I have to use it now. The battery life is not very good but for all the things that the phone is supposed to do, that is to be expected. I just carry my charger with me everywhere. I find no utility in the wifi feature. The sales associate told me not to keep it on for too long b/ it would use up to battery at a faster rate. Lastly, the big difference between this model and the rest is the trackpad as opposed to the little trackball. I'm told that the trackball breaks or falls out of a lot of blackberries and that this might be a move to deal with the design limitation. I have never had that trouble so I don't know. The track pad is pretty neat. It's looks sleek and is very smooth but it takes a little time to get use to. For those of you who love the brickbreaker game, it will take a lot of time to get used to. I still personally prefer the trackball.

The phone still makes good calls and I love the verizon support team but if they could have given me the blackberry curve over this phone, i would have taken that instead.

Update: I found the lock button so hopefully, I won't call anyone by accident anymore. It's on the top of the phone. Also, after googling the issue I discovered that you can hold down A to get it to lock.

I miss my Curve, eventhough this phone is more sleek and has many more options. The extra memory, speed and bells and whistles come at a price. Mainly, this Bold 9650 has crappy battery life (loses charge after about 12 hours with little to no use) and call quality (speaker) is worse. The keyboard is also very easy to mistype characters compared to the Curve.

I have made numerous phone calls with this phone in the past 3 weeks of owning it and I've lost track of how many people tell me that they can't hear me and the sound is poor. I never once had that comment when using the Curve. My wife got the same Bold as a 2 for 1 deal and I often can't understand her on the phone, just sounds muddy and not clear. I hope there is a firmware upgrade that might fix this, otherwise I'm stuck for 2 years with a phone that can't make clear calls.

The good about this phone is the extra memory and speed. I can surf the net, get real websites without too much problem, and stream Pandora. If I fully charge the phone and then start streaming Pandora, the battery lasts about 4 hours.

Bars - well, I had Tmobile before this and sometimes my old Curve would show no bars of signal but I could still make clear calls. With this Bold and Verizon I often have 3 or 4 bars but no signal or dropped calls - perhaps it is interference with other items in the house? I can't figure this one out.

In conclusion, I feel that I would have rather kept my old phone until it died, but unfortunately it was lost. I hope Verizon releases some updates to help make this phone a better product (call quality and battery life are 1st above all other toys).

My old curve gave out, so Verizon swapped it for the new Curve 8530. Wow what a piece of junk that phone is. Fells cheap like a toy, and I had all kinds of problems with bluetooth and battery life and freezing, keys sticking. Do not buy that phone. So I went back before my 30 days and swapped for the Bold 9650.

I really like this phone. It is a bit larger form factor than the new curve, much like the old curve. It feels robust in your hand not cheap like a toy. The keys are bigger, but I still do miss the old curve as the keys were more spread out which is better with my fat fingers. I love the Wi-Fi feature. I keep it off until I need it and then it is easy to fire up when I am ready to use it. Fairly fast connection with it and a great feature to have. I have been getting about 2 days out of the battery which is a bit less than the old curve.

The coverage with Verizon is the same with brown spots here and there, but generally good. This phone is much much faster than my old curve. Start up is quicker and switching between applications is much faster. Basic functionality is also improved. I use the phone for business and so far it is working great. It would be nice if they would make a phone with a slide out keyboard like my daughters LG. When that comes out I will be ready.

It is a constant race to keep up with new phones, and all the different versions it has to offer. I have gone through about four phones so far, and the Blackberry 9650 is my fifth. I have seen so many people with it and wondered what's so special about this phone?, but when it had arrived I was not dissapointed. I felt like a child on Christmas in the middle of Novemeber opening this present, and spent the whole night setting it up.
The phone came equipped with a manual, battery, charger, phone, and changable socket ports for the charger. For the first couple of months the phone worked well as the company had promised, but started freezing a lot whenever I would do too much. How could texting be doing too much for it to freeze? However, this phone was a major upgrade from the previous phones I used to have despite its problems. I was able to listen to music, go on the web, social networks, and use the messenger thats only for Blackberry users (Bbm). I thought sometimes my phone had a mind of its own when it would upgrade by itself and I would wake up to see a new version, which got me mad half the time.
The product was a good source of entertainment for me, and apps that were available to other smartphones such as the Iphone were available to Blackberry users too. Some of these apps weren't free, and that turned me off from using the app world in general because all the good stuff isn't free, what a rip off! Getting this phone will surpass your expectations despite the errors it may have. It's like keeping in contact with close friends like AIM but ten times better. It's like feeling you get like with any phone once you take it up you cant put it down for hours. Overall for a year and four months countinuing with this phone is worth it because I find something new to do with it, and the phone cases are just too cute to get rid of it.

Other reviews have details of the Blackberry Bold 9650 so I am not going to add to what has already been written. What I do want to warn you about is to not waste your time and money on this phone. First, some background. I previously had the Blackberry Curve which was my first smartphone. It worked well, had nice apps, was reliable and had decent battery life (would have to charge at night). I am not a heavy downloader from the internet nor do I use my phone as a music listening device. Outside of its intended use as a phone, I use it for e-mail, texting, internet browsing, and the Google maps app as a navigation device. I am the type of person that does heavy research before making a choice of something like a mobile device, and read lots of reviews both positive and negative. And I don't like to make quick judgments but rather give a device the benefit of the doubt before drawing any lasting conclusions.

After using the Bold for over a year, I can tell you I am so disappointed and frustrated with it that I am going to switch to another phone mid-contract, which I really hate to do. Here is why. First, while I don't have huge fingers, the keypad is extremely hard to use effectively. It is poorly designed and while the shape of the keys is intended to assist in easier and faster typing, I find it does exactly the opposite. I constantly have to go back and correct mistakes as I am writing a text message because of misspellings and letters added that I did not type. Plus, the shift key is absolutely tiny and hard to use, which may not matter much to those who do not believe in capitalization, but bugs the heck out of me. Next quirk is found when using the internet. If I click a link in an e-mail which opens the web browser, after looking at that page I have to exit out of the browser, turn off the phone, pull out the battery and restart, or just wait an hour or two before I can go to another unrelated webpage or open a saved website. I have been round and round with technical support, and ultimately it is just the way this phone works. Another bothersome issue is that Flash is not supported so you miss a lot of internet content available to Android, Windows Mobile, and iPhone users. And unless the website is specifically designed for mobile phones, you think you are using dial up when you try to open the webpage. I have used my wife's new Sony Ericcson Android phone to do the exact same things I use my Blackberry for, and there is simply no problem as that set-up works beautifully. It is two different worlds, and while the main complaint about Android phones is their short battery life, she charges her phone every other day, and I must charge my Blackberry every night for the charge to last all day (and that is without heavy internet usage. If I use the Google Maps app, I get about 2 hours of battery life). Another thing I really have noticed between the Sony now and this Blackberry is the difference the screen size makes when viewing anything on the internet. I compare it to looking at my 14" laptop compared to the 23" screen on my desktop computer-you really, really notice the difference.

In summary, the things you want a Blackberry for-reliability, good battery life, lots of effective apps that work well, easy and fast typing for e-mail and text-the Bold does NONE of these things well. I thought of myself as a devoted Blackberry fan (especially considering the 29.99 unlimited data plan which you cannot get with Android phones) after the Curve, but this is my last Blackberry.

In converting to the BlackBerry Bold 9650 from a Treo 700P with the Palm operating system I was most concerned about losing stylus access to my smart phone. I need not have been concerned. The track pad on this unit provides all the functionality of the Palm stylus. Indeed, when accessing the web it provides a movable arrow. Conversion to the BlackBerry was done in two steps, first converting Address Book, Calender and Memos via CompanionLink software to Outlook and then, using the BlackBerry software, uploading Outlook data to the BlackBerry. I cleaned up my old Palm data in Outlook before uploading to the BlackBerry. I had been using Palm since 1997 so had lots of old data. The transition has been fairly smooth for me. The only issue I have with the BlackBerry Bold 9650 are the small keys. The Treo 650 and 700 keys were larger and easier to use. I frequently hit the adjacent key when keyboarding on the 9650. Otherwise it works well.

Like the phone and the carrier, but the start up was less then ideal! Was not given the option to port an old number, was assigned an area code that I don't live in, was given a number that belonged to a dead beat and Verizon turned the phone off unknown to me! I've bought many phones off the Amazon Wireless site, never have I had this bad of service.

I think I have had every BB so far between work and personal and this one is by far the best. What is the best, feels the best (quality wise) best speaker, cell phone battery life. Nothing to complain about, it works well. What wy I like to see improved, well the Internet but I know accessing the Internet on a BB sucks so I cannot complain much but boy would it be sweet with a better easier to read browser.