Customer Reviews

BlackBerry Bold 9700 - Smartphone - 3G - WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM - QWERTY - BlackBerry OS - black

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

Alright, let me just say off the bat that as a former Bold 9000 user, I've been looking forward to the new Bold 2 for months since pictures were leaked on the internet. Since I get my phones through my company, I've had the phone since Nov. 18, when it was released on AT&T's network for Premier people. Unfortunately, my friend decided that after playing around with my phone, they wanted one, so I bought them an unlocked one.

The new Bold 9700 is a sleek phone - no doubt about it. RIM apparently has decided, though, to somewhat standardize their phones' look, a direction that bothers me to a great extent. One of the things I loved about the Bold was that it was different - you saw any other phone, and then you saw the Bold - and you thought "Wow, that phone IS bold!!" Size I couldn't care less about - as long as it looked good, and worked awesomely, what else matters? And the Bold 9000 fit those well. So when I got the new 9700, and I compared it to my coworker's Tour (for Verizon), I was quite surprised at how similar they were. It's actually somewhat hard to tell them apart (the 9700 is a bit smaller, and also has the trackpad). Just an observation....

Alright - to the review:

Pros:

Trackpad - this is definitely a most welcome upgrade. RIM outdid themselves on this part - I thought the trackball was good, this trackpad is great! The older Bold's trackball was great, as long as you kept dirt and dust out of it. Which turned out to be somewhat difficult, since there was a depression surrounding the trackball, and so if too much dust or dirt got in, the ball needed to be replaced. Also, if you used it too much, the ball would lose its grip, and become less responsive, also - once again - needing to be replaced. Both those problems are now gone with this new trackpad. For former trackball users, it may take a little use to get to know it, but once you do, trust me - you'll never go back.

Speaker - the speakers on the Bold are nothing less than stunning. My friend has an IPhone, and my speakers for playing music and speakerphone blow his out of this century. Not only can they get very loud, but they also are quite clear and crisp, for the volume you can put them to. And, if that wasn't good enough, RIM includes AudioBoost - for when you hook your Bold up to your car or stereo system, which bumps the output sound even higher. Excellent....

OS - the new BlackBerry 5 OS, which comes preloaded on the phone, is a major improvement over the 4.6 version in most other phones. It's snappier, and quite more responsive.

Camera - RIM upgraded the camera from a 2 MP in the older Bold to a 3.2 MP in the Bold 9700. The pictures that the phone takes are quite good, even in poor light conditions. Of course, if you try to take pictures in the club with it - prepare to be somewhat disappointed. Ha. But for regular, everyday camera uses, that "quick shot", the Bold 9700 actually takes decent pictures. Nice for when you forget to bring that digital camera with you.

There's a couple other pros I can think of, but they're more along the lines of business users, or based on networks (you could get 3G speeds on AT&T's network since the first Bold - T-Mobile just got their first 3G BlackBerry with this phone). If you're interested in them, drop me a comment, and I'll get back to you.

Now, for the cons:

Battery - battery life is still somewhat bad, although it definitely is an improvement over the older Bold. I normally use Pandora - an App that plays Internet Radio, trust me, this should be one of the first apps you download, it's free - the other is Google Maps, also free - anyway, back to the review, so I normally use Pandora, and I can get about 6 hours out of the battery, with small breaks in-between receiving phone calls. So, in normal use, you could probably get about a day out of the battery, which isn't terrible, but also is somewhat worse than comparable phones out there.

Hardware - this is probably my biggest negative I had. Normally, when they say upgrade, you would think they would put better hardware in the thing, right?? Well, think again. With the exception of the upgraded camera and trackpad, there is NO difference in hardware between this and the older Bold.
Zero.
Nada.
I would've liked some upgraded hardware in the phone. But again - this is just my thing. You may not care.

My last negative is more hit and miss - some people have been reporting that BlackBerry Maps - the app that RIM ships with the phone for navigation, doesn't work on the 9700. Myself included. This appears to be at random, but it just irks me. It may be dependent on the network you're on. Fortunately, there's a workaround - get Google Maps.

So - overall, the phone is a nice update. It works, takes nice pictures, looks sleek, and can be used as your new boombox when you want to blast "What is Love?" by Haddaway. (Kidding on the last one) I would completely recommend this phone, even with some of its faults, since they don't really take away from the experience with the phone.

I'll update this review from time to time, as I continue to use this, so if there's any questions, please feel free to ask.

UPDATE: As of today - 8/3/2010 - RIM has announced that their new BlackBerry OS - 6 - WILL be compatible with the 9700. So if you are looking at this phone, but aren't necessarily a fan of OS 5, or weren't sure if updates would be released for it - fear no more.

UPDATE 2: Today, 1/26/2011 - RIM has still not released the OS 6 for this phone yet, which is just BS. I included a link for those of you who are feeling dangerous and don't mind using beta software, so here you go - [...] Remember - it is a beta, so some things might be different, but I didn't notice any less functionality.

I recently bought this phone from Worldwide Distributors. In the Technical details of the product it clearly states "Quad-band GSM cell phone compatible with 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies and US/International 3G compatibility via 800/850/1900/2100/ 1700/2100 MHz, UMTS/HSDPA plus GPRS/EDGE capabilities" The phone I received is not compatible with all 3G bands as stated. I got a T-Mobile phone which works with 3G bands 1, 4, 8; that is equal to 2100, 1700, and 900 and does not work with 1900 my operator 3G band, also does not work with 800 and 850 as stated in the Tech details. So I bought a 3G phone that does not work in 3G which is equal to a 450USD paper weight. Needless to say I am surprised that Amazon been a company of such high reputation allows sellers to publish such false and misleading advertisement. If that wasn't enough Worldwide Distributors return policy clearly states "Cell phones may only be returned for refund within 3 days if they have been unopened and all original seals are intact." You will need to open the box and turn the phone on in order to see frequency with which it works, so this means, screw you, we will not accept the return of the phone. Last but not least, should you happen to know which operator works with which frequency, they have this little pearl in the return policy "Buyers are responsible for network, GSM band, and Carrier compatibility, including internet browsing, picture and text messaging functionality which are not guaranteed." Double screw you, you just paid 450USD for a paper weight and you are stuck with it. Worldwide Distributors you SUCK and I will make sure that everyone I know knows about this, and AMAZON ignorance is not an excuse.....

I have been using this phone for about a week now. And while this device beats previous bold 9000 in many aspects there is still much to be improved. So let me first say things that I do like about the phone. Of course the greatest improvement was the addition of the trackpad, at first it was kind of unusual to navigate with it but I got accustomed to it very quickly. Second thing is the screen resolution, it was improved from the old bold by 480x360 vs 480x320 pixels. The screen is really crisp and bright and sunlight legibility is very decent. The camera also experienced an improvement and while I was taking pictures outside on a bright day and later comparing them to the previous bold, there is a very noticeable change, pictures look somewhat close to my wife's 10 megapixel canon camera. I was also surprised by the improved quality of the videos this device shoots. Much better and less pixelated than the original bold! Now for the things that I don't like or wished to be improved. Despite of the fact that everyone raves about "amazing" battery life on this device, I must say I am disappointed. At best, the battery lasts me a day and a half but not two day as many reviewers say. Perhaps I do extensive web browsing and chatting via instant messaging. I usually like to read various blogs and news on opera mini 5 browser and I noticed that this application along with IM+ drains battery like crazy! Of course at least now I don't have to carry a spare battery with me like it was with the previous bold since I am sure this one will last me for the full day. But most often I still have to charge it every night. Which is kind of a disappointment and not what I expected after reading various reviews. Now about the browser: It sucks.... It simply sucks so much that any other smartphone's browser will put it to shame. But another annoying problem now that I noticed is that I can't get to mobile version of citibank online at all! No matter how I would reconfigure the browser... So it means no banking online for me as I used to do on my previous bold. Very annoying... The browser is still slow as hell and only the fact that I have opera on this phone doesn't make it a deal breaker. I must say though that I am running a latest .405 version of the software and perhaps the issue with banking online maybe be fixed in later versions. Which I again, doubt very much. Now another disappointment is the absence of many supported languages. For example there is no Russian support whatsoever. But than again, it may be released in the later versions. I hope so. And now last but not least is the speaker quality. In the first day of use I noticed that the speaker has been downgraded. Instead of the three speakers which previous bold had, this device has only one and when you bring the volume all the way up you can hear a rattling noise. Not a very nice experience... Overall I like the device especially it's size, I was skeptical about it as I liked the bold 9000 big screen. But this one seems to be slim and looks more eye appealing. Also I like the battery cover design, you can not accidentally open it and whole device seems sturdy and has a look of a professional tool. Hopefully with next updates there will be support for more languages. But as of now I am giving it only 3 stars.

UPDATE:

Couple of weeks ago I noticed that phone would randomly delete data, but today was the worst: In the morning I discovered that all my contacts were completely wiped out!!! by itself! And when I tried to restore them from the backup file it would not do that saying that the file is read only. I tried this file in my old curve 8310 and it worked flawlessly. So I suspect that there are serious bugs in the OS 5.0 and AT&T is not coming up with any updates as of yet. In a mean time I am lowering score for this phone because I am very disappointed by the poor implementation

UPDATE 2:

As five months passed since I got this phone, I must admit I like it much more than I did before. True, I still have some issues with it, but these issues are just too minor comparing to lots of useful features that this device delivers. Previously I wrote that it deleted all my contacts from the phone book, and last week it just happened again but I noticed that it happened after I added an another gmail account to the phone. So after I gooogled a bit I found out that gmail actually will sync your contacts with your gmail account but for some unknown reason remove them from the phone book. So basically all you have to do is to download google sync on your phone and transfer contacts back to the phone book. So I tend to believe that this issue has more to do with google gmail setup rather than the phone itself. Also the issue with the Citibank mobile site have resolved mysteriously, and now I am able to do banking through the native browser (which still sucks by the way in many aspects) I am also looking forward to the release of OS 6.0 which should include webkit browser with flash support and other new and exciting features. So I must say that ever since I got this phone it never crashed or restarted on me, not even a single time. So I must increase the rating of the phone to 4 stars as it's been a really great tool which I certainly can rely on in terms of usability and trust.

I'm not your typical reviewer when it comes to phones. I'm a principle staff mechanical engineer who has spent 15 years designing phones, first for Moto and then for Nok. As part of my job, I get paid to buy competitor phones, try them, tear them down, take notes on design, performance, and then write 100-page internal reports on each product. It is a fun job. I've done this on roughly three or four HUNDRED different phones during my career. I do not work for RIM.

I did a complete tear-down on this product, and I also have been using the phone for three months.

This is one of the most incredible phones I've ever used. Seriously.

The build quality and design are best-in-class. The user interface is excellent. It is also has an elegant, very expensive look about it, helping earn its current undeniable position as an "iconic" phone that's become a must-have for everyone from investment bankers to Hollywood's power elite to rock stars. I do not overstate that. I have friends who are investment bankers, people who make over a half-million a year. They can afford any phone but they don't carry an iPhone, or a Nokia Virtue ($20,000). They ALL have this exact phone. They won't be seen without it.

Take your iTunes, move your music-of-choice into a "Blackberry" playlist folder, then sync to this phone using Media Sync in the Blackberry Desktop Manager. Even your album artwork zips into and shows up as you browse on the Blackberry! Plug your Bose QC3 headphones directly into this phone and listen to music. The audio chip on this 9700 produces awesome sound.

You can put a 32 GIGABYTE memory card into this baby. Yes, I'm serious. That's a lot of music, and movies! My Apple iTouch and iPod are now on a shelf collecting dust.

Take your home videos or entire DVD movies and convert them to Blackberry 9700 resolution using the free Roxio Media Manager, and you'll be amazed how good they look on this phone's amazing 480x360 LCD.

The camera is amazing. The thing auto-focuses on your subject in a fraction of a second; a phone that actually takes FOCUSED photos!

The phone syncs to all your Outlook data super fast. Contacts, tasks, calendar, etc.

Did I mention the optical navi mouse? You have to try this. You will love it. Swipe your finger over it, and that is sensed optically, and the cursor on the LCD moves with same fast response as a PC mouse. Even has the mouse click. Now you run Opera Mini web browser, and you have a better web interface than an iPhone - because with the Blackberry you can zoom in / out, and at same time use the navi mouse to scroll web pages and mouse-click hyperlinks, just like web surfacing on a PC. Sorry Apple, but this Blackberry has a more efficient interface than an iPhone for web surfing.

Google maps! This phone's GPS is so fast, it updates your position in Google maps while you drive. Also, you really must see Google maps "street view" run on this phone. So cool.

The processor is damn fast. You can stream your custom radio station off Pandora, while Google Maps is auto-routing directions, and then switch to browse photos, then back to Google Maps. Can you multitask that on an iPhone? Nope.

But it is the wonderful little things that Blackberry has done with the UI that really make a difference. Exchange an SMS with your friend, and the Blackberry is smart enough to immediately switch that into an SMS chat thread where you're seeing the entire conversation thread out, as if you were using Yahoo Messenger (which you can use as well on this phone). I've never seen SMS message real-time chat threading like that, except on the Blackberry products. So cool.

And the available apps, both free and paid. So many amazing apps you can add to this phone.

You will love this phone.

This phone is awesome! I LOVE IT!!! It is so fast! Best of all, however, is you can use it as your primary internet. Yep! Just uninstall your old Blackberry desktop manager and install the new disc that comes with your Bold. Connect your phone to laptop with the usb cable that comes with your phone. Open your new desktop manager...you now set an IP profile from the list...like say T-mobile if that's who you're with...click start ip session and you're connected to the internet. And it is FAST!!! I got rid of my DSL and my Sprint air card it's so good. Have fun with your new phone. You're going to love it!

ALERTA.... ALERTA.... ALERTA.... ALERTA.... NO RECOMENDADO.

La empresa Lucky Electronics es una total estafa le compre un blackberry bold 2 supuestamente nuevo y cuando lo recibí tenia los siguientes detalles:
1) No enciendes las luces del teclado la de menú ni la de send.
2) El equipo tiene cámara de 2MP y no de 3MP como lo ofrece en la publicidad.
3) No trajo la tarjeta SD 2GB que ofrece en la publicidad.
4) El equipo tiene problemas con el trackpad óptico.(NO FUNCIONA)
5) Por ultimo se quemo la bateria y no enciende el equipo ni carga.

ESTE VENDEDOR NO SE LO RECOMIENDO A NADIE es un total peligro (ESTAFADOR DEL MERCADO) me vendio el equipo en 385$ y no me reintegro nada por los daños simplemente dice disculpe las molestias causadas.

Dicen vender equipos nuevos porque vienen de Hong Kong pero es FALSO...
EL QUE TENGA DUDAS MI CORREO ES javiersarabia1404@hotmail.com

First I would like to say that before having the Bold 9700, I owned and absolutely loved my curve for nearly two years. It was/is the best phone I have ever had, and it was super bulletproof (besides a $3 trackball replacement every now and then).

So when my free upgrade became available, the Bold 9700 seemed like the best choice. I was initially seriously excited about the new size and sleek operating system, but when sending a text 6 days after getting the phone, it locked up, shut down, and would not reboot.

I exchanged this Bold 9700 for another new phone at the wireless shop, and this phone performed the same failure 14 days later.

I exchanged that failed Bold for a third Bold. This time I insisted on getting a fresh SIM card, memory card, and charger, as I thought maybe there was a hardware interaction that wasn't the phone's fault. This (3rd) Bold lasted TWO days, then it shut itself off while sending a text message. I hope somebody at RIM figures this out, and I would strongly suggest that nobody purchase this product.

i got this phone from sellphonestop and isnt new, its refurbished, the first time i saw the phone i thought was new, but few days later i start to have doubts about it because the phone started to crash. theres a way to know if you phone is new or not. first if you have an older OS than 6.00 you need to do this:

go to options, then status and write BUYR, will appear hidden data about the use of the phone, if the data is 0 then your phone is new

for os6.0 find status option and do the same

i tryed today and my phone use was 11 hours of voice time, and 481mb of webbrowsing. so be aware of this seller

the phone came with no memory physically the cell phone was not new, this changed the housing that does not fit well, the cells showed signs of dirt for use without micas of protection when new, the frame counter this in 1640 . Bad buy. action amazon

I used it for 3 weeks, and the p button just fell off, I never drop the phone, no scratch at all.
If you google the web, it turns out lots of people have the same problem with bold 9700.