Blackberry Bold: Welcome to the Smartphone 2.0 Age

When I was debating whether or not I would upgrade my Blackberry Curve, I had thought a couple of things:

1.) Would the Bold really live up to expectations?
2.) Given the current economic climate, did I really want to spend money? i.e. Was it really worth upgrading?
3.) Did RIM really make enough changes on this phone?

In short, the answer to all these questions is a resounding yes.

Background:
Let me first give you a little bit of background into my decision to even consider the upgrade. Recently, many of my friend have been jumping on the iPhone bandwagon - they are professionals but don't respond too often to business e-mail via their iPhone. Yes, it allows them to use POP3 and IMAP, but they never had the user for Microsoft Exchange. Given my employment situation, being available via e-mail is a necessity - longer e-mails, timely response and being connected 24/7 is a given. While my friends were breaking out their slick new phones at dinner or at bars, I would be reminded that my Blackberry Curve had become outdated. Moreover, the Curve had become so unoriginal that everywhere I looked - anyone who had a Blackberry was toting it around.

First Impressions:
I went into the AT&T store to check out the new Blackberry Bold, I hadn't really considered buying it quite yet. I noticed that the keyboard no longer had spaces inbetween the letters similar to the Blackberry 8800, but unlike the Curve. I had used the Blackberry 8800 previously and I had been happy with the keyboard at the time - however, the Curve's spacing made it a lot easier to type, especially if you have larger fingers.

The screen was okay - much larger and hard to compare because the newer user interface was nothing like the Blackberry's of old. The Blackberry was slick, it was black and the back felt like it was made from leather. The trackball was a bit smaller and the buttons that we are all used to weren't raised / differentiated from the screen. Overall, I thought it was a bit light and I was a bit concerned that it wasn't as robust (or accident resistant) than its predecessors.

I left the store to continue contemplating my decision to purchase or not to purchase...

Homework:
Doing some homework on the product, like you all out there, I began reading reviews. Taking a look at another Blackberry out there, I considered the Blackberrry Storm. Like all Blackberry users out there, I was concerned with the Storm's lack of physical QWERTY keyboard. My biggest problem with the iPhone was the inability to type precisely. Yes, the auto spell check is nice - but I don't want to stop every other word to have my sentence be corrected - I wanted to write it myself.

I used the Storm for a bit and found that the clicking while helpful was still qutie annoying and I preferred the Curve. I liked using the trackball and found that through the years of being a Blackberry user I had been trained well by utilizing my keyboard for shortcuts and my trackball for quickly finding the applications that were important to me. I was going to have to pass on the Storm.

WiFi and 3G. These two items finally drew me to my decision to purchase the Bold. I was using the EDGE network, which at the time seemed to be much faster than the regular AT&T network. Downloading applications or using Google Maps was slow - but seemed much quicker than regular cell phones. After realizing the Bold had WiFi capabilities as well as a quick 3G connection, I realized that for my everyday purposes, it would be a phone well worth investing in.

Review of Features:
Call Quality - The call quality of the Bold is similar to other Blackberry's. I do still at times get my calls dropped in my house - but when I'm in the car or in the office - this is not a problem. I think this happens to be AT&T's problem though - not the device's.

User Interface - It took me a while to get used to the UI, given that RIM's old interface was programmed into my bones. All the keyboard shortcuts work though - so it should be a pretty easy switch. The UI is much more Web 2.0 looking so when you pull it out at a bar - you don't have to hide it from your iPhone buddies.

E-mail Setup - Setting up my personal e-mail was a synch - similar to the other Blackberrys out there - they make it very easy to set up. Warning for experienced users, it is in a different folder than before as they have shifted away from their traditional hierarchy. Setting up my Office's Exchange took a few tries, but our IT was able to install it within 30 minutes (Note: They mentioned that they were having problems with the Storm).

Web Browsing - This was the largest improvement for me. I was able to watch YouTube videos and view pages much quicker than before. Their new web browser actually rendered web pages rather than skewing them all over the place. Your trackball becomes a mouse - so its really useful when going from page to page. My only complaint here is that sometimes you must zoom in before getting the ability to click a button.

Battery Life - My battery life has been shorter than the Curve's it still lasts a full 24-36 hours with normal talking (1-2 hrs).  I believe that the WiFi and 3G drain the phone a little bit more than a normal EDGE network. This also may come from watching many more videos on my phone than I previously did.

Trackball - It sticks sometimes and is considerably smaller than previous versions. I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing being smaller - but it took a little getting used to.

Keyboard - 8800 users will be able to switch without noticing. Curve users will definitely need a day or so to adjust to the keyboard.

Memory - I haven't had an issue with it yet, but if you do you can buy an SD card for under $20 dollars, which will solve all problems.

Camera - I'm not a big fan of using phones as your camera - however, this one takes upto 1600 x 1200 pictures, which isn't too shabby. There is still a lag and the lower quality comparatively with high end digital camera's these days.

Overall Shell - Very slick, very nice. Still concerned if this will be able to hold up over the long haul. Blackberry's used to be bricks and get thrown around on the concrete - now it looks like they are becoming a little more fragile. Hopefully, the Bold just gives the illusion of that.

Third Party Applications:
Google Apps - The first thing I do when I get a Blackberry is download the google applications. GMail, Google Maps, Google News, etc all work beautifull with the phone. In fact, the new GMail interface makes the phone's interface look even more like an iPhone. Google Maps loads faster with the new 3G connection - so if you are lost, no need to fear, get your directions quickly and hassle free.

Viigo - A new application for Blackberry lovers everywhere. I'd download this just to check out RSS feeds, sports scores / rankings and the latest news. I recommend for business / consumer use alike.

Overall Summary:
I would recommend to anyone sitting on the fence to purchase this phone. You will be happier with the larger screen, faster network and overall slick design.

The only concerns moving forward would be the fragile nature of the device and the calls dropping every now and again (probably an AT&T problem).