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New BlackBerry Bold. Lame name, but it looks Sweet.


Hands-On with the New BlackBerry Bold

05.12.08

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The new BlackBerry handset is intriguing, but the real news is RIM's new, much faster platform.

by Sascha Segan
Buzz up!on Yahoo!

The US' top smartphone maker, Research in Motion, today announced its first major new platform in two years. The BlackBerry Bold 9000 still looks like existing BlackBerrys, but it's packed with new power, most notably a 624-Mhz processor and high-speed 3G networking.

SLIDESHOW (4)
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The 9000 is only the first of a new line which will come to all major US carriers (both CDMA and GSM— even on T-Mobile's 1700-Mhz band), and will appear in various form factors, much as RIM's existing platform comes in businesslike 8800, casual Curve, and petite Pearl styles, CEO Mike Lazaridis said.

Superficially, the 9000 looks a lot like a streamlined Curve or 8800. The all-important keyboard has the 8800's sculpted keys, but the rows are separated by curved barriers. The screen is higher-contrast and higher-res, at 320 by 480, and the device runs a new version of the BlackBerry OS, 4.6.

"What has made us strong is the iconic BlackBerry look. So we've taken our best-selling product and kicked it up a gear," Lazaridis said.

But the important thing here is the platform rather than the individual device, Lazaridis emphasized. Much as the BlackBerry 8700 evolved into the Curve, Pearl, and 8800, the Bold platform will evolve in various directions as well.

The Bold platform includes a 624-Mhz Marvell Tavor PXA930 processor, 320-by-480 screens, HSDPA or EVDO networking, Wi-Fi, GPS, and support for up to 16GB MicroSD cards. RIM has tuned the phone's "sweet spot" for better phone call quality, and done something unspecified to improve Bluetooth music quality.

The Tavor platform integrates the HSDPA modem and applications processor on one chip, letting RIM maximize battery life, Lazaridis said. With the built-in 1500 mAh battery, RIM expects to get five hours of talk time and 13 days of standby.

One very unusual feature is 1GB of onboard, AES256 secure memory, for corporate IT managers to store confidential data in.

The new OS 4.6 includes DataViz' DocumentsToGo, which allows BlackBerry users to read and edit Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents; though, oddly, not Excel spreadsheets. HTML e-mails are shown in their full graphical glory. The HTML browser displays Web pages in desktop format.

New desktop software integrates Roxio's media platform better than before, making it easier to transcode music and video to play on the device. The spec sheet specifically promises iTunes integration, which we thought was interesting. Video plays at 30 frames per second in full screen mode.

The browser may also support rich media, such as Flash, in the future, Lazaridis said.

"We're adding all kinds of stuff," he said. —next: Hands-On With the Bold >

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http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/0,1206,l=227385&pg=0&s=1489&a=227383,00.asp