BlackBerry Bold 9930

It's been something of a long time coming, this emboldened Bold. We got our first glimpse of the thing in February, spent some quality time with it back in June, and since then have sat around eagerly awaiting its release. Now, here it is. From a distance, or at a quick glance, it looks little changed from 2008's Bold 9000. But get closer, pick it up, and the difference is astonishing.

RIM has gone to great pains to talk up this device's high-end design, its luxurious stylings, its sophisticated aesthetic. We're far from Vertu territory here, but the first time this phone hits your palm you know a lot of people spent a lot of time making it feel just right -- even if it still looks just the same. Of course, it's what's inside that counts, so join us as we find out whether the soft and hard bits beneath the surface can do the business too.

Display

The new Bold offers a 2.8-inch LCD that may not be much bigger than that found in previous Bold models but is at least higher resolution: 640 x 480. It's hard to get too excited about stepping up to VGA in 2011, so forgive us if we're a little underwhelmed by the pixel count here, but resolution is more than adequate. In fact, its 287dpi rating is mighty close to the vaunted 300dpi supposedly needed to get us close to Retina territory. Coming from a big-screened slate of a phone you'll feel underwhelmed by the size here, but most BlackBerry users will appreciate the extra pixels.

If indeed you can get past the size you'll agree this is a very, very nice display offering plenty of brightness for sunny days, beautiful color reproduction regardless of conditions and viewing angles good enough to offer almost full-contrast -- even when you can see only a sliver of the screen. It's quite a looker, just a shame it's so small.

 

Wrap-up

The BlackBerry Bold 9930 feels like the beginning of a transition -- the last hurrah for an OS that isn't much longer for this world. Or maybe that's just us being optimistic. We'd love to have been able to use this phone with a more modern, more refined feeling OS, but as it is we have some great hardware running software that just won't appeal to anyone who has already left (or was never pulled in to) the BBM fold.

And maybe, for now, that's the best RIM can do -- stem the tide. The company isn't exactly losing its customers, it just isn't growing as quickly as the competition, and until it has a truly mainstreamable operating system it never will. So, don't look at the 9930 as a phone that'll end what ails RIM and introduce it into new markets. Look at it as the best damn embodiment of what BlackBerry is today -- and then join us all in crossing our fingers as we wait for the next release of BlackBerry OS, which hopefully will bring something truly different to the table.


(Taken from Engadget )