Thread: Blackberry Bold 9900

Blackberry addict and connoisseur, the Torch was a huge disappointment - it was a phone released while in beta, and as such one was eagerly awaiting Torch 2 and Bold Touch. In particular, the touchscreen integration on the Torch was awful, the screen poor in terms of resolution and the overall experi*ence pretty dismal. One had high hopes from the Bold 9900 but it too disappoints. Let's start with what's good about it: the keyboard is the best in class. Simply put, no one else in the world makes keyboards like Blackberry does. Second, the touch*screen experience is markedly better than on the Torch. Thirdly, the build quality is significantly better than before, but still way behind peers like the iPhone, though it is thinner and sleeker than before. As far as good news goes, that's about it.

It took two brand new devices to be bought and returned because the Blackberry OS 7 is simply not a major improvement over OS 6 but actually a disaster while using the switch device wizard, which simply refused to work. I tried everything from wiping the device clean to removing third-party apps, but no luck. Finally it was done the old fashioned way by backing up and restoring which happened only after four attempts. Not just this, the first new device kept randomly rebooting itself - I did about 40 random reboots, yes 40 in 4 hours! The web and user forums also indicate that several others are facing the same issue. Blackberry should be ashamed on releasing buggy OS software time and time again. Has anyone ever heard of an iPhone rebooting by itself?



The Bold 9900's screen again dis*appoints with its mediocre resolution (640x480) - Samsung Galaxy S2 remains the best screen on any smartphone in the world today with the Super AMOLED, not to mention the myriad qHD and retina displays out there. The battery life is noticeably less than the Torch for the bat*tery is smaller (1200 mAH vs. 1500 mAH on the Torch). The app store continues to disappoint, as does the user interface and the third-party apps. Another small gripe - when someone pays ~3I,000 for the phone don't you give him a 8 GB micro SD card with it like Samsung does? Also there are numerous complaints about its poor customer service and responsive*ness in India - just search the web. The only place where Blackberry pushes the envelope is with Near Field Communications (NFC) in the Bold, but then one is not aware of any NFC applications or outlets accepting them in India yet.