BlackBerry Bold browser walk through
Bored at work? Counting down those hours until you’re free? Hopefully this will help take your mind off of things. The biggest request we’ve been getting so far regarding the Bold is to post a browser walk through. We’re about to take you on a magical journey, friends, to BlackBerry Bold browser land. Somewhere you’ve never been before. Just for kicks we included some screen shots of the iPhone’s browser loading the same web pages, but as you can see, the Bold does a pretty decent job at banging sites. Hit the jump for all the pics and our comments!
As you can see, the browser renders pages worlds better than previous browsers on the BlackBerry OS. It’s a welcome change, but it’s still not perfect. It doesn’t do a great job with our header.
This is still in the initial view mode. All you have to do to zoom in is press in the trackball. You can do this as many times as you’d like until you get the desired zoom level.
Don’t get too freaked out with the jaggedness of the text here. It looks very clean and sharp on the device itself. Images also look better than in the screen shots.
Like eBay? Well then, you’d obviously like to check it out from your BlackBerry Bold.
While the browser handles a lot of pages with no problem, there are some sites that the Bold doesn’t play nice with. As you can see, the Bold didn’t render anything in the upper left box, the lower right box, and there’s still a decent amount of content missing.
This is the default browser screen you are greeted with. Anyone running a semi-recent version of the BlackBerry OS will be perfectly accustomed to this.
Here’s where things get a little tricky… Since the BlackBerry has a huge following, many sites have created BlackBerry-optimized versions of their web pages. The issue is that since the Bold is still seen as a BlackBerry, it serves up the optimized pages instead of what you’d really like to see. CNN does the same thing, and there’s no option on either site to exit “BlackBerry mode”. Though we’re sure this will be fixed soon enough.
We also checked out CNET to test the Bold’s rendering abilities. It did pretty well here, but again, there’s a lot of blank space, and even worse, the left column is actually all the way down on the page when it’s displayed on the Bold. Below are the iPhone browser images of the same sites…
Want us to test some more sites? Let us know in the comments and we’ll update this post with them!
Tags: blackberry bold, browser, exclusive, iphone 3g
Given the fact I have a laptop, probablly a UMPC once I can get my hands 128GB+ SSD version, work computer & home computer, I have more than enough time to browse leisurally. I suspect many other people with a job and assets totalling more than a $199 phone are probablly in the same boat. Ya, I wouldn’t complain about a better browser but this more than gets the job done when all I really want to do on my phone is check updates on news headlines.
Really, who browses the internet on their phone all day anyways?
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Wow impressive! I’m looking forward to swapping out the Iphone for it!
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Can you…perhaps put the pictures side by side? I know its a bit picky…but would improve the comparison greatly..
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Boy Genius,
Can you load Apple.com ? I’m curious to see how the Bold’s browser will handle such an intensive home page like that…
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man, it’s been almost two years since the iPhone was introduced into the wild and this is the best browsing experience Blackberry can produce? The browser might be a huge improvement to previous versions - but it still lacks and cannot compete with the iPhone…no way, no how.
All you sucker Blackberry users are in for a RIM job. Sheesh, some people really have low design standards…
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“who browses the internet on their phone”
Answer: mobile people, who don’t want to lug around a notebook and some over priced card with overpriced connectivity…
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Second on the request for Apple.com.
Also, could we see ESPN.com (the actually home page, not the mobile site)?
Cheers!
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http://www.espn.com and maybe check the MLB scoreboard?
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I’m guessing lots of people would or BG wouldn’t post an article like this, and people wouldn’t pay that much for a phone. I mean really, did you post on here just to gloat about what you have?? Some people also want privacy and don’t want to be checking some sites at work. I didn’t think this concept was that hard to understand.
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Not too bad-maybe i can dump opera mini when this comes out and just use the default browser
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its not about having a job, many of us travel quite a bit and need that browser when we are on the go for our jobs.
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Change the device settings for the browser to be viewed as IE instead of a bb browser. Standard feature on the curve anyway, and you wont get the mobile websites.
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I third that apple.com. I want to see how well it handles such a hard page to load, even on a home computer its an agonizingly long time to wait
Id like
To see how it takes that task on
Please!!!
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@Dan: You’re totally right. I like crippled features. After all, I can learn to live with them as long as I lower my expectations. Everyone should do the same–especially when it comes to spending a lot of money on mobile devices and monthly wireless bills.
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Hey thanks for doing this test. I (like many) am a hold out for this new BOLD. I must say I did consider the 3G iPhone, but changed my mind when I started to read the good stuff on the BOLD & and that AT&T was jacking up the price per month. Of course my only question is the same one that everyone has. WHEN CAN I BUY THE BOLD??? Thanks agin for your great example. I love your reports. Regards Tim
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+1 for apple.com, BBC, and some side by side shots BG
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Not bad given the real estate, and like you say, MUCH improved over older Berries like my craptastic 8700, but iPhone still looks king to me with regards to page rendering.
Any plans to try opera mini with this Bold?
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hell yeah im bored at work. thanks.
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Now, why is it everyone seems to think the Bold is “almost as good” as the iPhone - none of those screen shots look like as good as the iPhone zoomed out rendering of the entire page.
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how about a Google search, or just their main page?
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If you spend a lot of time sitting in an airport it is nice to sit and use the web without having to drag out the laptop.
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That’s because it is “unreasonable” to compare the Bold to the iPhone. iPhone’s browser is basically a computer browser. Bold’s browser is… well, a mobile browser. No comparison. On the other hand, pitching the Bold against other non-iPhones would make more sense, no?
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Hmmm…Opera Mobile (even with its many bugs) does the same thing as the iPhone’s browser AND it is worlds faster in my own tests of loading BGR after clearing all cache, history, and cookies.
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Well Opera Mobile doesn’t run on the BB, so what’s your point.
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Dan:
Great point on other options often being available for people; many do just browse on their home or work computers.
However, let’s be real here. If a computer was always there when you needed it, then why do you need a BlackBerry anyway? Why pay for a data plan just for e-mail, since you have so many other options? I understand that you have more than $199 in assets, but unfortunately an idea of how to structure an argument isn’t one of them. In fact, your argument is so poorly structured that it does a better job of arguing against buying a smartphone at all than it does advocating the Bold over the iPhone. Perhaps you should take some of your assets and invest in some more education. I could refer you to some schools. . .would you like the web address sent to your BlackB. . .oh, that’s right. My bad.
Oh, and to answer your question, the people that browse “all day” are often times the same people that spend all day responding to e-mail or reading sites like this before writing the first post on a topic. In other words. . .look in the mirror, genius.
Cheers.
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