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
Yes, but Opera Mobile has way too many bugs. All in all, non-iPhone browsers simply look like college computer science projects attempting to recreate Firefox and failing consistently and miserably at it.
I love my BlackBerry and will continue to stay with RIM (probably will get the Thunder). But this is just disappointing. The good news is, at least with 3G, we will be able to tether the new BlackBerries to our ever-smaller laptops if we do need to read BGR while on-the-go
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facebook.com
I hate their mobile site and while you can make the blackberry load the full facebook site you can’t send messages etc. from it.
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Hi and really nice review of the browser!
You can test my french blog: http://www.blackberry-fr.com
Thanks!
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landscape the iphone at all no boy ?
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Some much great info on the bb, I’m sold…as most of you bb fans are, I’m just so ready for a release date.
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If I knew how, I would post a screen shot of my 8330 with Opera Mini.
RIM told me to download it because when I switched from my 8830, I couldnt do anything on my banking website suddenly with the new “improved” browser on the Curve. I went through 3 devices before I finally swallowed hard and decided it was the browser itself and took the plunge to call RIM and be on hold for hours. (It was actually only in total 45 min convo with trouble shooting) We couldn’t get the page to render correctly at all (you couldnt select most of the links on the page) and RIM didnt have an answer why this changed from one my old device. My rep went and talked to another rep that had the 8330 on Telus up there and he was having the same problem. He downloaded Opera Mini and was all set. RIM walked me through the download and I have never been happier with a browser on a device.
I pulled up the same websites and they looked IDENTICAL to the iphone, just on a much smaller scale because the screen is only half the size, but the pages render exactly like they do on my laptop. I have expierenced no bugs or freeze ups at all with Opera Mini in about 6 weeks or so), it sometimes can take 20 seconds or so to connect, but once it does, the 3G takes the pages pictured above about 4 seconds to completely download. It has really made me wonder 2 things,
How in the world could an app as good as this be free forever???
How come this isn’t on all BB as the default browswer? I have yet to come across a normal page it can’t process perfectly. (Some of my secure work sites that I have to sign in through the VPN dont work)
Bottom line, if you are in the market for the best (equal to iphone) internet browser, download the FREE opera mini browswer.
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Try loading http://www.Worldofwarcraft.com. It’s a pain to load on other browsers…
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What were the browser compatibilty settings?
If you’re going to do browser comparisons your should state the time taken to type in the URI’s first.
The BB browser has builtin features for developers (i.e. blackberry.location etc). Not sure if Opera has the same.
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http://www.worldofwarcraft.com took about 20 seconds to load, definately alot of info on that site. But it looks the same as it does on my laptop right now…
http://www.apple.com was a little different. The different shots of the iphone in the middle of the page didnt load, but all the links are there and clickable. It only took about 2-3 seconds to load. It was very quick. I felt bad going to an apple site on my BB, so I didnt play around much.
I’m thinking “conspiracy theory” on this webpage, considering its the only one I can think of that hasnt loaded properly. Either my BB sensed my distaste for apple and wouldn’t do me the dis-service of loading the page fully, or Apple has blocked all berries from viewing the page in its entirety… I think I’m onto somethin here…
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Can you post of video of the browser in action?
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BR14:
I’m not sure about the builtin features on the native BB Browser… sorry to sound like a novice here, but what do you mean by blackberry.location? builtin features? What do they do? What else is there? Maybe if you help to answer these questions, I can answer if Opera Mini can do this as well.
As far as typing in the URL, it takes maybe a third of a second longer. Instead of space bar for the periods, you have to hit alt-m. Thats it. Otherwise the entry is just as simple as on the native BB Browser. Infact, I like how you can set Speed Dials for quick access to your most use bookmarks, and use the 2/4/6/8 keys as a D-Pad to navigate the site faster than scrolling constantly with the ball. You still use the track ball as the mouse to select links, but its just easier to scroll with those keys used as a D-Pad.
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@ “g-man”
or should I say a-hole, or d-bag.
I got the iPhone 3G. It’s a great phone. I loved it. It is a great internet tool, that is when the browser doesn’t crash and take me to the home screen, like it kept doing.
You wrote:
“All you sucker Blackberry users are in for a RIM job. Sheesh, some people really have low design standards…”
In the words of Larry David, FUCK H-YOU!!!!
I am sick to death of the personal attacks and insults on these boards. Is it really that difficult to state your opinion without insulting people???
That goes for all you all making personal attacks, calling people stupid, etc., because they like BBs, or Apple products. It’s subjective!
BG’s review was spot on, if incomplete. iPhone has considerable strengths; it is a really impressive device. So are BBs, and I’m talking about the Curve, not the Bold (I’m dying to get my hands on a Bold). The lowly Curve works better for me than the iPhone did. And trust me, I’m confident my IQ, earning power, education, and taste are in the upper percentiles. The dumbest fucking I do is let the a-holes like you get under my skin.
But I can’t help it. I’m addicted to the BGR and tech news.
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+1 to the poster above who pointed out that you can set the BB browser emulation mode. It modifies the string that your browser (actually the BES or BIS) sends to the web server, identifying your browser. I’ve yet to find a site that this doesn’t affect the rendering on.
SG
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How about a video of side by side speed tests using 3G? iphone 3G vs. BB Bold Browser; then, iphone 3G vs. BB Bold Opera Mini. Speed, afterall, is the reason these phones upgraded to 3G - lets test it out.
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BGR does a better job than anyone in the tech industry - hands down.
Still every day there’s a hole in my heart as every day I am still wondering… When is the release date?
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I think the more important issue is not so much about how the page is rendered, because already this is a marked improvement from previous BBerries (I’m both a huge BBerry fan and a huge iPhone fan and own BOTH).
The bigger issue is the “experience”. The double tap zoom in with the iPhone is solid and perfect for viewing big webpages. BG mentions that you can zoom in by pressing the ball. I don’t know how that would feel over time. Kinda annoying if I recall the last time I view webpages on my BBerry. Moreover, the elongated screen on my iPhone makes web surfing a breeze. So much so, that I barely ever open up my laptop to view the net, unless I really really realllllly need to.
Thanks for the d33ts BG!
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I do. Punk
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Figures, the Bolds review never stood a chance on a site full of apple fanboys…you guys are ridiculous. I for one will be waiting for the Bold, while you can all enjoy your “me too” iPhones. Some of you all really need to grow the fuck up already…there is areas where apple lacks compared to RIM and vice versa…so why doesnt everyone just enjoy what they have and play nice, afterall, nobody is jamming the phone down your throat forcing you to buy it
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sorry but Iphone OW3NES BB on browing, its not even close once you add the screen size and landscape mode….PLUS touch.
email? yeah BB is better IF you have to use enterprise..i use .mac and it works just as good if not better,
i loved my BB but the Iphone works 10 times better for the average joe that doesnt need enterprise.
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When the cards are down, the point is clear: iPhone’s browser significantly outperforms RIM’s BlackBerry browser with little contest. Sadly, all the touting of the Bold being lined up to go up against the iPhone, toe to toe, is all a bunch of smoke. The only place this Berry is going to find itself lined up is behind the shed. So sad, RIM - I expected more.
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I have both a 3g iPhone and a bb 8310
It boils down to:
iPhone - the best out there for media/gaming/browsing
Bb - instant communications. Email/SMS/mms/facebook (instant delivery of messages/bb messenger ((can’t believe no one hasn’t mentioned this!)
Together they are perfect. I couldn’t do without my iPhone and I can’t do without my bb. If you made me choose I’d go for bb as for me I like to keep in contact with people in various different ways, I need (a stable - apple hasn’t got this) IM, email (I have 4 emails, all push), bb messenger (you need to experience it), facebook (graphically the iPhone app is way better, but practically the bb one works much better)
That’s just my personal opinion. There is no perfect smartphone, trust me I’ve tried a lot of them
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i do!
not bad, btw…
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I would like to see bigtitsatwork.com
Let’s be honest I have been looking for a phone that gives me the st home experience of masterbating while sitting in my home pc but while I am in public say sitting next to you on the bus.
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If RIM is listening… quit playing around… tell your developers to go get webkit and port it!
Also, it’d be nice if the user could select a menu option to rotate the page since most pages look better if displayed vertically( or build in an accelerometer(sp)
The screen format while immensely better than any previous BB screen, is a bit to small to see text without doing a few clicks to zoom in. They need to do smart scaling like on the iphone that if I click on a text block, that block zooms to fill the screen. It’ll get quite old quickly if I need to be constantly clicking in and out.
The screen shots that BG provided are a bit misleading since they make the BB screen seem large, but in actuality, the iPhones screen has a much larger footprint for the same number of pixels, and is more “human” in scale.
So, while it’s a big plus that RIM is finally addressing the weak browser experience, I fear that they’ve not gone far enough. Theres no excuse for pages not displaying all the content.
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How will the new Firefox Mobile browser change the experience, if any, the Bold?
Course the real question is, when will Firefox Mobile be released…
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