BlackBerry 9700 Review: Part 1
Oh you thought we fell off. Nope — we’ve just been tearing apart BlackBerry’s latest flagship over the past week or so and our review is finally perfectly crafted. The BlackBerry 9700 replaces the Bold as RIM’s newest flagship device. Even though it’s not released yet — look for it anywhere from mid-October to mid-November depending on what part of the globe you reside in — it’s BlackBerry’s most advanced QWERTY device to date and combines all of their next generation features together in a smaller and lighter package. We’ve already detailed our thoughts on RIM and how they are doing on the software side of things and this review will be mostly hardware focused. We will also follow up with a Part 2 review as we did with the BlackBerry Tour since this model is not a production unit.
Hardware / Design:
Gorgeous. How do you like that description? From the beveled edges to the powder-coated keyboard, this is one good looking BlackBerry. The much loved (and hated) fake leather textured battery cover makes a reappearance here as does a trackpad to handle the navigational duties.
The 9700 makes the Tour look like a bloated 8-month pregnant single mother. Shave about 24% of the surface area off the Tour, bevel the edges, round the corners, and you’ll have something close to the BlackBerry 9700. It’s the most gorgeous BlackBerry on the planet. And no, that’s not up for debate or discussion. Early units had the straight RIM color theme on the keyboards (white letters with red accents/symbols) but the unit we have which is most likely what AT&T will receive is all white. This looks great meshed with the titanium chrome finish on the bezel and the high gloss black finish on the front of the device.
This theme is always brought up in our reviews of BlackBerry devices — RIM really keeps innovating in hardware design and manufacturing. It seems as if each device they make has a brand new manufacturing process and technique, and while you might view this as a negative, we view it as a positive. Unlike a car maker, RIM can’t make a chassis, so to speak, that they use for all their models in a series. Since each device is unique, it’s great to see RIM experiment with different planning and assembly options to deliver the best product possible. Eliminating the number one failure point on a BlackBerry (the trackball) and replacing it with something that’s not just going to save money in the long run, but is actually a better solution is great. Making desktop chargers that use battery contact points to save wear and tear on the mini/microUSB port is smart. Speaking about the trackpad, we’re not sure what’s up because there’s a nice and day difference between this one and and the one on the BlackBerry 8520. It might be the exact same hardware revision, but something about it feels better to use and after a day of not using the traditional trackball, we can’t imagine not using the trackpad. It’s a worthy successor to the trackball.
What about something that’s often overlooked? Vibrate. We’d like to be the first ones to report that the vibrate function on the 9700 is straight up violent. It’s possibly the most downright disrespectfully loud and obnoxious vibrate mechanism we’ve heard in recent memory. And we love it. Switching gears to the physical buttons on the 9700, it will make a BlackBerry user feel right at home. Two-stage camera shutter /convenience key on the lower right side of the phone with volume up / down buttons towards the top of the right side. Left convenience key on the opposite side with lock and mute buttons on the top of the handset. There’s the now-default 3.5mm headset jack and microUSB port sitting above the left convenience key. Below those are a lanyard hole. Thrilling, we know.
The 9700 is very much like the 9520/9550 in terms of industrial design and gives us a glimpse at where RIM’s styling is headed for the next round of handsets. Things like soft-touch rubberized finish on the middle of the handsets with matching rubberized buttons (instead of chrome), darker chrome finishes, high gloss black — all these lead to more pronounced and edgier designs for a historically conservative corporation.
Screen:
RIM really moved in a brand new direction with the Bold’s display and ever since, they’ve been continuing the tradition of awesomeness. We’re really happy to report that the BlackBerry 9700 has the best screen to date of any BlackBerry handset. It’s that good. The resolution, which is the new RIM gold standard, is 480×360 and while you wouldn’t expect it to be any better than the Tour’s or Curve 8900’s screens, it is. Pictures appear as if they’re floating on top of the display, blacks are black and colors are crisp and vibrant. There’s a pretty decently-sized black border that goes around the entire display much like how the BlackBerry Tour’s screen looks, and while people have moaned about this ad nauseum, it doesn’t really phase us.
OS:
The latest versions of OS 5.0 (which have leaked for existing handsets like the 9530, 9630, Bold, 8900, etc.) show a slight UI refresh with more blues, more gradients, updated icons and buttons and even — *gasp* — kinetic scrolling on some devices. Here’s where it gets a little tricky, though. AT&T’s BlackBerry 9700 evaluation units shipped with OS 5.0.0.169. The unit we have originally came with that OS and worked magically. It, however, didn’t have the updated UI that later OS 5.0 builds contain. After upgrading our unit to OS 5.0.0.215 (internal builds for the 9700 are up beyond .249, we’re told) it’s now rocking out with the updates features and sexified UI elements. Why we’re going into this so deeply is because there’s a good chance that if AT&T’s 9700 passes technical acceptance without issue (we don’t anticipate the same issues that plagued the Bold’s release), the version that will ship with the 9700 will be 5.0.0.169 or something close to it. That means that you’ll be running an “old” 5.0 build and it’s interesting to see this play out. You’ll obviously be able to install different OS versions for yourself that have been released by other carriers, but we just wanted to give you guys a heads up that the release unit’s OS might be a little different.
Keyboard:
We don’t have to keep reinforcing it (well, we just did, we guess): we take those keyboards seriously. Throw the BlackBerry 8900 keyboard out of the window on this because it’s completely different. Imagine the BlackBerry 9700 keyboard as a mix of the Bold and the Tour keyboards. Tour-shaped (little better) with the bounce and feel of the Bold keyboard. It’s really fantastic. Definitely not as large as the original Bold’s mammoth boat-sized chiclet pad, but it’s great. We’d probably go as far as saying out of the current generation BlackBerry handsets, the BlackBerry 9700 is the best. You’ll see that theme appear time and time again in this review. Each little key has a nice carved design that allows for precision typing at its finest. Keys have a decent amount of space and even though the shift keys at the bottom look a little small (they are tiny), they’re completely usable and really don’t turn out to be a hindrance when it comes to getting your typing on.
After a couple hours of usage we have no doubts that you’ll absolutely fall in love with the keyboard. The feel of the keys coupled with the shape and proper layout that’s standard on all BlackBerrys offer a truly excellent typing experience on the BlackBerry 9700.
Phone:
The unit as a phone is fantastic. That will obviously depend on what network you sign your life away to, but even on AT&T, when the network worked, the 9700 made for a great phone. The actual ear speaker seems less recessed than previous BlackBerrys and we could hear callers loud and clear using the ear speaker. Speakerphone also worked well (as it should) with minimal distortion at maximum volume. Quite refreshingly, the device didn’t get too hot during long voice sessions and we really had no problems using the phone as a phone.
Browser:
While the browser in OS 5.0 comes with some improved Javascript support, it’s still no where near any of the top dogs like Apple’s mobile Safari, Android’s webKit browser, or Palm’s webKit browser. Using the browser with the trackpad as the cursor is definitely a great input method (remember when the trackball made use of the cursor back in the day for the first time?) and feels natural to navigate websites. The browser seems like one of the things that changes most as OS builds move further and further along so we’ll reserve our hatred for the browser in our final Part 2 review.
Speaker:
While the Bold offered three different audible speaker ports (one on each side and one at the top) for pretty accurate sound reproduction, the BlackBerry 9700 uses a single opening towards the top part of the back of the device. This works fairly well and sound, uh, sounds good. We did notice a volume decrease compared to the Bold, but not by much. Maybe around 15% lower? Nothing is going to beat that Storm 2 speaker, though…
Battery:
We’re not sure how they did it, but the BlackBerry 9700 has the best battery life of any 3G BlackBerry in recent years. It could probably even rival the BlackBerry 8900 — truly unbelievable. The BlackBerry Tour was the king of battery life, and that was odd seeing as how CDMA devices usually are a bit worse than their GSM brothers and sisters, but the 9700 has one-upped the Tour. For some rough statistics, the BlackBerry Bold with normal usage patterns lasted me around 7 hours of usage until the battery was dead. How long do you think the 9700 lasts using the exact same BlackBerry Bold battery? Try around 15 hours. We’re talking more than double with a faster CPU and using the same battery. Really remarkable and will help those on-the-go warriors.
It’s funny to see RIM use such a wide range of batteries in their devices. Then again, for a company that has 15,000 different models, 4,000 different screen resolutions, and 2,000 different form factors it doesn’t surprise us. What you’ll be happy to hear is that your existing BlackBerry Bold battery will work perfectly in the 9700 and will yield you better battery life than you’ve ever imagined.
Note: Battery life was based on OS 5.0.0.169. It’s dramatically worse in OS 5.0.0.215 which the unit is now running.
Conclusion:
It’s pretty hard to make a general recommendation nowadays with any device, let alone a BlackBerry. With four form-factors in the BlackBerry family, it complicates things.
The BlackBerry 9700 is a much-needed refresh to the aging BlackBerry Bold. To date, RIM has released only a single 3G GSM device in the United States and with competition heating up, the BlackBerry 9700 looks to be their answer. We absolutely gushed over the BlackBerry Tour in our review and until the 9700 came along, that was our daily driver. Is the BlackBerry Tour still the best BlackBerry on the market? We think so. But as good as the Tour is, the 9700 is better. There seems to be a drastic difference between CDMA and GSM hardware on BlackBerry devices (we’re guessing it’s the Qualcomm processors opposed to the Marvells) and it’s actually exhilarating to be back on a GSM device. The BlackBerry 9700 combines the most-loved features that have been sprinkled about on BlackBerry phones over the last year (3G, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, trackpad, QWERTY keyboard, smaller size, faster CPU) and combines them into a single sexy and compact package.
“So you’re saying the BlackBerry 9700 is the best BlackBerry ever?”
Yes. It’s the finest BlackBerry ever crafted and if you’re asking why it’s so much better than the Tour, it goes back to that CDMA vs. GSM argument as well as the fact that the 9700 is simply a year newer. We nailed the Tour all the way back almost two years ago, and sadly the internals seem to be a little outdated. There’s no official CPU specifications on the Tour, but if we had to guess we’d guess it’s running at around 500MHz give or take. Rumblings have pegged the BlackBerry 9700’s Marvell Tavor CPU running at close to 800MHz! It’s a lot faster in normal usage than the Bold (both running OS 5.0) so in addition to the RAM being doubled, we’re pretty sure there is a faster CPU dropped in there as well.
Every single thing about the BlackBerry 9700 screams high-end to us, and for a device that’s a part of the Bold-series (the Bold won’t go anywhere, we’ve been told), it should. It’s the best of the best to come out of Research In Motion to date and we can’t wait until everyone’s able to use one.
Check back for Part 2 when we follow up with a review on an AT&T release unit.
Image courtesy of TweetGenius.
WOW… I havet he Bold 9000 and I really like the Bold 2..
I got it only 6 months ago.. but it makes me get this blackberry…
Amazing design, amazing battery life. the 9000’s battery life was horrible. doens’t go over 18 hours even only used for calling for only 2 mins.
I’m looking forward to getting one of those!!
Hi everyone,
I’m using a Bold in Europe for more than 1 year now and I would never change it for another bb model. The Curve 8900 is beautiful but it doesn’t make sense now to have a phone without 3G. Other new models (Tour, 8520) are not as efficient as the Bold is.
I was only missing one thing in my Bold: a real camera. And a smaller size could have been a plus.
Now it seems that RIM will release THE perfect Blackberry. I can’t wait to buy this 9700! Good camera, smaller size than Bold, 3G, GPS. What else can we expect? (Perharps a Nespresso option…)
I hope that the latest version of OS 5.0 will have a powerful webbrowser. That’s all we miss to make all iphone users cry!
Go go Blackberry!
AT&T is not the best i change 6 months ago from T-MOBILE. AT&T drop calls, calls not going through and of course the most expensive service and worst reception. The bold is a great phone but should of went to T-MOBILE long ago.
WOW. you have no tastes whatsoever…
I am new to the B/Berry word and I am very much interested in the 9700, as a new berrier what are the pros and cons going for the latest version of b/berry? Help newbie!!!
I hope its a good blackberry version
lol – notice it’s always an apple disciple who manages to get the first comment on a BB topic!
Dear Angry Ranters:
* It would be nice to talk specifically about the review and the device.
* It seems like there is an awful lot of off topic BS here guys. can’t we take that to a chat room where you can duke out your market-based scenarios? i would love to talk about the device and RIMM’s direction and rate of innovation not VS anyone else.
* Over 200+ comments and it’s like only TWO people out of the lot of you commented on a MAJOR change in the battery charging interface. Hello? this one “runs on diesel” and you “hate the look of the back”?
Dear Reviewer: I am on my 6th BB now and I found your review fluffy, too topical and overly complementary. you also glazed over the key changes too lightly.
e.g. how can you possibly mention this charging interface change in passing, just show the contact points and then NOT explain the change(beyond improved reliability…*feh*) and then NOT show the new charger?
Traveling biz-people travel light and I don’t want to buy much less carry around a DOCK or another car charger. I liked the mini USB interface cuz it’s a cord, it’s small and it’s a very common standard.
I had hoped to find a headset that also charged by miniUSB cuz the main reason i don’t use that is BECAUSE it’s a second charger to carry.
And you act as though the charging approach is a minor change. It’s pretty significant after six to eight years of miniUSB.
PLEASE SHOW US THE CHARGER. THIS IS A MAJOR OMISSION FROM YOUR REVIEW AND A VERY SIGNIFICANT CHANGE WITH NO EXPLAINATION!
AND SWITCH TO NON-FAT MILK.
here’s what a proper shot of the side of the device looks like when you are thinking like an engineer and not just interested in the look and feel.
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3600/9700n.jpg
Would be great if you could review the T-mobile version also.
I have had many Bold’s (required 4-5 refurbished replacements…ugh).
When is this new Bold going to be released?
Also, I would say ATT had great coverage, but I experience numerous dropped calls per day. I dudn’t have this experience with my old Curve, so I am not sure whether this is a Boston/3G problem, or a Bold specific issue, but it sucks.
I love my Bold, but I’m a bit disappointed in the looks of the new Bold. The old one was built and advertised on it’s elegant look. Best looking BB ever, very stylish, and felt like it looked…sturdy. All the pics I’ve seen so far of the new model look like they took a step backward. Looks typical, light, cheap and flimsy. Hopefully the features will make up for it’s look and feel.
I think the new Bold looks better and I prefer the size of the Curve (frankly, I think the Curve is the ideal size) and the current Bold 9000 is very bulky for this day and age.
I agree with Jon, the new blackberry bold 9700 is looks better than the bold and the bold is bulkey. This 9700 looks just like the curve. they should have just called it the curve 8990 or something else. It is definately sharp and I am really glad that it is going to have 3G and all a faster OS than the 8900. I never really liked the bold. This I will buy…
im new to blackberry cell phones, but im very excited about the new bold 9700.
especially after i get to know more about the 3G, Wi-Fi 3.2 MG camera and faster proccesor, plus its smaller design.
right now im thinking about getting a new 2 year plan with ATT, they have the best coverage in my area. which t-mobile has only 1 bar, sometimes 2.
and i’be deciding on getting a iphone or blackberry smartphone and since i have this ipod touch, which has wi-fi, its pretty fun playing with it, but i have no confidense in using it as a phone.
i mean a real phone should have the keys where u can see them and easier to get access to, but with iphone, you have to use the touchscreen all the time, take longer to get to wherever u wanna go. and i always worry about touching the screen and make it dirty.
with blackberry, it has the qwerty keyboard and a big enough screen to watch video and loading web page, i think its a ideal to use as a phone.
last thing i wanna say, iphone is more like a PERSONAL ENTERTAINING DEVICE to me instead of a phone that will me with all kind of task i want to do. people who use iphone and people who use blackberry are completely different group of people. dont you guys agree?
I am really waiting for this BB. Let me know the price for the phone.
I cant wait for this new Blackberry 9700, if it’s sorted out all the Bold problems and upgraded the cameras pixel content.
Liked.
+5
just bought mine from cleverkit.comm and yes def the best blackberry handset ever!!
This device looks gorgeous. much better than the Bold.
But I do believe the numbers in red are much easier to read them all in white. It is easier to focus when you only need the numbers.
definitely is the best BB on the market… maybe one of the best ever made
Can you turn the 3G off to save battery life and just go with EDGE … only using the 3G when you really need it?
Thanks
release date?
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at the earliest withoutfail
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it’s already up on the carrier web sites ATT & T-mobile http://macspotlight.blogspot.com/2009/11/blackberry-bold-9700-appears-on-rim-att.html
Love the review