If there’s ever been two devices so closely pitted against each other, it would be none other than the BlackBerry Bold and the iPhone 3G. Heck, people we’re even putting the original iPhone against the Bold. We’re going to break down each device piece by piece and give you an unbiased comparison of both. We’ll give you our personal opinion at the end, but besides that, we’re going to be completely accurate and fair. Hopefully this will help you make up your mind on what phone you’re going to get. You know, if the Bold is ever released, and the iPhone 3G is ever in stock. Hit the jump for the craziness!

Design:

BlackBerry Bold:

Some could agree the Bold is the sharpest and cleanest-looking BlackBerry ever to come out of Waterloo. With a complete black face, chrome border and sides, and faux black leather back, the device looks great. From all the matching chrome accents all over the phone to the simple and not confusing layout, RIM has designed a great BlackBerry which should set the bar for future devices down the road.

iPhone 3G:

If there’s one iconic handset design in the last couple years, it would certainly be an iPhone. There’s not too many people on earth who couldn’t easily recognize the device. The iPhone 3G is a logical extension of the previous model, still holding true to its original design roots. While there are two color choices, each both work marvelously well with handset’s design. It would be hard to find a more solid and sexy design on a phone. From the gorgeous screen to the matching black (or white) back, you’ve definitely got a true Apple product — totally minimalistic, yet offering enough access to the most commonly used functions.

Even though the Bold is definitely a looker, we’d be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t give the design award to the iPhone 3G.

Build quality:

BlackBerry Bold:

The BlackBerry Bold is built extremely well. Not including minor screen scratches and things of that nature, the Bold should be able to last you as long as you want to keep the thing. The unit is a little lighter than it looks and there no creaks or anything to get you worried about. The only negative thing we’d have to say, it that the build quality on the BlackBerry Curve slightly trumps the Bold. We’d ever go as far to say that the 8800 does too. But not the Pearl. Hell no.

iPhone 3G:

Unless you’re talking about military-grade handsets, we don’t think you’d have an easy time finding a handset as well built as the iPhone. From precision-laser-cut glass, to the absolute stunning engineering on the inside of the device, we see the iPhone 3G lasting you a very long time. Even with key scratching and concrete-dropping, the iPhone 3G definitely holds its own.

The BlackBerry Bold’s build quality is great even if its not as good as the BlackBerry Curve, but we can’t help but feel the iPhone 3G will last the average user longer. You know, there’s no moving parts. That alone gives the iPhone a head start, and since the screen is proven to stand up to a lot of abuse, the most fragile part on the device is actually the strongest.

Size:

The Bold is the biggest BlackBerry to be released in a pretty long time. Well, since the 8700. It is larger in every way than the BlackBerry 8800 and can sometimes feel a little hard to hold in one hand. It’s definitely no Curve. Comparing it to the iPhone 3G, the iPhone is a tad bit taller than the Bold, but less wide, and thinner. The iPhone 3G feels much better when holding it and using it, but since the Bold’s keyboard makes use of the larger size, we’re going to call this one a tie because of the pretty comfy Bold QWERTY.

Screen:

As much as we we’d love to say the iPhone’s screen is better, it isn’t. Not in terms of displaying graphics, text-based content, or even videos. Everything looks better on the Bold due to the incredibly dense ppi ratio. You have to see it to believe it. Honestly. On the other hand, the iPhone’s screen is a close second, with a vibrant and large 3.5″ display. When you’re not using the on-screen virtual keyboard, the entire screen is your oyster, and you can make full use of it. We’d rather look at awesome MP3 album images, watch videos, web browse, and even look at our email on our iPhone rather than our BlackBerry Bold. This is going to be another tie, fellas. We’d rather use the iPhone specifically looking at the screen side of things, but we’d rather look at the Bold’s screen.

Applications:

You probably already know the answer to this one, but we’re still going to break it down for you. RIM has some very loyal developers working on applications for them, but the tools the developers use are outdated, and don’t give them enough access to core APIs on BlackBerry handsets. Ever notice how the nicest applications are always ones made by RIM? An outside developer could never create the BlackBerry Facebook application in a million years, again, because of the API access. We heard RIM is actively trying to listen to developer’s cries for help, open up some APIs, give them newer and better tools, and possibly include things such as OpenGL graphics support. But it’s still extremely difficult to develop for BlackBerry devices and distribute those applications. Desktop loading, OTA loading — it isn’t the most straight forward way to handle things. On the flipside, we have Apple who as you all should know, finally released their own SDK and have launched the App Store. Not looking at distribution for the meantime, we can honestly say that the iPhone is the easiest device to develop applications for. We’ve only worked on our BGR Mobile application for around a day, and even with some of the cool features like geo-tagging photos, commenting on posts, and more, it’s been a breeze. More on the BGR Mobile application another day. But don’t listen to us, listen to the thousands upon thousands of developers that have created beautiful games with full 3D graphics, or awesome instant messaging clients, and so forth. While the BlackBerry Bold is prettier than other BlackBerrys, the applications and tools to create them are the same. Without a doubt, this round goes to the iPhone. Scratch that, the iPhone wins over any other handset in the world in regards to applications.

OS:

BlackBerry Bold:

This is a tricky and sensitive subject for a lot of people. Many of us live and die by the BlackBerry OS. Some could say we even know it better than we know some of our significant others… But therein lies the problem. While RIM has been on a mission to revamp the BlackBerry from the old school “pager” into an all-in-one communications device for consumers and business alike, we can’t help but wonder when the OS will get a real makeover. Not a Mariah Carey cover page airbrushed makeover, more like a Carnie Wilson 300lbs to 150lbs makeover. But, we do have to say that RIM has a great thing going. The BlackBerry minions have figured out every single tip and trick there is to squeeze every ounce of usability out the operating system, and for a lot of people, the OS is fine. It does what it is supposed to, and there is nothing wrong with that. It’s just that the market has changed so drastically in the last year and half. People want to be connected more, they want to do more while doing less.

iPhone 3G:

Whether you believe Apple’s words of the iPhone OS actually running a scaled down OS X or not, it’s very difficult to rip apart the iPhone’s operating system. Sure, we’d absolutely love copy and paste, and it’s pretty sad we even had to write that, but for the most part, this is the finest and most technologically advanced mobile operating system on the planet. That’s not even open to debate, ok? There is always room for improvement, however, and we have no doubt that Apple will begin addressing some of the shortcomings of the operating system pretty soon.

iPhone 3G wins by a landslide.

Call quality:

Let’s assume we’re talking about voice-calling over a 3G network, ok? If that’s the case, then we think both devices held up pretty well against each other. The iPhone 3G sounded a tiny bit better and more natural than the BlackBerry, and wasn’t distorted as much. But that’s relative. Both devices fared extremely well with voice-calling, and you’d be pleased to use either one of them as your phone. Aww, how sweet!

Battery life

While the Bold has taken its fair share of battery life criticism, we’re happy to report than we don’t have a battery issue with the Bold at this point. The latest hardware and software are pretty top-notch when it comes to battery life, and you’d most likely get the same amount of usage out of the Bold as you would from your current BlackBerry. Now, going up against the iPhone, we’d say the Bold wins. Not by too much, but definitely by a little bit. Again, there isn’t too much of a difference that we’re finding, but the Bold does last a little longer in everyday usage. We’re not talking about talk time vs. talk time, or web browsing over 3G vs. web browsing over 3G. Just general everyday usage, and the Bold wins on this one.

Keyboard:

Let’s face it, virtual keyboards aren’t for everybody. Check out our personal thoughts and impressions at the end of the article for more information. The BlackBerry Bold holds true to RIM’s roots with their excellent QWERTY keyboard execution. The layout, key travel and feel make RIM’s keyboard a winner. But not so fast. Plenty of people don’t want a QWERTY keyboard. A lot of iPhone buyers came from a simple phone like a RAZR, and they rave about the keyboard. Well, it can’t take the place of a hardware keyboard, no matter how we try and convince ourselves. And if you’re going after a real keyboard on a mobile device, RIM is going to win. 9 times out of 10.

Email:

BlackBerry Bold:

Listen, you can’t throw around the word “BlackBerry” without thinking about email. That’s RIM bread and butter, and we don’t see that changing for a very long time. There are probably 500 competitors vying for the title of “Best. Email. Ever.”, but they’re not coming close anytime soon. While Windows Mobile offers some of the same feature-set, there is nothing like using a BlackBerry for email. From changing your out of office message, to configuring email filters on the go (what, you think we actually get all 6,000 comments from our iPhone 3G giveaway post on our BlackBerry?), to remote searching (awesome!), RIM has perfected email on the BlackBerry for the most part. When new features like full attachment viewing and HTML get introduced, though, it gets a little murky. Instead of viewing attachments natively off the bat on your BlackBerry, RIM’s data network will compress and send you what you need bit by bit. There is also a clear separation between RIM’s BES services and BIS services, and they are totally unnecessary. There is no reason we should have the ability to view HTML on BIS, but not on BES yet (unless you hacked that in), and there is no reason file type support is so convoluted. For instance, we can listen to our voicemail MP3s on our BIS email, but not on BES because even the latest BES service pack still doesn’t support the encoding used in our MP3s. Things like this really confuse users and there’s no reason for it. BIS features should mirror BES features as much as possible and be upgraded at the same time. If we have to email an attachment from our BES to one of our BIS email accounts one more time… One last thing, RIM. Please for the love of everything holy, allow us to edit forwarded messages. Please. Pretty please.

iPhone 3G:

Up for much debate is how well the iPhone 3G competes in the email arena. They have made strides in regard to improving the email application, even going as far to supporting full Exchange 2003 and 2007 email, but Apple has left a lot to be desired when working with anything other than simple POP and IMAP accounts. Forget the sexy stuff like filters and out of office messages, there is still no access to remote email search, or heck, email search period. There’s no way to mark multiple items read or unread, and if you have multiple email accounts, have fun switching back and forth to check them. Things aren’t localized like they are on a BlackBerry, and you don’t have the fun keyboard shortcuts to make things easier and get to them faster. When it comes to how email is rendered and behaves, though, the iPhone probably beats any other device out there. The HTML rendering is second to none, it murders the BlackBerry HTML, attachments can not be saved locally which is a real pain, but in terms of viewing them, it offers the most organic way of looking at them or playing them. From flipping the device to goto landscape mode, to double-tapping and zooming, the iPhone makes email a pleasure to read.

No question who the winner is here. RIM’s email can’t be touched, but for not-so-hardcore email users, Apple’s iPhone definitely offers a great experience, even with an Exchange server or their MobileMe service.

Corporate usage:

BlackBerry Bold:

RIM has made the BlackBerry the hands-down winner for a perfect desktop extension. Pretty much whatever you can do from Outlook on your Exchange server, you can do from your BlackBerry. In addition to looking at the device specifically, RIM’s BES server offers the now standard way of managing, controlling, and deploying devices across a corporate infrastructure. Their BES servers allow IT admins to tweak and configure every possible setting, making this is the ideal solution for mid-to-large businesses and government agencies. RIM’s focus on security also make the BlackBerry the most secure device on the planet to use in a corporate environment.

iPhone 3G:

The iPhone still has a lot to prove to corporate entities. Apple has made device deployment tools, but they aren’t as easy to use as RIM’s setup. While the iPhone is pretty secure, it’s security has not been fully tested, and there are many corporations still wary of allowing iPhones on their infrastructure. Sure, it has things like remote wipe and password enforcement, but it doesn’t come to offering the customization abilities of RIM’s BES servers and security.

Again, corporate usage goes to the BlackBerry. Heck, without corporate users, we don’t think RIM would still be in business. We don’t see the iPhone 3G making BlackBerry users in mid-to-large corporations switch that quickly, but we do see the iPhone being a possible device choice for small businesses that don’t rely so heavily on RIM already.

Pricing:

BlackBerry Bold:

Bold pricing has not been fully announced, but we’d wager on it being $199-$299 with a 2-year service agreement. Probably $299, but let’s see what happens. We know RIM went back to the negotiating tables after the iPhone 3G pricing was announced, as they were going to price the device much higher.

iPhone 3G:

You have a choice of $199 (8GB) and $299 (16GB) for the iPhone 3G. People have said that the pricing scheme is confusing because of the eligibility factor and upgrade factor, but that’s how mobile operators have worked since we can remember. So, that’s not new to 99% of people. Some will have to pay more, some will get to pay the aforementioned prices, just like with the Bold.

Pricing looks to be pretty even between both devices, so we’ll call it a tie.

Device longevity:

This is hard to speculate on, because we’re not talking about which device will physically last longer in terms of not breaking. We’re talking about how long the device can last you, the consumer, as a phone. And how long you’ll want to use it for. Taking a peek at RIM’s road map, we know that they’re coming out with four new devices (including the Bold), all likely to appear before the year’s end. We’d also bet on them churning out update replacement handsets a lot quicker if they can manage to. There will also likely be a new iPhone in a year’s time, or even less. Assuming you don’t upgrade to a new handset, we’d say the iPhone will last longer as you have an ingenious method for doing software updates and upgrades, and you have the App Store which will constantly be fresh with newer and better applications.

Personal Opinion:

Here’s where we’re going to voice our opinions of both devices as we kept the head-to-head review completely unbiased. True BlackBerry fans will want the Bold. It honestly is the best BlackBerry ever. There is no other choice — it’s the Bold. Plus the Bold spoils you. We cringe at the sight of our friends using Curves now. From the screen, to the keyboard, to the OS, which hate it or love it is pretty darn solid, the Bold is fantastic. But when you throw the iPhone 3G in the mix, it’s gets pretty difficult. A lot of early criticisms surrounding the original iPhone have been addressed. Corporate email, 3G, GPS, price, 3rd party applications, and so on. The honest truth is that if we had to use only one of the two devices, we’d be happy enough with whichever one you gave us. We could deal with the email shortcomings on the iPhone, and we could deal with the improved but not incredible browser on the Bold. It really comes down to what you need more in a phone. While the Bold certainly has improved media and other consumer features, it really is a business device at the end of the day. The iPhone 3G is a consumer device that happens to play nice with a lot of corporations, and we honestly think you won’t find many people dropping their BlackBerrys for an iPhone. They’ll carry both as long as they can afford it.

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This might be a shocker out there to many, but we do actually, you know, not leak things from time to time. What’s important here, is that we’ve been rockin’ a BlackBerry Bold for around a month now, and we’ve got a great handle on the unit. From hardware to software, this is going to be the most complete BlackBerry Bold review, period. If you’re really ready, hit the jump. You might need a couple cigarettes and a cup of coffee — it’s long!

RIM’s BlackBerry Bold 9000, huh? We knew it was coming since October of last year ever since we broke the news, and since then, this has been the BlackBerry communities iPhone. Sorry for an iPhone reference so early on in the review, but it’s true. This is the device every single BlackBerry user has been waiting for. Finally a BlackBerry that “has it all.” 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, QWERTY keyboard, camera, great screen, clean styling, and more. Since this has been our day to day BlackBerry exclusively, we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs with the Bold. Here’s a recap on our first day with the Bold, followed by our full review…

Remember all that talk about overheating and battery drain? It definitely wasn’t crap — we’ll tell you that! Even still, the device gets a little warm, but nothing to get too concerned about. RIM has made strides in regards to updated software builds for the Bold. Let’s bring you back to when we first got the device, ok? We thanked our very friendly FedEx Sameday delivery man (or delivery person since there’s this cute female that sometimes brings us goodies… anyway) and proceeded immediately to remove the SIM card and microSD card from our BGR edition BlackBerry Curve 8310. After that, we took a bat to it, Office Space style. Once the battery was installed in the Bold, we patiently waited for the unit to turn on.

One minute went by. Then two. Then three. What in the heck? Isn’t this supposed to be at least double the speed of the older models? When the unit finally powered up, we were greeted by the usual Setup Wizard. After canceling out of that (I can remove languages manually, athankyou) it was time to explore the device. At first glance, the first thing you’ll see is obviously the gorgeous screen on the 9000. We can safely say that this is the best screen we’ve ever seen on a mobile device. Hands down. So, yeah, after messing around with a couple applications and exploring, it was time to turn on wireless and connect to AT&T’s mothership. 5 bars of service showed up with the GSM indicator. Then EDGE. Oh boy, we’re so close! Finally 3G appeared. We were in business! But not so fast. No sooner than the 3G indicator showed up, the device for some reason restarted. All ‘Berry lovers will know this all too well. Red LED, black screen. After waiting for another three or four minutes for the device to power up again, the same thing happened! Everything was ok until we tried to turn wireless on. Oh bother. What now? The Bold did this in an endless loop for a good two hours. The battery was only at 40% so we figured we’d let it keep passing out until it was fully charged. Bad plan because that didn’t help. After managing to sneak in right at start-up and turn off wireless mode, the device was stable again. Great. What good is a BlackBerry as a PDA? Don’t answer that. By now we practically had a gun pointed to our heads. We messed with a Bold before, but we can’t even use our first unit? After a quick call to one of our BlackBerry ninjas, we were promptly sent an updated software build. Now it was time to update the OS.

We opened up Desktop Manager 4.5 and proceeded to update the device. This part totally blew us away! Gone are the days of a 30-45 minute backup and update. It probably took no more than 6 minutes to backup the device, erase the applications, load the system software and what not. The only part that took a little bit was waiting for the device to initialize after everything was done. As soon as we booted up with the new OS, we were good! The Bold connected to the network just fine and we did our enterprise activation. First thing we did? Check out BlackBerry Messenger! God knows if there’s one thing making us keep out BlackBerrys… The new client isn’t drastically different but has some semi-cool additions. For instance, the layout is the same but graphics for online, away, and unavailable have changed. You can set an alert so you are notified when a buddy comes back online, and you can broadcast a message to everyone you have an open conversation with. Digging a little deeper into Messenger, we found that you can enable an option to change your status when you are on the phone, and even change your status automatically to reflect whatever MP3 you are playing on the device. Totally iChatish, but not that bad.

After Messenger, it was on to the browser. At first, nothing looked different at all. That was until we brought up BGR on it. The BlackBerry web browser has indeed been redone to act more like a web browser and not a piece of garbage 1990’s WAP browser. Pages render awfully quick over 3G, and even on EDGE. They are formatted 90% of the time correctly and images look sharp and crisp. You’ve now got new controls with the trackball. Instead of just a mouse cursor like before, the default setting is a zoom key. Just scroll over what you’d like to zoom into, press the trackball and zoom. This can also be achieved by pressing “i” and “o” for zoom in and zoom out respectively on the keyboard.

We fired off some emails on the keyboard, made some phone calls, and started to sit back, relax, and have fun with our new BlackBerry Bold. Battery life improved 10 fold when the new OS was installed, and the overheating we noticed quickly dissipated. It still gets a little warm when you’re freakin’ it, but oh well. Here’s the full review on the device and the most recent software build. We’re not basing the review on the extremely crappy builds before this.

Design:

Some might say it looks awfully like an iPhone. But not Mr. Lazaridis. According to him, every BlackBerry device is “three years in the making.” They couldn’t possibly have made the device around the iPhone since they started it three years ago, right? In all seriousness, it has a couple similar design features like a chrome border around the unit and black front, but it really stops there. We don’t think they said to themselves, “let’s copy the iPhone.” The chrome you see on the Bold is nothing more than cheap plastic that scratches very easily, though.

Screen:

We said this before, but this really is the screen to beat. It might be a little too “contrasty” at times, if you know what we mean, but overall, it steals the show. It is the most vibrant, color-rich, sharp screen we’ve ever seen on a mobile device. It can be extremely bright if that’s how you like it, or subtlety lower. The auto-dim features on BlackBerry devices let the screen adjust to your surrounding so it doesn’t disrupt you. One major problem with the screen, though? It, like the chrome border around the device, is made of cheap plastic and scratches incredibly easily. We kept the Bold in either pants pockets with nothing else in there or a BlackBerry leather holster. After only a day or so, scratches started to appear out of no where on the gorgeous display. They better ship this thing with free scratch protectors!

Keyboard:

If you know us, you know we don’t let keyboards off easy! And if there is anyone who understands keyboards, it’s usually RIM. Think of the 9000’s keyboard as a cross between the 8800 and the Pearl. The keys are pretty large in size, a little squishy, but still firm. They are not plasticky-feeling like the Curves. After only around 10-15 minutes we found ourselves typing almost as fast as were on our 8310. The layout of the keyboard is exactly the same as you’d find on other BlackBerrys. Even all symbols and other markings are in the same spot. This makes it easy to jump right into the device. The send, BlackBerry, back, and end keys are abnormally large, though. It’s not bad. It’s just awkward for some reason. They all work fine, but we can’t figure why RIM decided to make them so big. Possibly a design situation where they had an overall device size ready, couldn’t make it any smaller, and ended up filling the dead space with larger keys. Keyboard back-lighting is great, too. Just the accents, letters, and symbols light up white. Not the entire key like the Curve.

Connectivity:

Every BlackBerry users’ dream lies in the Bold. 3G data, GPS, and Wi-Fi make this a hit. Unless you’re really trying not to be found, there’s a good chance the Bold is going to help you stay connected no matter where you are. A-GPS in the Bold works wonderfully, always getting a fast and accurate lock on location whenever requested. The included BlackBerry Maps works well, but since TeleNav hooked us up, we’re using that for the moment without a hitch. Er, AT&T Navigator. If you’ve ever used a BlackBerry with Wi-Fi, it’s pretty much the same concept. Select a Wi-Fi network and off you go. This is especially useful when you’re in a low or no coverage area yet have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. We found no issues while using the 3G cell network and Wi-Fi at the same time, though it was actually using Wi-Fi for data. You can’t use Wi-Fi if you turn the cell radio off, but you can use Wi-Fi when you have no cell signal. Food for thought? We’ve noticed that sometimes while using Wi-Fi, the device will lose connection to the BlackBerrt network on the cell network. Possibly a battery-saving enhancement?

OS:

We said this from the start… the 4.6 OS is 99% the same as your current BlackBerry. Assuming you’re not using an 8700 or something like that. Little things have been tweaked to make using the device a little easier and quicker, but for the most part, you’re basically looking at a skin on the top level. That’s not to say there haven’t been some changes beneath the surface, but for the average BlackBerry user, you’re not going to really notice anything besides the semi-pretty UI enhancements. It’s now July 15th, and even running the latest 4.6.0.93 build, we’re still pulling the battery out a good 10 times a day. Why? Between the constant java errors, and the BlackBerry completely losing service and informing us it’s “Searching for Network…”. That’s why. What’s sad is that even with this bad-ass 624MHz CPU, we still get slow downs and we still get freezes. Don’t get it mixed up, it is 100% faster than any other BlackBerry. We just can’t understand why this thing isn’t really optimized like it should be. Ah! Because the OS is from 1999. That’s it.

Applications:

Again, mostly top level stuff, but there have been a couple added applications. These include WordToGo, PowerPointToGo, WordMole, and a couple other games that have been around for a while. There’s something beneath the surface called BlackBerry Game Service, and what this does is allows true multi-player games over either the cell network or Wi-Fi. We beat the crap out of our friend in WordMole who was half way across the country. Sorry, buddy. One of our favorite applications, if not the favorite, is BlackBerry Messenger like we said before. In the updated BlackBerry Messenger, you’ll find added functionality such as being able to broadcast a message to all open conversations, letting your status change automatically when you’re on the phone, and also changing your status to reflect whatever song is playing on the media player. HTML email is obviously a go assuming you’re on a BIS 2.5 carrier or your company has hacked HTML email back into BES 4.1.5. Totally awesome feature, though? If you’re downloading an attachment and highlight that email, it will show you a status bar indicated how far along the download is. Welcome to 2008, RIM. Now could you please stop being pansies and show us a progress bar for outgoing messages please? You know, some of us actually like to send videos and pictures and what not. Oh yeah! Video over BlackBerry Messenger too, while we’re at it. Kthnkz.

Browser:

The web browser was actually one of the last things ready on the Bold as we were told. The earlier versions had a browser nowhere near what we’ve been using, and we have to say… it’s pretty darn good! It’s no iPhone, but it definitely does the job. Any BlackBerrry user whether corporate or consumer will definitely appreciate the new browser’s improved rendering, speed, and controls. It actually shows web pages how they are supposed to be shown, but the navigation can get a little tiring. Instead of the regular mouse pointer that we’ve been used to lately, the pointer is now by default a zoom in pointer. A couple clicks of the trackball, and you’ve zoomed into the web page. Sometimes the page will reformat to the screen, sometimes it won’t. Forget about Flash or anything sexy, but the browser has definitely been upgraded pretty nicely.

Battery life:

Another concern possible Bold buyers have is battery life. There’s been so much information floating around, what’s the real story? Up until around 3-4 weeks ago, every build of the OS we tried had major battery problems. Random restarts, device totally dead within a couple hours, etc. With the latest software version, we can safely say we’re getting as good or better battery life than we did with our Curve. Yes. Isn’t that awesome? Thanks to 1500mAh battery and a crap load of engineering on RIM’s part, they’ve finally got it nailed down. To give y’all a little usage detail: 300-500 emails a day, one hour of web surfing over 3G, Wi-Fi usually turned on, Bluetooth turned off, JiveTalk connected, and around one hour of phone calling (we don’t really use the BlackBerry as a phone) lasted us from 9AM until 4:30AM.

Sound quality:

RIM is trying to step it up in the sound department, and it shows. Instead of a covered speaker like the Curve, there are speaker grills on both sides of the device, and also on the top as well. Sound quality from playing back music sounds decent. Not great, not terrible. It could be a little louder, but even as it stands, music is still distorting on the loudest volume setting. Also, the speakerphone volume could definitely be louder as we found it lower than our Curve.

Call quality:

We’ve found call quality to be fantastic. It’s definitely the most phone-like BlackBerry to date. People we spoke to sounded crystal clear and they said we sounded great. The earpiece volume was also sufficiently loud, so there should be no problems there. That 3G network is also probably helping a lot with call quality as well, no?

Build quality:

This one is a tricky one. We have a production hardware unit, and the trackball can get a little shady. Then again, don’t all BlackBerrys? There are no creaks with the device, and it seems sturdy as heck. The screen could possible be an issue as it looks like it’s a cheap plastic, and the “chrome” border around the body is also a lower-grade plastic. At least it seems that way to us. Expect for the screen to be scratched to all hell, and for nicks, scrapes, and dents to show up on the device body. On our unit, the back battery cover is a little loose towards where the release button is and kind of moves in and out when you press it. We’re not sure if that will be resolved when the device is released, but it can definitely get kind of annoying. We wouldn’t call the Bold fragile but we don’t think its built as well as the Curve.

So what do you guys think? Happy with our review? Want a Bold even more now… even less? Sound off. And look for some more posts on the Bold coming shortly.

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Remember the Microsoft Surface? After a slow start, the greatest multi-touch device on earth (yes, greater than that one) is finally rolling out to business customers in a variety if industries. Microsoft sat down with BGR last night in an attempt to school us on a few of the intricacies of the oh-so-appealing behemoth of a device, some of the philosophy behind Surface, and a bit of insight into the future potential and possible future applications of this brave new market space. Were we impressed? In a word, yes, though not without a few caveats. Hit the jump below to continue reading our hands-on review, or hit the gallery link to check out the gallery!

Click on over to our Microsoft Surface hands-on gallery!

First things first: Microsoft has designed an amazing device, one that essentially creates an entirely new market space. Sure there are multi-touch devices out there, but nothing that compares to the Surface in terms of size, versatility, and scalability. To be perfectly honest, the closest thing we can think of to the Surface, at least in regards to its physical presence, is a circa-1986 Pac-Man machine in your favorite neighborhood bowling alley.

The amazing thing about the Surface is how seamless everything is. There’s almost no lag between input and reaction, and the multi-touch screen responds without an undue amount of pressure, giving the impression that it’s truly an extension of whatever input you’re attempting to execute. The company remained quiet on the internal components of the machine (though we did learn that the device is running on a highly customized version of Windows Vista), but whatever they’ve got in there must be pretty powerful.

Every Surface sold includes full access to the Surface-specific SDK, which includes a number of tools to help partner clients realize the device’s full potential. As the team explained to us, working with the Surface requires developers to re-align their entire approach to building applications. Even something as simple as the device’s table-top orientation can cause problems in a traditional development environment, as planning for a top-down 360 degree user experience isn’t something that’s currently being taught in most computer science courses. As such, Microsoft seems to be working closely with every contracted partner, offering them a comprehensive back-end support program that should help programmers new to the Surface environment.

Microsoft had several devices on hand, and demoed a variety of different applications. We got a chance to see the AT&T software up close, and also had a bit of time to play around with the Rio iBar software. These two implementations represent vastly different applications of the Surface and speak to the device’s seemingly limitless potential. The AT&T version essentially take the form of a virtual touchable sales clerk, displaying phone-specific feature sheets, plans, add-ons, and more, all based on the device that the user chooses to place on the screen. Placing two devices on the screen instantly brings up a side-by-side comparison of features and options. Imagine a wireless shopping experience that provided you with up-to-date, correct, information about the device(s) of your choice, allowing you to make your selections without the added pressure of a commission driven salesperson breathing down your neck. Sound appealing? We certainly think so, and there’s no reason this model couldn’t work in a variety of retail settings.

The Rio iBar implementation on the other hand, is focused on provided a fun, interactive experience to patrons at a bar or club. You can play various games, order drinks, and flirt with other Surface users across the room. Nothing ground breaking, but it certainly demonstrates much of the gaming and social-networking potential of the Surface. Interestingly, the social implications of the AT&T and Rio iBar devices couldn’t be more polarized. The AT&T device is essentially designed to replace a human being (despite what anyone says to the contrary), and all the face-to-face interaction that goes along with a traditional retail sales environment. The iBar customized Surface, though, is something akin to a virtual campfire, albeit located in a casino in Vegas, creating a very social space for human interaction.

Ironically, the biggest problem facing the Surface right now is, in fact, its potential. There are so many potential applications for something like this, from education, to the medical field, to in-home use, that it’s almost heart-breaking to see such a contained and focused launch of the AT&T and Harrah’s applications. We certainly understand their business model, and appreciate the necessity of proving that the Surface is a viable product for deep-pocketed corporate clients such as AT&T and Harrah’s. Though we wish we could look forward to a day in the not-so-distant future when we can head out to Best Buy and pick up a Surface of our very own. The company mentioned that they’re hoping to get into the consumer space within the next three years, but they’re currently working on accelerating that process as much as possible. Our advice? Take our briefcase full of money and send a demo unit out to BGR World Headquarters. We’ll do our best to prove that enough consumer demand exists right now. Due entirely to the efforts of the dedicated Surface team, Microsoft has succeeded in something very un-Microsoft here: a new product that defines its own market. This isn’t a Zune made as a reaction to the iPod, and this certainly isn’t an Xbox designed as a reaction to the Playstation. As such, they have a bit of an uphill battle ahead to prove that the Surface as a device genre is viable enough to warrant a continued effort. Honestly, in our opinion, it’s going to be well worth their trouble.

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Hardware Design:

Let’s get the good stuff out of the way first: this is a sleek, well balanced, attractive handset. It sits well in your hand and feels almost perfectly weighted. There are certainly smaller and thinner phones out there, but HTC has struck an impressive balance between usability and efficiency of design. The hardware button layout is a far cry from the “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” ethos of the Kaiser/Mogul/etc, with 4 hardware navigation buttons (Home, Back, Call Answer, Call End) complemented by a touch-sensitive scroll wheel that doubles as a 4-way D-Pad serving as the main navigation options. A power button on the top and volume keys on the left side of the phone round out the hardware keys. The back of the device reveals the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera lens and, well, not much else. Our handset is the European version of the Diamond (more on that in a bit), and as such sports a secondary VGA camera for video calls next to the earpiece on the front of the phone. Sadly, this feature will most likely be omitted from any American iterations of the phone. All told, the physical design of the phone is by far one of the best selling points, with a effective compromise between small and usable. While this isn’t specific to the Touch Diamond, we really wish HTC would reconsider their all-in-one min-USB jack. It’s great for charging and file transfers, but especially considering the media-centric appeal of the Diamond, we would appreciate a 3.5 mm headphone jack, as the current configuration limits you to the HTC-supplied headphones unless you’re willing to deal with a cumbersome adapter.

Screen:

As this is a Touch-Screen only device without a physical numeric or QWERTY keypad, the quality of the screen, both in regards to resolution and touch response, is going to determine a lot about how well the handset will perform under day-to-day use. We’re pleased to report that the quality of the display is fantastic, with a bright 2.8″ TFT-LCD with full VGA resolution. Pictures, videos, and web content look beautiful on this thing with a level of clarity not present in your average Windows Mobile handset. Web content looked particularly impressive. Opera and VGA resolution is a killer combo. Unfortunately, the actual touch-screen interface leaves a bit to be desired. Screen presses take an un-nerving amount of pressure to register, often requiring you to tap an icon more than once to register a selection. This, unfortunately, makes the touchscreen QWERTY keypad a bear to use with your bare fingers, and we found ourselves pulling out the stylus on more than one occasion to complete a sentence. The device also feels like it’s moving about a half a second behind your input, which could be contributing to the feeling of unresponsiveness. We hate to make the obvious comparison, but HTC is obviously gunning for the iPhone market with this one and, sadly, the screen just can’t compete with the way that Apple’s finest seems to effortlessly respond to your every input.

Connectivity:

This is where things get a bit tough to call. The Touch Diamond is technically a 3.5G device, sporting 7.2 HSDPA. Unfortunately, our test device is a European spec dual-band 900/2100 MHz HSDPA handset with tri-band 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/EDGE support. As such, our data tests were basically limited to whatever EDGE signal we could pull down off of the the 1900 MHz band. HSDPA was definitely a no-go, and at times we had trouble connecting getting an EDGE signal. We’ll give HTC a pass on this one, as any American carrier-supported device should be fleshed out with the appropriate radios, but it was a bit disappointing nonetheless. We’re happy to report, however, that Wi-Fi was dead simple to set up, and the Diamond seemed to hold its Wi-Fi signal pretty damn well. We had some trouble acquiring a GPS signal, though once we finally locked in Google Maps worked like a charm.

Sound and Call Quality:

Call quality is above average on the internal earpiece, and callers commented on the clarity of calls initiated from the Diamond. The speakerphone is decent in a quiet environment, but forget about making calls in that Aston convertible, as speaker volume leaves something to be desired. MP3’s sounded surprisingly good given the size of the speaker, but volume is definitely an issue.

TouchFLO 3D:

Here’s where things get interesting. HTC’s new Touch FLO 3D is, without question, the most aesthetically pleasing Windows Mobile skin we’ve ever seen. If you thought the HTC customizations on the original Touch and the Shadow were impressive, you’ll be blown away by the new version. The company has set a new standard for turning Windows Mobile’s corporate whitewash appearance into something you might actually call “attractive”. When we spoke with HTC in London last month, the company indicated that they would be rolling out Touch FLO 3D along much of their lineup, which should go a long way towards countering some of the “ugly” stigma attached to the Windows Mobile platform. Touch FLO 3D goes much deeper than the original iteration of the Touch interface, with just about every commonly accessed application receiving the 3D treatment. Contacts, weather, email, SMS, media, and more have all come under the 3D spell, and HTC’s meticulous attention to visual detail is abundantly apparent. While not technically a Touch FLO 3D application, the Opera browser with gesture support is particularly well implemented. It makes use of the touch sensitive scroll wheel, allowing you to zoom in and out with a simple swipe around the wheel. The browser also automatically reformats text columns to eliminate side to side scrolling while reading web content. It has some performance issues, but from a purely visual stand point we think Opera has developed a worthy competitor to mobile Safari, and we applaud HTC’s decision to circumvent the onboard Pocket Internet Explorer.

If HTC hopes to turn Touch FLO 3D into the next great mobile movement, however, they’re going to have to put some serious effort into improving performance. As we mentioned above, the touch screen interface often felt laggy and unresponsive. While some of this may be due to the actual screen design, we have a sneaking suspicion that the might be a more systemic issue in play here. The 528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor should be more than sufficient, but for whatever reason it feels like the TouchFLO interface is just too much for the device to handle. Scanning through the home screen menu often takes more patience than we’d care to muster, and launching applications is frequently an exercise in frustration. Seriously folks, we really wanted to like Touch FLO 3D, but if this implementation is any indication we think HTC needs to perform some serious hardware tweaks before moving forward. It’s certainly pretty, but looks don’t mean much if the performance isn’t there to back it up. If pressed, we’d probably compare the Diamond to a Ferrari with a Chevy Cobalt engine. It’s that bad, folks.

Expandability:

The Diamond sports a healthy 4GB of internal memory, all of which is user accessible. This leaves plenty of space of music, movies, and pictures. Unfortunately, there isn’t any sort of expansion slot, so once you fill up the internal storage your out of luck. Hopefully 4 gigs is enough to cover day to day use.

Battery:

There were some initial concerns about the stamina of the 900mAh battery. While it’s not going to win any awards for usage time, the Diamond stood up well under several days of heavy use, easily making it through a full day before running out of juice. HTC indicated that they had made some serious tweaks to efficiently accommodate the small battery, and whatever the did worked admirably.

Conclusion:

As we said at the beginning of the review, this is one of the most visually attractive Windows Mobile handsets we’ve used. The physical design is impressive, and the Touch FLO 3D interface is a thing of aesthetic beauty. Unfortunately, the performance issues we encountered would make us hesitant to put this into our regular rotation. We also couldn’t stop comparing it to the iPhone and how many things HTC “borrowed”. There’s the slide-the-button menu to enable or disable Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc., a lock button on the top of the device, an A-Z alphabet on the right side of the contacts application which works just like the iPhone’s, the double-tap in Opera to zoom in and out of pages, and others. We understand there are only so many ways to create a usable UI for a touch screen phone, but we still couldn’t help thinking of most of it as a fake iPhone. If HTC manages to clear up some of the performance issues with a future firmware update, we could possibly see the Diamond as a suitable contender, but as it stands, there are a number of other viable handsets that deserve a look if you’re in the market for a touchscreen device.

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You might have seen us post something on the new Garmin GPS solution for the OQO model 02. It’s a great concept and we’ve had the opportunity of reviewing it recently. If you buy the whole package, which is the car mount for the actual OQO and the Garmin USB GPS device, you’d have what we have. While it’s nice in theory, you can see from the above video what sort of trouble we ran into. If you totally want to skip the video, these are our issues with the package:

• To get an initial satellite lock took around 20 minutes. Open sky, clear and sunny day
• The mount for the OQO covers the speakers so you can’t hear didly squat from the GPS software
• When trying to enter an address, it actually made us write in the city, street name, and street number with the friggin’ pen! (Yes, as we later found out you can use the hardware keyboard, but there should totally be a huge on-screen keyboard)
• The suction cups that comes with the GPS unit totally suck. Actually, they don’t suck. They fall off everywhere
• This isn’t a fault of the GPS unit or the OQO really, but since the device has an active touch screen, you can’t use your fingers at all to tap different menu items. This is a royal pain in the ass since you either have to use the included tablet pen, or fiddle around with the trackstick mouse.
• This is quite possibly the hardest setup to use while driving. We know, you shouldn’t use it while driving, but let’s be honest, are you really pulling over to the shoulder to enter in an address?

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I’m going to keep this pretty short just because the unit is like, uh, almost identical to the GSM one we tore apart and reviewed a little while back. The HTC Shift is coming stateside, as you all know by now. It’s going to be available starting today, and is a Sprint unit. So besides the CDMA chip in place of the GSM one, what exactly is different? For starters, since it’s a US unit, you’ll get a US keyboard instead of the atrocious UK keyboard (sorry, fellas, but it really is bad). You also get better build-quality, at least in our view. The HTC software on the device seems to be pretty solid compared to our other Shift, and it makes a world of difference. For a little back story, I took the original GSM Shift with me on my vacation (because Sprint’s coverage isn’t the best) and the HTC Communications Manager failed on me big time. Crashed at start up, no chance of using the 3G modem that’s built in, and definitely no SnapVue. It rendered the whole device useless and this is a frequent problem with the GSM model for me. Additionally, the slider mechanism sort of broke despite my attempts to "baby" the unit. On the flip side now, the Sprint Shift we’ve been putting through the paces is a rock-solid trooper. No software crashes, amazing build-quality, and just a better overall feel to it. Something a little strange, though, is that the leather case that comes with the GSM model, is actually "built-in" to the CDMA unit. You can take it off by removing the T6 screws that hold it in place, but you’re left with the screw posts and it’s a little awkward. Having the case is nice, don’t get me wrong, it’s just weird and a little uncalled for if you ask me. Sprint’s Ev-DO service works well when you have full coverage, but personally there’s no comparing it to the 1700kbps + speeds I got with AT&T’s HSDPA. It will be interesting to see how this unit is priced on a carrier here in the US as the $1,500+ price tag is a lot to swallow for this first generation product that’s slightly underpowered and has some kinks to work out. Well, now you’ve got a choice, people. CDMA or GSM? If they fix the software issues and build quality with the GSM units, I don’t think there should be a question which to choose from. That is, of course, if you’re not a Sprint subscriber. But then again, who is?

Click on over to our HTC Shift CDMA Sprint gallery, and get your shift on!

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Besides the long list of people that waited and waited for the HTC Shift to finally be released, any BGR reader will know our own personal fascination with it. Considering how much we’ve craved, wished, hoped, and wanted, we’re going to take you into a full review of the HTC Shift. Everything possible will be broken down for you. The screen, keyboard, connectivity, battery life, software, problems — it’s all fair game on this side of town! If you’ve got any specific questions we’ll be glad to answer them for you. Just drop a comment below. And now, of course, the review…after the jump!

Design

You’d be hard-pressed to find a UMPC that is as cleanly designed as the HTC Shift. Taking into account the mechanics with the tilt + slide mechanism, they did a wonderful job. There’s not a huge amount of ports or buttons or switches on it, and that’s a good thing. On the right side, you have the HTC Communications Manager button, the screen resolution adjustment button, the trackpad, right speaker, and finally fingerprint reader. Moving to the left side, you have the right and left mouse click buttons, left speaker, and below that is the SnapVue/Vista button to switch between the two operating systems.

As we travel around the unit, we see the Power/Hold switch, USB port, and charging port. On the back, you’ll only find the VGA out port which is perfectly placed. All we have on the left side is the 3.5mm headset jack and nothing on the front side of the unit.

Keyboard

The keyboard is a tricky subject for any hardcore user. And the point of a portable device is that it should be able to function for all your needs when you’re not at the office or at home on your main computer. After all, if you can’t even manage to enter a web address, you can forget about answering those emails in Outlook, and editing those Word documents. I’m happy to report that the HTC Shift’s keyboard is the most usable out of any of the ultra portable devices I own or have ever used. This includes the Sony UX490, the OQO 02, and most definitely the Samsung Q1 Ultra. It’s a different keyboard though, so comparisons to the UX and OQO are not completely fair. Those keyboard are typed BlackBerry or Sidekick-style with two thumbs. The Shift keyboard is to be used in more of a traditional setup using your fingers to type. Unless you’re Yao Ming, there’s a good chance you won’t be holding it with two hands and using your thumbs to type. The keys are smaller than your average keyboard, but travel well when they’re pressed and have a good feel to them. The setup is a little weird, though. The numbers on the top row of the keyboard are not completely aligned. So the "1" key is over the "W" key instead of the "Q" key. This throws you off a little bit when you’re trying to type as if you were on a normal computer, but you get used to it after a while and it’s manageable. There is no F11 key (F1-F10) so you might need to remap it to another key if you use a program that needs it. Here is my big issue: the damn keyboard is not back-lit! This is a huge issue. The problem is even more obvious in low-light conditions, the screen is not angled over the keyboard (obviously), it’s tilted back. So the screen doesn’t give off enough light to be able to see the keyboard, and this makes it nearly impossible to type in low or no light conditions. That’s a real problem when you’re on a plane, on a train, or just laying in bed at night trying to get some work done.

Screen

The screen is good. It’s not great. The default resolution of 800×480 is fine for most applications and you have the option of changing to 1024×600 which will help with those cutoff windows. Running the brightness all the way to the top was too bright, and that’s a good thing. You’ll have to adjust the brightness if you’re outside, but we’re happy to report the screen is perfectly viewable even in direct sunlight. The screen is also, of course, a touchscreen. It’s a passive touch screen, so you’re free to use your fingers to tap and select items. The included stylus works fine for navigating, handwriting or anything else you’d like to do with it. We just had a bitch of a time getting the stylus out from the unit.

Performance

To give you the hard specs: 800MHz A110 Intel CPU, 1GB RAM, 40GB 4200rpm hard drive. That’s probably the bare minimum in terms of today’s advanced specifications for a mobile computer, but we’re happy to report that the HTC Shift doesn’t act like an under-powered machine. Yes, even in Vista. After almost a week of usage and putting it through the paces (we left the SSD MacBook Air at home), we were pleasantly surprised with no lock-ups, slow downs, or any kind of issues related to the speed of the device. As long as you don’t try to edit feature-length films on here, you should be alright. Office 2007 ran perfectly, Internet Explorer gave us no troubles, and AIM worked well, too. Playing videos and music also didn’t cause the computer to hiccup. We’re really pleased with how usable it is even with below-standard hardware.

Power / Battery

This could be be one of the biggest hurdles the HTC Shift has to face. To be fair, the specs are exactly as HTC specified: 2 hours of battery life in Windows Vista. You might be able to squeeze out a couple extra minutes, but don’t fool yourself — you’re not watching a whole Lord of the Rings movie on here anytime soon. On the upside, SnapVue lasts for a hell of a long time, even with the 3G connection on. HTC states around 2 days with push email enabled, and we agree. This is awesome for anyone on the go. A great move on HTC’s part is the power adapter. The charging brick is tiny and the charging cable itself is super lengthy. They get points for that one. We’d love to see a high-capacity battery soon, though. Some people have resorted to an external power station, but that’s a little extreme for our taste. Sure, you could strap on enough juice to power the city the of Los Angeles, but the point of an ultra-portable is to be portable, not weighed down by the extra batteries and power supply boxes attached to it.

Connectivity

How could we say something negative in this department? The HTC Shift is a powerful man-beast of connectivity options. We have Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, quad-band GSM/EDGE, and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA (850MHz/1900MHz/2100MHz). It’s all managed by the HTC Communication Manager and usually works flawlessly. You can have your 3G connection on at the same time as your Wi-Fi connection so in Vista you’ll browse over Wi-Fi and in SnapVue you’ll use 3G. There is a little quirk, though. Wi-Fi can’t be used in SnapVue, but 3G can be used in Vista. So you won’t be able to take advantage of anything on the SnapVue side unless you have a valid SIM card with data access in the Shift. That brings us to…

SnapVue

SnapVue is basically the Windows Mobile side of things, if you will. It’s not full Windows Mobile (though the people we love all over the world are working on "fixing" this), so there are some problems. On the SnapVue homescreen, you get a nice Today plugin. It shows the time, date, weather, emails, contacts, SMSs, calendar and settings. The issue is that since HTC has not provided us with the full Windows Mobile experience, you are limited in what you can do.

Let’s take the email program, for instance. You have your Exchange server all set up, your emails are being pushed to the device, and everything is all well and good in Shift land. Then you get an email with an important attachment. No problem, just click the attachment and it will download. Sure, it downloads, but try opening it. You can’t open any attachment in an email in SnapVue. PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF, image, movie, sound, MP3 — nothing! You’re forced to switch over to Vista and handle your business. I don’t think most people are asking for document editing, though that would be nice, but we should at least have the ability to open simple rudimentary attachments in SnapVue. That brings us to another snafu…phone calling.

HTC has not included the ability to make phone calls from the device. Not in Snapvue, not in Vista. From what I heard internally, this caused a bit of concern corporately in HTC as their customers were pretty ticked off about the possibility of a dedicated SIM card to a data device and not having the possibility of using it as a phone. We’re not saying you should walk around holding this up to your head (although we wouldn’t put it past some people), but you should have the option of using a Bluetooth headset. After all, with 3G, you could be talking while browsing the web. That’s a real must for a lot of people. So, no phone calls, but texting is included. Say what? Yeah, you can send text messages in SnapVue using the traditional Outlook program we’re all used to. To be clear, the actual applications are not stripped down at all.

The email application, calendar, contacts and all that are the full programs you’d find on a normal Windows Mobile device, it’s just the whole attachment and phone thing. In terms of applications you don’t get, well then, that’s another story. Besides the couple we mentioned, there isn’t anything else. No Pocket IE, no file browser, or anything of the sort. And that’s alright for most people including me personally. You really need to get something done, flip that switch to Vista and get on with your business. Attachment support should 100% be included in SnapVue for emails, so we’re going to have to see if HTC fixes this in a later firmware/software upgrade.

Sound

Stereo speakers, people! They sound really good. They’re loud and clear, but lacking a little bass. That’s alright. It will get you by anything you have to do in the audio world like watching videos or listening to music. The stereo speakers really are a pleasant surprise, though. We didn’t expect that. The only thing that could take on the Shift in the speaker department is the Samsung Q1 or Q1 Ultra. Those are probably the upper-echelon of UMPC speakers.

User Interface

The design and usability of the add-ons including SnapVue and other HTC bits of software like the Communication Manager are very straight forward. Big buttons and good descriptions. The only feature we’d like to see, as minor as it is, is the ability to hold a button down in the Comm Manager. I don’t want to click Volume Up 100 times, I want to hold it and let it do its magic. Besides that small annoyance, they’re off to a good start designing and making applications for Vista.

Problems

Now, every device isn’t perfect, though some will be more polished than others. We have had a ton of issues with HTC’s Communication Manager. This has crashed a bunch of times, and while it’s not the biggest deal if you can’t access that bit of software, it is. That controls all wireless connectivity options, so you can forget about using Wi-Fi or 3G when that bugger crashes and doesn’t perform. You can also forget about SnapVue as that has to be on in order for the Windows Mobile side of things to start up. Thankfully it’s a software issue, and we’re more than positive this will resolved quickly. Right, HTCizzle? Besides Comm Manager, all is well in HTC Shift world. Though that’s a funny statement considering the device is a glorified PDA with that bit of software not working. Oh yeah! XP drivers, please! Come on guys, give us the option to install XP and get our world-traveler on. Please?

Price

This is one of the most important factors in determining if the HTC Shift is right for you. Early pricing around the globe is in the $1600-$1800 price range, though that is guaranteed to come down shortly after supply increases. That’s a lot to pay for something which can’t replace your main computer and is just a conduit of information while you’re away. It’s hard to replace your main travel laptop if you do more than answer emails and browse the web, but we’re happy to report than if you’re in the market to get an ultra-portable anyway, the Shift is worth a long, hard look. It’s pretty much the only game in town with a real keyboard and 3G connectivity. As long as HTC supports the device with software updates and little fixes, we’d be totally comfortable recommending this to anyone who would listen.

We’ve tried to take you through the HTC Shift as best as we could. There’s a whole lot of information, so below we’ll break down the most important points that we found after using the device for a little under a week.

Pros:

• The speakers are very, very good.
• The GSM/3G reception is probably a little better than HTC’s Windows Mobile devices. It’s really strong and HSDPA on AT&T flies! We’re seeing around 1800kbps
• The screen is pretty good but not perfect. It looks good and is very responsive when using it as a touch screen or tablet
• While the specs might look pretty poor on paper, that shouldn’t be an automatic turn off. Try it before you buy it. More than likely you’ll be impressed.
• The keyboard itself is really good and fun to use. See below for back-lighting problems, though.
• The fingerprint reader works well. The included software called VitaKey serves it purpose but we prefer the one Sony included and uses on their UX-series.
• The design and button layout is super friendly and clean. You can’t get confused even if it’s the first time you’ve picked one up, and there is a nice tactile feel to them.

Cons:

• There’s no back-light on the keyboard. While this might not be a huge issue for some people, it really is incredibly difficult to see the keyboard in low-light conditions
• On the SnapVue (Windows Mobile-ish) side, email works great. But, you can’t open any attachments! Nothing! No Word, PowerPoint, MP3s, pictures, etc.
• Our HTC Control Center utility has crashed repeatedly and rendered our whole device useless at times. If this crashes, you can not use the 3G connection or Wi-Fi, and SnapVue will not work. We have had to remove the battery for a couple minutes and sometimes that solved the issue.
• Random quirks…for instance, all of sudden, they’ll be a pop-up in Vista saying that you just plugged something into the audio jack. Uh, OK?
• Battery life is fair. But at least it is exactly what HTC stated. 2 hours. No more, no less in Vista.
• Where are my Windows XP drivers?
• The touch pointer mouse square thingy works alright but is a little awkward to use when the keyboard is out.

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We were fortunate enough to preview the Sidekick Slide way back in July, and for the most part, our opinions and views haven’t changed. Instead of just doing a review on the Sidekick Slide, we’re going to pin it head-to-head with the Sidekick LX. For each category you’ll see our opinions on both of the devices, so sit back, relax, and put them profiles on "Buzz".

Catalog

We actually don’t have to split this up because as far as we can tell, the Catalog is actually exactly the same on both devices. We reported that the Catalog would stop using "blocks" to show how much Application / Game space you had left, and we were 100% on the money! We finally have the storage space shown in Kilobytes, and this helps judge the remaining space more accurately. Something which you’re not able to do, is store Applications / Games to your memory card. This really puts our mind to work, because we have no idea why! It is not like you could copy the app off the memory card and send it to your friend so they can install it for free! The Sidekick platform is only open to developers, so with out a dev key, you are not able to do anything besides buy apps and games. Come on, Danger! If I want to buy more stuff, but don’t have space on the handset, you’re not going to let me? Totally wack! On the flip side, if you do uninstall something you bought, you’re free to install it again because the Sidekick back-end keeps track of your purchases. Not the best of methods, but at least you don’t have to buy something over and over again.

Conclusion:

We hope you liked our head-to-head battle between the Sidekick Slide and the Sidekick LX. What’s our ultimate conclusion? If you’re a hardcore Sidekick user you’ll want to grab the LX. The keyboard and screen alone make this a win. The Sidekick Slide isn’t really beneath the LX on the totem pole, so if you want an awesome phone, but love the Danger OS all in a small device, you will definitely want to pickup the Slide. It’s a hard choice, believe us. We switched from the LX to the Slide, back to the LX probably 6 times alone in the past day, but for now, we’re sticking with the Sidekick LX. The screen is just too good…

Click on over to our Sidekick Slide vs. Sidekick LX gallery!

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We’ll admit it — we are AIM fanatics over here. Yeah, we mingle with Yahoo, Google Talk, and MSN a bit, but we live and breathe AOL Instant Messenger. As technology evolves and networks get faster, the old black & white text IM just won’t do anymore, so we thought it would be nice to compare the instant messaging clients on some of the more popular mobile devices available today. We’ve put together a head-to-head comparison of Helio’s Ocean client, the Sidekick, BlackBerry, iPhone, and also Windows Mobile devices. Hit the jump to see what we found out!

Sidekick series: You can’t really talk about instant messaging on a mobile device without including the Sidekick. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you think of them, they set the bar way high! Even all the way back in October of 2002, the original black and white Sidekick had a better AIM client than many phones still do today. Their ingenious approach to synchronizing with a central server made AIM a breeze. Forget limiting the device to 30 buddies (we’ll get into this later), you had your whole buddy list on, and when you wanted it. So, you’re in the middle of a conversation and a large UFO in the sky makes you lose cell service…no problem, because as soon as you regain network connectivity, any messages you haven’t received, and those that didn’t send, will all make their way nicely through the ‘net back to your device. The Sidekick has since matured with more and more features being added. And don’t get us wrong, the AIM (and now Yahoo and Live Messenger) client/s are still the best hands down, but we would have liked to see a little more development for the latest two devices, the Sidekick LX, and Sidekick Slide. You can now see Buddy Icons, set your own Buddy Icon, view away messages, and more, all in a neat usable interface, but file sending would have been a great addition, and we’d have loved to see all the IM clients merged into a single piece of software (or at least the option to integrate them into one client).

Image courtesy of SlashGear

Helio Ocean: The Ocean does IM incredibly well, although there are some server hiccups here and there. For the most part, it’s definitely functional, but you might start pulling your hair out when the IMs will freeze, and your Buddy List doesn’t really update automatically. To give Helio credit, they were the first ones to implement file sending over AIM, and while it is limited to 100k for sending, it’s all seamlessly integrated with their OS. Start a conversation with a buddy, hit a few menus, snap a flick with the camera, and before you know it, a Direct Connection started with your friend on their computer, and they’ve just seen a picture you took of someone eating a hot dog off the streets of Manhattan. Other file types do work, but with a 100k limit, don’t get too excited. If Helio ironed out these bugs with the freezing and updated the client a little bit, we’d be more than happy to use it daily.

BlackBerry: We’re not going to beat on BlackBerry too hard, as their bread and butter has always been the Corporate and Government world, and they’re late to the consumer game, but come on, guys! If you want to really appeal to the audience you are trying to get, you will need to step up the IM side of things…On a positive note, as far as we can remember, BlackBerry devices are still the only ones with a native GTalk client (as limited as it is, it works quite wonderfully), and they also have offered Yahoo! IM, but let carriers get in the way of them rolling it out across the board. We’re looking at you, AT&T. For the longest time, well, since the BlackBerry 7100 launched on T-Mobile, they’ve been using an OZ Instant Messaging client for IM communications. And again, to be fair, we can’t bash them, as this most likely was a carrier request because it uses SMS messages and provides another revenue stream to T-Mobile. But that doesn’t negate the fact that that was one of the worst IM clients to ever appear on a device. Talk about slow and unreliable! Anyone in the BlackBerry community knows RIM has been working on native IM clients for AIM, ICQ, and Live Messenger for a very long time. If we’re not mistaken, these were supposed to even appear on the Cingular 8700g back when it was released. Well, those clients have finally come to light, and surprise surprise; they are indeed not available on AT&T, but T-Mobile. T-Mobile ditched the horrendous OZ client in favor of these native apps, and we love you for it T-Mobile. There’s only one problem; AIM is limited to 30 buddies (Mobile Device buddy group)! Who only has 30 buddies, be real! In addition to that, it is almost like the AIM client was just stuffed on the device without real testing. You can’t use the trackball to select a buddy to talk to and launch a conversation, because it asks you to open the "Full Menu". Ugh. There’s a good chance if I click on a screen name, I want to talk to that person…there are no real features to mess around with, you can not view away messages, you can set an away message but can’t customize it, and there is no file sending obviously. Additionally, unlike Google Talk and Live Messenger, the AIM program does not integrate into your Messages application. At this point, the only real IM solution, in our opinion is JiveTalk. They have been on the forefront of development in regards to Instant Messaging, and not just on the BlackBerry platform either. With their client you can send files back and forth to other BlackBerrys or computers, no matter the file size or type. All popular Instant messaging clients integrate in one list, and they even use a middle server as well, just like the Sidekick, to deliver messages you might not have received due to signal loss. JiveTalk also has integrated Buddy Icons coming soon. Very cool. Right now, if you are a quick IM person just signing on to shoot off the occasion one or two IMs, the native BlackBerry clients should be fine. If you’re a heavy user though, we recommend JiveTalk.

iPhone: There is not much to say about this one…especially with 3rd party applications going out the window with the latest update; we’re stuck with using Safari for web-based communications. There are plenty of IM apps to use in this manner, and while they do work fine most of the time, the lack of audible alerts make this a novelty and not functional for an on-the-road type of person. Apollo IM, and MobileChat burst onto the 3rd party app scene and work well, but they still have a long way to go with stability and auto-reconnects.

Windows Mobile: The only IM clients natively available for Windows Mobile devices would be Live Messenger (really?), and Microsoft’s Live Communications Server Instant Messaging. The old version of MSN was definitely lacking, but the new version introduced us to Live Messenger complete with buddy icons, voice note sending, and more. Reconnects aren’t existent, and the server won’t deliver messages if you lose service, but if anyone can do Live Messenger, it would be Microsoft themselves.

Conclusion: When we get asked, "BGR, master of all things tech, what phone should I get?" We always ask the individual what they need in a mobile device, and the same applies here. If you’re going on AIM alone, we’d say a Sidekick LX or Sidekick Slide, 100%. If you need access to a corporate environment, then a BlackBerry with its mediocre IM clients, or fabulous JiveTalk application would obviously be the way to go. If you laugh at all of us, and call us pathetic idiots who stay constantly connected to AIM, and you only wish to check in once a while, an iPhone with the web-based applications should be sufficient. Finally, if you like a high-speed data connection and a unique device that offers file sending built right in, the Helio Ocean, or Fin for that matter, might fit you. Have we missed anything? Completely disagree with our impressions? Sound off in the comments. You know you wanna’.

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What do you get when you add USA 3G bands (850MHz / 1900MHz WCDMA)  to one of the most feature-rich phones on the market? Ah, you get the Nokia N95-3, and we’ve got it in the flesh in our hands-on studio! If you name something, this bad boy has got it. From Wi-Fi, to the spectacular 5 megapixel camera complete with 640×480 VGA video capture, A2DP Bluetooth, GPS and now those ever-coveted USA 3G bands, the N95-3 completely rocks out. If those above listed features weren’t enough, Nokia has upped the battery life on here dramatically. In order to do so, the back side of the device underwent a little makeover. This effectively shed the shutter lens from the phone, which is now controlled simply by software. The great part about it was that when you slid the lens open, the camera would automatically launch. This can be achieved by holding down the camera key, so we won’t miss it that much. We earlier reported the Chicago Nokia Store had the dark sand color in stock, and New York had the black in stock; we were duped by a Nokia Store sales person. No go on the black just yet, so hold off if you’re anal about colors. Ready for the hands-on gallery? We thought you’d be!

Click on over to our Nokia N95-3 USA hands-on gallery!

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We told you our thoughts on AT&T’s new BlackBerry 8820, and how Wi-Fi simply wasn’t a big deal for us. On AT&T there is no UMA functionality, and it currently can’t tie in with your corporate phone system (Avaya IP Office, Cisco, etc.). The only use of Wi-Fi is for data, like email or web browsing. There’s such a big bottleneck on the device though, that we figured Wi-Fi would certainly not be as fast as everyone had hoped. We had countless emails telling us we were crazy, that it simply couldn’t be true, that Wi-Fi on a BlackBerry was a godsend. Well friends, we hate to say it, but we were kind of right. Wi-Fi browsing simply doesn’t cut it. The device is so underpowered that it can’t really handle and process the speeds that we have hoped for. Take a look at our quick video comparison showing Wi-Fi vs. EDGE on a BlackBerry 8320, and BlackBerry 8300. You won’t like what you see. Feel free to do the same speeds at home and tell us what you get!

Disclaimer: The first couple tests had JavaScript enabled by default, which most likely slowed the browser down, but the last test had JavaScript off on both devices. In addition, it seems as if the BlackBerry 8320 on Wi-Fi downloads higher resolution images.

UPDATE: Check out the second part of our speed test, after the jump!

Conclusion? If you have T-Mobile and your BlackBerry needs replacing, this is a logical upgrade. While even though Wi-Fi does not offer much of an improvement in speed over web browsing, file downloading and UMA access make it worthwhile. We just still don’t see the attractiveness of the BlackBerry 8820 on AT&T…

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LG has a sense of style around them. The Chocolate, the Prada phone, and the Shine immediately come to mind when we think of them. The new LG Trax takes styling cues from all over the manufacturers diverse line up. It’s glossy, it has a metal kind of vibe to it, and it looks real sharp. While not the most high-end phone AT&T offers, we think it’s a great entry-level phone for those of you that want to take advantage of the Video Share service, or just some straight 3G action. Sadly, we did not get a chance to try out the Video Share service yet, and while it’s mostly a novelty for now, we can see this really taking off when AT&T extends it across their whole product lineup and releases a full 2-way video chat client. How does the LG Trax perform, though? Is it stable? Ah, the answers my friends, are…after the jump. And no, this isn’t an episode of American Idol…

Phone:

Phone quality and regular GSM/EDGE reception actually fared pretty well. Calls were crisp and clear. We really would have liked the 3G reception to be a bit better, though. I guess we’ve been spoiled by the Samsung Blackjack…

SMS/MMS:

Texting wasn’t a problem. Messages came through quickly, and while T9 might have been created by the devil, we had no problem bangin’ out short texts to friends thanks to LG’s quick entry method to the dictionary. Over 3G, Picture Messages sent almost instantly.

Instant Messaging:

We can’t call it…it is just IM at the end of the day. Nothing groundbreaking, nothing amazing, yet it worked rather well. Is this an SMS-based app or data? One problem, at least that we saw from our brief tests, were that even though multiple IM networks are offered (AIM/Live Messenger/Yahoo), you can only log in to one at a time. It did give us loud alerts which ensured excitement every time we got an IM.

Keypad:

The keypad was usable. Keys were decently spaced, offered good tactile feedback, yet we found the center button of the directional pad to be very annoying. Why? It’s linked directly to AT&T’s MEdia Net page. We got the fake out numerous times thinking it would bring up the menu. As you can see in the above photo, there are for application keys around the center select button. Pressing the top key takes you right to compose a text or picture message, pressing down brings you to your contacts, pressing left opens "My Stuff" which contain your games, apps, ringtones, pictures, etc., and finally when pressing the right key, it takes you to the Instant Messaging application.

Camera:

The camera ain’t much to write home about. A now standard 1.3 megapixel camera lens graces the exterior of the LG Trax. Pictures were average but shutter speed was pretty zippy. We’re not mad at it.

Cellular Video:

While the Trax had a bit of trouble holding onto a 3G signal, AT&T’s Cellular Video service still worked extremely well even over EDGE. Video buffered and played real fast, and quality was good. In addition to viewing video normally, there’s also an option for "landscape" mode, yet it looks a little awkward when you’re walking around watching video on your cell phone while holding it sideways.

Screen:

It looks like the actual screen is pretty clear, definitely glossy, most like clear but, LG’s UI really messes it up for us…Time to enter 2007, guys. We’d rather use Motorola’s old Synergy OS

Speaker:

Speaker volume on the LG Trax had us pleasantly surprised. While on a call both parties could hear each other clearly using speakerphone. Music playback sounded great, with decent high, mid, and low reproduction. Pretty loud, unlike a certain other cellphone we know off…

Exterior:

The Trax exterior looks sharp and isn’t by any means confusing. There’s a volume up/down key on the left side, and beneath it there’s a dedicated camera button which will launch the camera application, and take the quick flick. Finally it’s followed by the headset/charging jack. On the right side, all we have is a microSD slot. 

Conclusion:

The LG Trax definitely packs a punch in the feature department. Camera, Video Share, 3G with HSDPA, quad-band EDGE, a loud speaker, and a decent messaging client make it pretty appealing to the entry-level 3G buyer. Making calls sounded great and having 3G on a decently-sized phone is nice. We just wish that LG would upgrade their OS because it really is starting to age. Also, web browsing wasn’t the greatest experience either. It wouldn’t be our first pick when we walked i