Blackberry Bold 9900 - review

I recently bought a BB Bold 9900, for two reasons -

1. I'd never used a BB before.
2. The reviews on the new BB9900 and OS7 were quite good, and tempted me.

I also rationalised that the touchscreen OS7 would ease the transition from my hitherto daily iOS use.

But I think the real reason is that I simply wanted something new to toy around with. ;-)

After about two weeks (of daily use), I must confess the BB has surprised me somewhat. The main thing going for the BB is, of course, email, and I have found the experience to be quite wonderful. I no longer wonder why some people (whom I think would love the iOS ecosystem) actually use BBs.

What's good -

The best part of the BB experience is probably what goes on behind the scenes, ie the famous Blackberry email service.

I'm subscribed to BB Internet Service (BIS), which allows you to use email through the BB servers by redirecting your email to a BB specific email address when you sign up. I'm not sure what the difference is between BIS and BB Enterprise (BES) - I think there is email synchro across the desktop and devices and also scheduling and contact sync for BES - but the push email service in BIS should be the same as BES. From my experience so far, this is the best thing about a BB.

The reliability of push email shines through in BIS. All my emails get pushed and received on time and this reliability can sometimes be taken for granted. For example, my experience with iOS and my work email server has been spotty to say the least (downloading emails etc can be intermittent and sometimes emails refuse to download) which has led me to use Gmail as a go-between, which obviously isn't ideal, since my email replies then come from my Gmail account, which I don't want to disclose sometimes.

With the BB (using BIS) though, I can reply via BB whilst on the move, and my emails appear like they are coming from my work server. Perfect.

Other than BIS, the physical keyboard is excellent, and reminded me of the good old days of me using the Treo 650, which is the highest compliment in my book.

The touchscreen is also excellent. The touch response is not as instant as the iPhone, but good enough. Viewing angles are great, and colour is sharp and vibrant. But the size is rather small, compared to the iPhone, and the landscape view is rather restrictive. Font sizes are also too small, and website pages are unreadable at the default setting, and you have to zoom in to be able to read anything at all.


What's average -

The rest of the hardware is nice but nothing to shout about compared to any average Samsung or HTC device. The iPhone 4 is superior in this regard. I'm talking here about the device aesthetics, build quality, speed, storage space, camera functions, etc.

The BB is better than my iPhone 4 in some respects, eg phone reception, dropped calls and battery life (although not by much).

One point to note about the control scheme - having a touchscreen is fine and good but I've never seen the point of using the trackpad / trackball compared to the good old 5-way button. Perhaps that may have made the device thicker or larger than necessary but surely a better design could have been found by now. The sliding movement required on the trackpad is too finicky to be consistent, even after a couple of weeks of daily use.

The BB OS is also decidedly average. Nothing one would not expect from a 2011 smartphone, but nothing cutting edge either. One thing I didn't like was that sync could only be done via desktop software and there was no way to sync to MobileMe (but then, I shouldn't expect that anyway). Google sync was supported but not in the complete way for Android devices. Also my Outlook contacts kept duplicating themselves after I first synced with BB desktop (I suspect my MobileMe connection here played a part), so I've given up syncing for now.

What's bad -

The overall UI is f**king ugly. Sorry for being profane and blunt, but that's the truth.

The email app is good and fine, and all my documents / pictures load up ok, but it's just so damn ugly to look at. The fonts are too small, and not really nice. The UI elements need work, etc, etc. It's functional, everything works, don't get me wrong, but in 2011, with Android and iOS looking the way they do, OS7 just doesn't cut it, man.


Take these screenshot comparisons -

1. Whatsapp (a very good and free messaging app) -

2. Bloomberg -

See the difference?


It may not be so stark in the Bloombarg app, but trust me, when you factor in the UI elements, BB OS has a long way to go.

The BB app store is also quite useless / barren. Some of the more useful apps are there, eg Sugarsync and Whatsapp. Dropbox is missing. I also downloaded Bloomberg but that's about all I've used so far.

To be frank, I'm pretty sure some of the apps I use regularly on my iPhone, eg Reeder (a RSS feed app), some news apps, etc, are also available in the BB app store, or there are apps with similar functions. Ditto for games.

However, I've found myself not even trying very hard to look or search for such apps - each time I fire up the BB app store, I am confronted by app screenshots which turn me off, or are unappealing to look at.

BB fans can shout function over form all day, but I've come to realise a fundamental truth for present day smartphones. When iOS and Android offer such pretty UIs and also functional apps, then RIM may be fighting a losing battle unless they get their new QNX OS working quickly and beautifully.

Conclusion -

I'll most likely keep the BB for now, until my patience runs out with the UI. I'm still quite happy with the email, but that's about it for now. Let's see how it goes in a couple of months' time.

My 10-word review for the BB is therefore - Great for email, but it still cannot replace the iPhone.

..ac