A new BlackBerry with the best features of its brethren has been born. On Wednesday, Research in Motion announced the BlackBerry Bold 9700, which it described as having “cutting-edge engineering and premium finishes.”
The new smartphone, available from AT&T and T-Mobile beginning next month, is T-Mobile’s first 3G BlackBerry. It is intended to replace the original Bold, now a year old.
Targeted at both businesses and consumers, the 9700 features a next-generation 624-MHz processor, 256MB of flash memory, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi, a full QWERTY keyboard, a 3.2-megapixel camera, and a 2.44-inch, 480×360 display.
‘Nicest BlackBerry’
Mike Lazaridis, RIM president and CEO, said the 9700 “builds on the success of the original BlackBerry Bold with new, state-of-the-art features and a smaller, lighter and highly optimized design.”
Avi Greengart, an analyst for industry research firm Current Analysis, went even further. The 9700, he said, “is the nicest BlackBerry they’ve ever made.”
He added that “it combines the aesthetics of the Bold with the middle-width size of the Curve or of any of a number of other ‘holdable’ smartphones.” Basically, Greengart said, the Bold “has been shrunk down to the Curve size, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”
In fact, he said, “it combines everything you’ve seen, in every BlackBerry.”
He also praised its range of connectivity options, including 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and, for making calls over Wi-Fi, UMA. Greengart had kind words as well for the suggested retail price of $199, “for what is essentially the high end” of BlackBerry models.
Runs OS 5.0
The 9700 also features a media player for music, videos and photos, and music playback is now up to 38 hours. There’s support for BlackBerry Desktop Manager for PC and Mac, Media Sync enables syncing Windows Media Player or iTunes music on computers, and a touch-sensitive trackpad replaces the trackball found on earlier BlackBerrys.
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