BlackBerry Bold 9780: Not So Bold
by Mithun Chandrasekhar on March 25, 2011 2:20 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
- Smartphones
- 9780
- BlackBerry
- Bold
- Mobile
Conclusion: Short, not Sweet
You'll notice this review is shorter than our usual smartphone reviews. The reason, as I’ve already mentioned a couple of times in the article, is quite simple: the Bold 9780 brings absolutely nothing new to the table in terms of hardware, and even the core software is more than half a year old. When you think about the fact that the 9780 is physically identical to the almost 18-month-old 9700 with just a RAM/camera upgrade (plus the fact that the 9700 can also be updated to BlackBerry OS 6 itself), that's pretty slow moving for a competitive market. It's even more of an oddity compared with other vendors like Samsung, LG, and HTC updating their lineup on an almost monthly basis.
That raises the question as to whether RIM has decided to shift focus from the general smartphone market to a more narrow approach targeting enterprise-class customers. Even in the enterprise segment, it faces tough competition in the short term from devices such as the Nokia E5, which offers everything but BES for a much cheaper price and better build quality. There are other companies experimenting with iPhones as corporate mobile devices, and with HP having made it clear that it will be leveraging its clout in the enterprise sector in bringing webOS to market it becomes that much more difficult for RIM in the long term should they choose to continue in their current path. The turn of events at Nokia should be a clear enough signal to RIM that it needs to pull its socks up and keep up with the lightning pace of the mobile industry or get left behind.
As a device in itself, the Bold is pretty good if completely indistinct. There is nothing that stands out in particular, but it gets the job done well enough. While nothing revolutionary has happened on the hardware front just yet, it is good to see that RIM is in fact working in the background trying to tighten up the BlackBerry OS internals. To that effect the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is probably the best BlackBerry you can buy today, by far. The question here is, unless you have no other choice, should you actually buy a BlackBerry over other smartphones currently available…Bold or otherwise? If you're a BlackBerry diehard or have one from your work, that answer will come from their IT department. We've seen some improvements with OS 6 and the Torch, with minor improvements from the Bold, but we'd like to see RIM do more with their next outing.
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SonicIce - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
just kidding lolradium69 - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
Too bad the market for blackberries is getting saturated in europe.All of the teens have either a blackberry or an iphone.
The image of a blackberry is getting seriously raped over here. Carriers are promoting the blackberries like mad, with a text bundle etc.
Allthough it's a nippy little device, I will not buy it.
Allthough the battery life is as always, good.
IntelUser2000 - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
"the javascript performance as reported by the SunSpider benchmark has improved by a staggering 54% compared to the numbers before the update (which in itself was a decent 13% better than those posted by the Torch, which basically has the exact same hardware specs as this Bold)."Lesson in simple arithmetic. When comparing performance numbers that result in better score as "lower", the gain in performance is found by dividing the higher number by the lower number.
For example:
10612ms vs 22752ms
22752/10612 = 2.14x or 114% faster
mythun.chandra - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
Agreed. What I meant to say in the review was it executed the SunSpider benchmark in 54% less time.klatscho - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
i have been using the 9700 for 18 months now; the previous OS was terrible, but with the current os 6 it really works fine; i especially enjoy the search functions and the long battery life; the device is quite small and robust; also the keyboard augments my productivity.i would really like to see more hardware like this (small form factor, keyboard, long battery life) instead of all the supersized phones that are currently hyped. larger devices are fine for private used, but in a typical business environment, the just not cut the cheese.
Kosh401 - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
I've been on the Bold 9700 for quite a while now and love the thing. It's functionality with my job is a huge time saver and being able to use BBM with coworkers and all my friends who have berries has been a nice touch. For entertainment I have a couple games on it but I don't really use it much for games. Play poker the most with some friends, otherwise just good old fashion solitaire. I probably watch more Youtube and check the news more than I play games on it I'd guess. So for me that's all the entertainment I require out of my phone :)tipoo - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
Do we know yet if the Torch is getting that update that improved the Bold's Javascript performance so much? With the same processor it would make sense that it would.Vinny N - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
There's an error in the article...the display resolution is stated as 320x480. It is actually 480x360. Someone must have been thinking of the 480x320 resolution of the original bold 9000...mythun.chandra - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
Fixed!tech6 - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
I can only partially agree with this review as it seems to approach the 9780 as a home user device. For the average home user this phone will not be very interesting so if you want apps to show off to your friends and family then get an Android or iPhone. The Blackberry is a corporate communicator and it servers that purpose very well delivering security, the policy based management functionality of BES and the focus of the UI. For business these are indispensable qualities that the competition doesn't yet offer. That is not to say that Android or iOS are inferior but their focus is more on turning phones into media consumption devices than serving business and your review needs to reflect that.I also don't agree with the assessment of build quality. I changed my 9700 for a 9780 a couple of weeks ago and it is every bit as sturdy as the Torch or the 9000 and 9700.