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
Performance and Other Notes
I won’t be covering the details of the features and enhancements that version 6 of the BlackBerry OS brings along here because, as you may have guessed, there is nothing new here compared to what was covered in the Torch review. However, one very important point I would like to bring up is the fact that even though the 9780 is not a touch-screen device, BlackBerry OS 6 works absolutely fine with just the optical keypad and soft-keys, all with no drastic change to the UI. Obviously you lose touch-specific forms of interaction such as double tap and pinch-to-zoom, but you don’t really feel like you’re losing out on something here.
Kudos to RIM for building a UI that is quite adept at handling very different UI interaction paradigms without any major change in the UI structure or presentation itself. The achievement is even more praise worthy in light of the fact that Nokia took so long to get their touch interface right with Symbian^3, and even then the experience can be quite inconsistent across different devices and applications running the same OS.
(Clockwise from top-right) The BB OS 6 homescreen, tabs in the browser,
app updates in the BB App World, menu grid.
Another important point I would like to touch on is that RIM seems to be focusing a lot of their efforts on getting the browser working right. Sure, it only has a 2.4” non-touch screen, but the browser itself seems to be quite up to the task. In fact, compared to Brian’s experience with the Torch, the browser experience on the Bold has definitely improved. Pages load quickly and I found no discernible rendering issues, even on fairly complex sites. I dug a little deeper and found out that the version of the OS that comes bundled with the Bold 9780 (6.0 bundle 863) is newer than the one currently available for the Torch (6.0 bundle 695); it looks like some of the updates have addressed issues that Brian had on his Torch during the review last September.
After I ran some performance numbers (which were better than what the Torch posted), I checked and found out that there was another update available for the Bold (6.0 bundle 1879). I also noticed that with this latest update, the browser version has also changed to 6.0.0.448 vs the 6.0.0.246 found in the Torch. I re-ran the browser tests and found out that the performance had improved further with this new update. I have therefore included numbers from both versions for your reference. Worth noting is that while the update was just 39MB in size, it took about 40 minutes to finish installing.
The BrowserMark scores went up by 9% after the update, but interestingly the Torch is still slightly faster (4%). The SunSpider scores on the other hand... nope, that’s not a typo. I re-ran the test 5 times, rebooted the phone thrice, and even reset it once. The fact remained that after the latest update, the time to complete the SunSpider benchmark has decreased by a staggering 54% (i.e. it's more than twice as fast). Even without the update, the Bold already took 13% less time than the Torch, which basically has the exact same hardware specs, so there's plenty of tuning happening in relation to this particular test.
Granted that the numbers posted by just one benchmark don’t tell the entire story, but as I mentioned earlier, the browsing experience on the Bold is limited by the form factor itself, not the browser. It looks like RIM has finally been able to assimilate its acquisition of Torch Mobile and have something to show for it. I did not notice any changes to the UI or new features between the different versions of the browser on the Bold or even between the browsers on the Bold and the Torch. Unfortunately, I triple checked and it looks like the Torch doesn't have this update just yet.
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bplewis24 - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
Off-topic observation:I read your post and when I read the word "serves", I made sure to go back and re-read it, because I often subconsciously type out "servers" or "server" whenever I plan to type out "serves" or "serve" respectively. Lo and behold, you typed out "servers."
I don't know what it is about that word that forces me to add an "r" to it, but I'm glad to know I'm not the only one :)
Brandon
buhusky - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
10 years from now RIM will be nothing more than an article on WikipediaStuka87 - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
If this is their idea of an update, I am not sure they will even last that long :/mythun.chandra - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
The original signal attenuation numbers in the article were infact based on the "alt nmll" method. But as Faruk88 mentioned above, and based on what I saw myself, those numbers aren't nearly as accurate as the ones shown in the engineering menu which needs to be unlocked. :)vision33r - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
If you look at the recent earning numbers from RIM, the company is raking money on services.Any Android handset maker can only dream of making the dough RIM is taking in. Not even Google makes this much money from their own Android phone division excluding their ads and search revenue.
The only other company that makes this much money off their handset and services is Apple.
bplewis24 - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
But they warn of a rough quarter ahead:"It predicts its smartphone sales to fall at a time when the smartphone market overall is growing. It says to expect fiscal Q1 sales to fall between 13.5 and 14.5 million units. It also warns that its gross margin (a measure of profitability) will drop 41 percent."
Nevertheless, excluding Google's ad/search revenue from the mobile division is being completely blind to their business model. They license open-source and essentially free software so that they can make their money on search/ad revenue. Excluding that when making a profit comparison is like comparing a wage-based employee's income to a commission-based employee's income by only comparing wage-based income.
Brandon
worldbfree4me - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
I have got to give it up to RIM. They sure know how to milk something for all its worth. The Marvel 600 MHz cpu certainly have achieved economies of scale by now and then some. But my problem is this, it's like a V8 5.7 L (350 cu in) of yore vs. V8 6.2 L (376 cu in) of today, it’s a relic, plain and simple! Grand Ma doesn’t mind, but I do, so no sale period!Wurmer - Sunday, March 27, 2011 - link
I agree and it's way pass time RIM equips their flag ship devices with much more powerful processor. Compare to other top of the line smartphone it's rather weak and with the coming of dual core CPU in smartphones they better stepup their game or they will be left in the dust. In these times of rapide changes I think it's not realistic to expect to use the same CPU for more than 6 to 12 months. My wife has both the Torch and the Iphone 4 and the speed doesn't compare, Apple product is a lot more snappier and faster.NCM - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
The Anandtech site takes pains to be precise in its technical data and analyses, so the lack of attention to similar precision in use of language continues to disappoint.Only the latest of many examples:
• The trademarked spelling of the RIM smartphone is "BlackBerry," complete with mid-cap.
• Words in the English language do not form their plurals using a "grocer's apostrophe." The plural of "Blackberry" (even if that singular were correct) would never be the "Blackberry's" seen in your product review. Unlike the fruit, the plural of this trademarked name would normally be "BlackBerrys." RIM, however, says that there is to be no plural form of their trademark, but that "BlackBerry smartphones" should be used instead.
JarredWalton - Friday, March 25, 2011 - link
I've corrected the spelling to BlackBerry, thanks. Your other two comments, while correct, do not appear to be present in this article. The only reference to "BlackBerry's" is on the summary page where we state, "the Torch and the Bold can both run the latest revision of BlackBerry's OS 6". While it may be more correct to say "RIM's OS 6" or simply "BlackBerry OS 6", you can look at it as the OS belong to BlackBerry and it would be correct. I've removed the apostrophe S anyway, as the full OS name should be BB OS 6.