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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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.