Design and display
Measuring 114 x 66 x 15mm, the Bold 9780 bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor Bold 9700 in terms of size and shape. But, in contrast, it lacks chrome edging replacing it
with glossy black. Weighing just 136g, it's quite easy to carry around. With glossy exterior, it's indeed a head turner but misses out all-covering glass surface like in iPhone 4 and
HTC HD7, as it doesn't need it due to absence of touchscreen. The button layout of the device takes cue from BlackBerry Curve 9300.
Due to screen lacking touch-sensing, trackpad requires scrolling round to select menus items, which seems to be awfully old-school. Moreover, we also found the optical trackpad a bit
unresponsive. Even though, the device doesn't need complete change of format, but in our opinion it requires touchscreen, which BlackBerry Dakota flaunts.
The 2.44 inches screen is fairly paltry when compared to other touchscreen smartphones having 3.5 to 4 inches screen. But, with 480 x 360 pixels resolutions, it produces sharp images
in lively colors.
User Interface
The new BlackBerry 6 operating system is the meat and potatoes of BlackBerry Bold 9780. It brings with itself well-devised Home screen, new browser and several other attractions.
Its new Quick Access Points enable you in instant access to new Universal Search, alarm clock, connectivity and vibration settings. With Notifications, you can stay connected with
all the latest activities and forthcoming calendar events. The media functionality has been considerably amplified in this gadget and now it's accessible via Navigation Bar to find
music playback, voice recording and plenty of ring tones. Its new Social
Feeds app reminded us the Friend Stream spec of HTC handsets.
But, to our utter disappointment, all these improvements seem to be better-suited to a touchscreen in stead of optical trackpad of Bold 9780.
Internet Browsing
The device is powered by new WebKit-based browser as in Apple iPhones, Palm Pre Plus and Android phones like HTC Desire HD. But, in terms of speed, the device lags behind Apple and
Google and shares the equal platform of Internet Explorer browser in host of Windows Phone 7 devices just like HTC 7 Mozart, LG Optimus 7 etc.
You can avail the facility of tabbed-browsing by choosing the button in top-right corner of browser. We experienced high responsiveness while browsing the tabs. Moreover, tabs don't
require loading after the opening courtesy to 512MB RAM of Bold 9780, which has been doubled from 256MB of Bold 9700.
The device also packs the 624MHz processor similar to 9700, which can't match with the performance of 1GHz models incorporated in various Android devices. However, this processor seems
perfect for this handset and caused no any lagging or jitter during our review.
Network and Connectivity
BlackBerry Bold 9780 is 3G enabled and supports the Wi-Fi, both of which are quickly accessible from the Home screen if you're worried about battery depletion. The device also supports
the Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, A2DP audio streaming and stereo headsets.
You can also connect the handset to your PC via micro-USB for experiencing the benefits of BlackBerry Desktop Manager. Through it, you can back up your handset and sync the Notes,
Tasks, Contacts and Calendar. From the iTunes playlists, you can select and import the songs.
Applications
BlackBerry Bold 9780 leads you to BlackBerry App World replete with various apps. Even though, the store legs behind the Nokia Ovi store in terms of discoverability. But, RIM has incorporated
various nice apps in it.
In addition to Social Feeds feature, the device also contains Facebook and Twitter apps. Various apps handy for viewing Microsoft Office documents are Sheet to Go, Word to Go and Slideshow
to Go. Calendar, Calculator are other most popular apps.
Albeit, on-board GPS accurately and speedily performs, but with BlackBerry Maps, you can enjoy this feature by default. But, in our opinion, Google Maps are much nicer to use and can
be easily downloaded on this handset.
Multimedia
The 5 MP camera of Bold 9780 is an improvement over the 3.2 MP snapper of Bold 9700, although it lacks white balance, metering and any effect. With auto-focus, LED flash and geo-tagging
on-board, you can capture nice pics.
The music player of the device sports an interface amplified with album artwork. The songs can be browsed through by the name of Artist, Album, Playlist etc. We found the 3.5mm jack
and audio quality fairly good. With a native podcast client and YouTube app, you can easily upload a video.
The device can record the 640x480 VGA videos in 3GP format at 24fps. The microphone perfectly picks up the sound. All in all, the video abilities of the handset are indeed impressive.
Calling
The contact list on Bold 9780 is not too much catchy in contrast to People hub of several Windows Phone 7 devices just like Samsung Omnia 7, HTC Trophy etc. In addition to the name,
number, email address, Birthday and Notes, there is also extra option to enter BlackBerry PIN and create custom fields while adding a new contact.
Calling with the handset is quite a breeze. You can easily call just after scrolling over phone numbers and pressing the select key. We also noticed the call quality reasonably good.
The external speaker is also loud enough enabling other people listen a call.
Messaging
Messaging apps of the Bold 9780 brings the benefit of integration of all the email accounts and messages of social networking sites in an unified inbox. A large numbers of email accounts
can be easily set up on the device, but it becomes easier with 3G signal.Further, after accessing any entry in the inbox, you can view threaded messages.
BlackBerry Messenger is good and it lets you connect to your near and dear ones by just entering a PIN The keys of the keyboard are a bit cramped and hard to use like in Bold 9700
and can't match with the well-spaced landscape keyboard of Nokia C6. Although, typing is not out of the ordinary, but we found messaging speedy and responsive.
Battery life
Similar to Bold 9700, the device is fitted with 1500mAh battery, which will of course need charging every night, if you're using Wi-Fi connectivity and new browser. But, you can feel
blissfully happy, that it wont disappoint you on light usage.
Specifications
- Dimensions 109 x 60 x 14.1 mm
- Weight 122g
- Screen 2.4 inch TFT with 480 x 360 pixels resolution and 65K colors
- Alert Sound MP3 ringtones
- Vibration Yes
- Speakerphone Yes
- Card slot microSD, up to 32GB
- Internal Memory 512 MB
- Phonebook Unlimited, Photocall
- Call records Yes
- GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, WLAN, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth v2.1
- USB v2.0 microUSB
- Camera 5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, autofocus and Video
- Software BlackBerry OS 6.0
- Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, IM
- Browser HTML
- Games Yes
- GPS Yes, with A-GPS
- Java MIDP 2.0
- Applications BlackBerry maps, Media player MP3/WMA/AAC+, Video player DivX/WMV/XviD/3gp, Organizer, Predictive text input
- Battery Li-Ion with 528 h Standby and 6 h talk time
- Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
- HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100
Pros :
- Solid design
- Powerful Universal search
- Amplified Internet browser
- Reasonably good call quality
- Sharp screen
Cons:
- No touchscreen
- Small screen
- Limited App store
- Cramped keyboard
The bottom line
BlackBerry Bold 9780 is a nice addition in the popular Bold series of RIM. The new BlackBerry operating system 6 makes the device up to date and most-coveted in the market. Further,
the email and social site integration is also key attraction of this handset. But, in our view, it would be much better device, if it had a larger touchscreen and a more enriched App
store.
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