The latest addition to BlackBerry’s Bold line is the 9900 and 9930 that was recently announced at Research In Motion’s (RIM) press conference in Orlando.
This is a welcome addition to BlackBerry’s flagship range, the Bold, giving the Bold the new Operating System (OS) 7, faster connectivity with 4G capabilities, and a ‘liquid graphic’ touch screen display.
This phone will surely be BlackBerry’s most desired phone.
The question you are probably wondering is when does this phone hit the stores, which providers will stock it, and how much better is the 9900 to the current Bold 9780 and 9650?
- This Bold comes in two versions, one geared for T-Mobile and At&t, and the other for Verizon and Sprint.
T-Mobile is the only network to announce that it will carry the phone, and they expect to have it available to you sometime this Summer.
At&t, Verizon and Sprint will most likely also carry this phone, however, it might be several months before you see the touch Bold in these provider stores.
In terms of pricing, there has been no mention of it at this stage. Though we all know where you can get it for the lowest price! - The 9900 is a step in the right direction for RIM, and is an impressive improvement from the 9780 largely from an internal perspective.
Physically the Bold 9900 looks very similar to the current Bold with the major differences being that it is slightly thinner (115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, height, width and thickness), marginally heavier at 130 grams, and has a brush steel band around the outside similar to the iPhone 4.
Processor is 1.2 GHz Snapdragon (almost twice that of the current Bold) and 786 RAM, so expect this phone to handle multiple apps running at once easily.
Display is a vast improvement on the 9780 with the introduction of the larger touch screen 2.8 inch 640 x 480 pixel screen.
Memory is 8GB on-board and a micro SD card slot that can add another 32 GB, so more than enough memory for all your media.
Camera is the same as the 9780 at 5 Mega pixels, however, the video recording is an improvement at 720p HD.
Connectivity is a marked improvement with the phone handling 4G, hence, a significant increase in web browsing speed, and of course the touch screen with the pinch to zoom and ‘liquid graphic’ display resulting in the entire page to load at once so that you don’t have to wait for sections of the page to load while you scroll down the page.
It is fairly apparent that the 9900 is the more impressive phone than the 9780, however, you are not likely to have one for a good couple of months unless you are with T-Mobile, who should have it stocked sometime this Summer.
Hence, is it worth waiting for the 9900 to come out if you are already due for an upgrade now – probably not.
The BlackBerry Bold 9780 (T-Mobile) BlackBerry Bold 9650 (Sprint) BlackBerry Bold 9650 (Verizon) is still a popular choice and has had great customer reviews to date.
For a full comparison see below:
