BlackBerry Bold 9650 and Pearl 3G Hands-On Video

on 26 Apr 2010 10:44 AM

[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

Shortly after the new BlackBerry Bold 9650 and BlackBerry Pearl 3G were announced, we headed over to the BlackBerry room to get some hands-on time with the devices. Check out the video above for a quick look of what's in store. Mike McAndrews, RIM's VP of Product Marketing, was on hand so for this video (more vids to come) we had him walk us through the devices. In addition to the new 9650 and Pearl 3G hardware, I was pretty excited to see the new line of BlackBerry Pearl 3G cases RIM had in the showcase. Featuring a combinanation of hard case and rubber skin, they look awesome!

Filed Under: News & Rumors, Special Coverage; Tags: BlackBerry Bold 9650, BlackBerry Pearl 3G, Bold 9650, cbvideo, CrackBerry TV, device video, video, WES 2010

68 Comments

Posted by andredesignz Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Cool

Posted by serpico Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Nothing to see here, move along.

Posted by the brother Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

chicks are gonna dig this!

Posted by cmartinezn Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

I miss that in my 9700

Posted by GBP87 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Haha,

Did he say coming to "Tell and Belus"

Telus and Bell?

lol, thanks for the vid!

Posted by cvaria Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

"Tell and Belus" i was getting ready to post it and saw that you already had.

Posted by crownr0yal Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

LOL. tell and belus. he was too excited to talk straight!

Posted by mjbesen310 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

awesome line of blackberrys!

Posted by Dendrite Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Hmmm... the 9650 battery door isn't ribbed as it appeared to be in other pics.

Posted by lovemytoys Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

even if I did get a bit dizzy watching!

Posted by G.4 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Awesome that we can count on someone to represent the consumer at WES - great coverage Kevin, keep it up. I will definitely have a 9650, no question about it - but i just have one question, what happened to the possibility of it being released in white???

Posted by Kevin Michaluk Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

no mention of the 9650 coming in white at launch... i'm thinking black only. the pearl 3g on the other hand will ship in a ton of colors right from the get go.

Posted by G.4 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

although i'm a little disappointed about the no-white thing... not a deal-breaker though!

Posted by Brandon 8ch Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

That is definatly a Crackberry case Kevin. I want an 9650 since its like my bold but just with out the ball and I dont have to worry about dust getting in my ball or something =D

Posted by khm8891 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

i want one! i hate how you get a phone or computer or a tv and 6 months later there is a step up from it out...i got my 9630 in october

Posted by mjbesen310 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

well, thats electronics for ya.. there outdated the day you buy them, so just enjoy them while you can lol

Posted by garment69 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Webkit?

Posted by kram941 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Not gunna happen for a couple months

Posted by Bla1ze Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

I checked it and no...no webkit, that would have just been too easy, lol.

Posted by Kullkid92x Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Did you guys check the processor speed? i noticed on the specs list they released for the Pearl and CDMA Bold, they put the processor speed in the Pearl spec's list but not in the Bold's? Hmm..

Posted by mjbesen310 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

edited ..*double post*

Posted by Tony Bag O Donuts Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

was waiting for someone to hit "play" on their Wii :)

I hope the price is at 150.00 to 200.00 @ two years.

Posted by coltsbr Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Looks great! Can't wait to get my hands on one of those!

Posted by GoldBerryRocker Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

RIM got it right, Bold= high performance full qwerty, Pearl=just as high, but suretype, Curve= mid or low full qwerty, more to the Sidekick audience, Storm=full touch screen. 4 family, no need for anymore names.

Posted by 3Dee Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Actually, I'd always thought that the main distinctive difference between the bold and curve series was the keyboards. It will be interesting to see what specs the next Curve has...

Posted by GoldBerryRocker Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

you're right, but i think we're only see the 8900 with that much sexiness, I think it was gonna be a Bold, but T-mobile didn't have there 3g out at that time(or it wasn't ready at the time)without 3g, what's so bold about it, so they doped it down to a curve, but that keyboard is what making my comment kinda off, so I don't know. I started out with a curve 8320, it did get me in just in time for my 9700(witch i love)

Posted by DavidNC Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

The bold 9650 will most likely be in my hands this weekend , if vzw gets it in stores by then :D

Posted by ifhts Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

An announcement of VZ's 9650 release date would help you plan a bit more responsibly. I wouldn't want to see you camp out in front of a Verizon store needlessly.

Posted by desairs Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Fail I guess I'll get the EVO.

Posted by 3G.BoldBerry Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

it looks a tad bigger that the onyx, the thank goodness that tour look is gone, its looking good, they finally listened on the design. the keyboard looks good it should of gone up to 1gig thou on the memory still looks good. vzw is going to show off now.

Posted by qrescue Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Why is the old style battery door being used? And the music has to go. Lol

Posted by KurtisBertolami Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

I'm kind of hoping the retail on the Pearl isn't too high. I'm considering buying just to have as a nice option for when I want to carry lightly!!!

Posted by NastyNeil Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

that the battery door doesn't have that old style Bold door. IMO it looked tacky.

Posted by Tifoso Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

You had the VP of Marketing right there. Why didn't you ask him why the 9630 wasn't built like the 9650? The 9650 is what the 9630 should have been since day 1.

Posted by ifhts Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

That would have put the VP of Marketing in a very awkward position. It's best to maintain a good relationship with a company like RIM when you run a site like CRACKBERRY. (Makes sense, doesn't it?)

Even if the urge were too strong, perhaps it would be wiser to ask those burning questions when the cameras aren't rolling.

Posted by whofrank Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

ill never understand why blackberry doesnt put its headphone jack on the top of the device??? it seems so unintuitive to put it of the side.

Posted by ericsmcdonald Tuesday, Apr 27, 2010 652 days ago

I so prefer having the headphone jack on the side. I find it much more convenient.

Posted by sabbotage Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

I was hoping he would click on the about screen and show the software version :(

Posted by scorpioz Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

I was hoping for the same, especially when they were thinking do we need to cover anything else (watched others videos from wes).

Posted by sabbotage Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Looks like from the video I saw on another site that its OS 5.0.0.621 Bundle 1055 Platform 4.2.0.282

Posted by bessemercityburgess Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

That pearl is packing a punch. I have never considered a pearl till now it would be so nice to have a small berry to carry around. Small but when u pull that thing out its like a little bomb. Small but full of power

Posted by jlb21 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Any chance we will see a CDMA version of the new Pearl(s)? Would be perfect for my sister!

Posted by jacmeister68 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Hey Kevin

can you or anybody else qualify that as 9100/9105 has 256 of memory, will this stop it running upcoming os6 and webkit,

wasn't sure if it had to have 512 to run new software

Posted by serene. Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

That looped background music makes this video and the last one hard to bear. A distracting monotony that becomes super annoying after 15 seconds. Please. Stop. :-)

Posted by experiment626 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

I agree! That background syntho-music is god-awful! Can you re-edit to exclude it while demonstating the new BBs.

Posted by original00 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Wireless N on the pearl but not on the Bold? Isn't the Bold meant to be top of the line?

Posted by chaosnaz Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Look they're nice but seriously. With all these other smart phones coming out you'd think they could've done better!

Posted by db1561 Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Just more of the same from RIM.... When are they ever going to breakout with something jaw dropping?!?! if you were to line up all blackberry's ... they all look the same!

Except the Storm series.. OS is so bland its like using windows 3.0 arrrggg! I love my BB but its getting a little stale..IMHO.

I may consider the Droid or some other phone when my contracts up in June.

Posted by NoKittyNo Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

They really are! But ... the competition out there(I know, blah blah we've heard it over and over) HTC, Google(Android) ..Be it even the Little Apple, have been in the works of stepping it up in specs and technology and RIM keeps rolling out a waxed and polished version of last years model.

I am in no way dissing RIM, I have a Storm2 and it's a really sweet device. It does what I want (usually! Lol)it's gorgeous looking and it serves it's purpose. But y'know, sometimes people want a 'lil eye candy, a little oomf. I had test drove the HTC Magic and it blew me away at the time! (It had ALOT of draw backs though - so I opted for the Bold 9000) and now with the new Android devices that can do everything but tuck you in at night - RIM's devices are nifty, but not quite as tantalizing.

RIM makes a great device line - I will give them that, but sometimes when it comes to deciding between Reliable and Current... unfortunately Current may win

Now, on the devices part.. the Pearl is a very nice option for compactness, but I am not 100% sure i'd drop my upgrade in February for something as such, I'm still going to see what Apple has going in July, or if Rogers will upgrade their stale Android line.

Anyway..Thanks for the review guys! :)

Posted by xBBGirlx Monday, Apr 26, 2010 653 days ago

Any idea when either of these will be available in the UK?