When we did our initial hands-on video of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 / 9930 Smartphone the booth was swamped and it was tough to record a decent video up, so we went back for seconds during the BlackBerry World opening reception and spent some quality time on the device. After getting a quick demo of NFC on the Bold 9930 and firing up a web browser shootout comparing BlackBerry 7 on the 9930 vs. BlackBerry 6 on the 9780, in this video we take our time and walk through the hardware and software on the first touchscreen Bold. Following up our first impressions, here's where we're at after spending a bit more time on the device.
BlackBerry Bold 9930/9900 Hardware: The more time we spend on the new Bold the more we're in love with the hardware. Of course the features and specs list is well filled out and you feel the performance and speed of the 1.2GHz processor. Photos don't do justice to both how thin the Bold Touch is and how light in the hand it feels. While the width of the device is the same as the Bold 9000, we're told there's actually 6% more of usable area around the device. The keyboard is frack'n amazing - it's literally a joy to type on. One thing we didn't notice previously was the addition of a third button sandwhiched between volume up and down which is for mute. And as for the cool feature of the backlit trackpad, I love the power down sequence of the device. When the device powers down into standby, first it kills the lighting on the display, then the lighting on the keyboard, and then finally the lighting around the trackpad - totally a nice touch.
BlackBerry 7 Software: Whether you think it should be called BlackBerry 6.1 or 7, there's definitely a lot of newness in the OS on the Bold 9900/9930. Definitely noticeable is what RIM has dubbed Liquid Graphics. Between the processor's speed and the GPU, the whole touchscreen/scrolling experience is liquidy smooth. New icons dress up the UI, and I LOVE that I can now personalize the homescreen views. Don't like all that homescreen left and right scrolling? You can easily disable it and go back to the BlackBerry 5 style of homescreen. Voice-activated Universal search is there, and there's an on-device music store. The web browser is faster, NFC support is there.... you get it.. there's a lot going on here.
Check out the video to see it all in action and learn more. Got any questions still? Be sure to let us know and we'll get the answers while we're here at BlackBerry World. Enjoy the video!
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