I meant to write this story up over a month ago after returning home from WES, but between all of the KickStart, Javelin and Thunder hype of the past few weeks it totally slipped my mind (CrackBerry A.D.D. is a real disorder ya know!). So here it is, back to the device of now, the BlackBerry Bold...

One of the things I first noticed upon firing up my BlackBerry Bold, and have continued to be impressed by, is the quality of sound coming out of the device. For a smartphone, it's loud, it's clear and surprisingly if I place it on a desk in front of me and crank up the tunes, the music fills the room with an almost surround sound-like effect.

Back at WES, after observing that others were as impressed by the Bold's sound as I was once they had some hands-on time with it in the BlackBerry Bold room, I dug a little deeper into the subject. During a walk-through of the Bold with a friendly and informative RIM employee (thanks again!), I learned the secret to Bold's sound - it's all about managing the airflow! RIM actually has a team of audiophiles that spend their days figuring out how to make BlackBerry smartphones sound as good as possible, and a big key to acheiving awesome sound lies in managing how air flows within and out of the smartphone casing. More Airflow = Better Sound.

Take a look at the pictures above and you can see the exit points of this air flow equation. Notice how the Bold differs to the Curve and 8800 in terms of the location, size, and placement of the 'sound ports' (I'm sure there's an official term for this that I'm not aware of) on the casing of each device. The 8800 has one sound port at the top while the Curve features two small ones, also at the top. On the other hand, the BlackBerry Bold has three spacious sound ports - one at the top, and one on either side of the device. These additional ports on the left and right side of the casing help throw the sound out in multiple directions, contributing to the surround sound effect mentioned above. Internally, I'm sure there have been some improvements that help contribute to the magic, but I don't know exactly what those are so we'll end it at that.

There you have it, awesome sound coming to a BlackBerry Bold near you.... start the countdown!