RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900 Review

Introduction:

It’s time to take a look at T-Mobile’s new BlackBerry smartphone – the Bold 9900. Obviously, it’s the GSM cousin to the CDMA flavored Bold 9930 , but what separates it is the hefty $299.99 on-contract it’s flaunting and the support for T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network. Will this be the standout BlackBerry to own?

Design:

Without question, the Bold 9900 is by far one of the better looking and built BlackBerry smartphones of late. Of course, the iterative design improvements we see are dramatic since it’s sleek, attractive, and constructed out of fine materials.



You can compare the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Sporting a 2.8 VGA (640x480) display, it’s undoubtedly refreshing to see the handset graced with a touchscreen for easier navigation. Taking into consideration its size and resolution, it’s no slouch in the detail department as well since it’s a pixel density pusher at 287 ppi. Brilliant on so many levels, it’s easily one of its main attractions!



Not to be outdone, it flaunts that iconic BlackBerry Bold keyboard and is easily by far one of the finest we’ve used. Speed typers will take pleasure in it the most since the layout is spacious, buttons are sufficiently sized, and the responsiveness of its keys are unbelievably amazing.



As for the rest, we’re presented with the usual assortment of ports and buttons. Flipping things around, we find its 5-megapixel with LED flash surrounding its distinguishable Bold branding. And of course, the glass-like battery cover, which protects the handset’s 1,230 mAh battery, SIM card slot, and microSD card, actually incorporates an NFC chip inside of it.

Interface and Functionality:

Providing much of the handset’s power, it features a faster 1.2GHz single-core processor with 768MB of RAM. Although it’s not overly impressive when compared to the dual-core chipsets out there, it nevertheless offers enough pizazz to exhibit smooth and responsive actions all around.

Unfortunately, very little has been done to separate the BlackBerry OS 7 experience drastically from the previous version. To tell you the truth, the overall experience definitely feels rather dated, clunky, and boring – though, we dig the significantly peppier responsiveness of the general platform experience.


If you want to get a comprehensive look at the platform’s functionality, you can read more about it in our detailed review of the BlackBerry Bold 9930.

Camera and Multimedia:

Despite sizing up with a higher 5-megapixel shooter, we’re disappointed by its results since it lacks auto-focus, fine details are faint, and shots tend to appear over-exposed. Even worse, low lighting shots are reduced further by the prevalent amount of noise in them.



Just a tiny bit more acceptable than its still image capture, its 720p video recording is highlighted mostly by its smooth capture rate of 29 frames per second and clear audio recording.

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900 Sample Video:



Boasting that conventional looking music player interface, we actually like the smooth coverflow-esque movement when browsing through songs. Additionally, its audio quality is prominent and powerful, but it tends to crackle a little bit at the loudest volume.



Thanks to its brilliant looking display and speedy processor, the Bold 9900 has no trouble in playing a movie trailer encoded in DivX 1280 x 720 resolution.



Internet and Connectivity:

Impressively, web browsing is such a pleasure on the handset due to the fast HSPA speeds we’re so gracious to experience – and it doesn’t take too long to load complex pages. Moreover, its lickity split navigational control allows us to navigate quickly around pages without much fluff.


Literally able to work in just about any location on the planet, this GSM smartphone offers other connectivity items like aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi.

Performance:

Calling quality is average since we’re able to hold conversations without that many annoyances. Although voices are distinguishable for the most part, there’s a hint of static in the background when using the earpiece. Moreover, voices are muffled in tone with the speakerphone. Unlike previous Bold smartphones for T-Mobile, the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900 doesn’t offer the useful functionality of Wi-Fi calling.

Signal strength appears to pretty strong since it’s able to hold a solid connection in high coverage areas within the greater Philadelphia region during our testing.

Easily able to provide us a solid one day’s worth of battery life on normal usage, heavy users will more than likely want to charge this one on a nightly basis to have sufficient juice for the next day.

Conclusion:

Just by looking at the handset, it embodies all the qualities you want with a premium smartphone – like its razor sharp looks, solid construction, and premium materials. However, we’re not fans of the $299.99 on-contract price that T-Mobile is asking for since its hardware specs and platform experience pale in comparison to some of its rivals. Unless you can find it priced considerably less through one of the many online discount retailers out there, we’d suggest investing your hard-earned money on something that’s going to be of more value – say like the HTC Sensation 4G.

Software version of the reviewed unit:
OS Version: 7.0..0.250

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9900 Video Review: