BlackBerrys, the Bold 9700 adopts a look
overly similar to recent releases including the Curve 8900 and the Tour.
RIM representatives indicated that
last year’s Bold 9000 was a little too
butch (one went so far as to refer to
it as the ManBerry), so the Bold 9700
was made smaller and given some
cosmetic changes designed to make
the device a little more appealing to
women. The Bold 9700 is significantly smaller than last year’s Bold
9000, measuring in at 4. 29 by 2.36
by 0.56 inches and 4. 3 ounces, compared with 4. 48 by 2.6 by 0.59 inches
and 4. 8 ounces for the Bold 9000.
From a design perspective, the
Bold 9700 makes it seem like RIM
is running out of design ideas.
While the original Bold 9000 was
distinct (because of its size, heft,
screen quality and the aforementioned
backplate), the Bold 9700 feels pretty
derivative. Take the Curve 8900 and
tone down the shiny chrome a hair;
slap the Tour’s flat-keyed QWERTY
keyboard and bezel design on it; add a
textured, leatherette strip on the back;
move the side buttons and connectors
around a bit; and reduce the profile
with a trackpad instead of a BlackBerry’s typical trackball; and voila—you’ve
got the Bold 9700.
As uninspired as the look may
be, RIM has made modest changes
to enhance the overall experience
while at the same time taking away
a few things.
The optical trackpad, for instance,
is much easier on the thumb than
the old trackball. Like the trackball,
the trackpad can be pressed for the
action key, but cursor movement
can be performed with the lightest
of touches, and users can adjust
the sensitivity of the trackpad sepa-
rately for both vertical and horizon-
tal movement. (You can also add a
clicking noise to indicate trackpad
movement.) After a brief period of
acclimation, I found the trackpad
accurate and easy to use.
However, the Bold 9700 doesn’t
take advantage of code enhancements
made to the BlackBerry 5.0 operating
system that allow inertial scrolling on
the Storm2. Instead of being able to
flick downward—or, failing that, to
hold down my thumb at the bottom of
the trackpad to maintain a downward
scroll on a long Web page or docu-
ment—I had to push and push and
push, just like with the trackball.
Under the covers, the Bold 9700
features the same 624MHz processor
as its predecessor, but doubles the
included flash memory to 256MB,
making for fast application start and
switch times. (During my tests, the
only noticeable lag happened when
using the camera, for some reason.)
Unfortunately, there is not a simi-
lar bump in on-board storage—the
Bold 9700 has none, whereas the
Bold 9000 came with 1GB (and the
Storm2 comes with 2GB). While the
MicroSDHC slot supports cards up
to 32GB in size, the Bold 9700 comes
only with a 2GB card inside.
Due to its smaller form factor, the
Bold 9700 has a smaller screen than
its predecessor (2.44 inches, com-
pared with the Bold 9000’s 2.75-inch
screen). However, RIM has upped the
screen resolution on the Bold 9700 to
480 by 360 pixels, delivering clean text
and excellent quality for still pictures
and video. Due to the small screen
size, however, the screen’s quality can
be somewhat compromised when
viewing letterboxed content, as the
picture can be very small.
The Bold 9700 comes with a
1,500mAhr battery, a bump up
from the 1,400mAhr battery in
the Storm2, Tour and Curve 8900
devices (and matching that in the
Bold 9000). The Bold 9700 is rated
for 6 hours talk time or 17 days
standby in 3G mode, compared with
4. 5 hours talk time and 13. 5 days
standby for the Bold 9000.
The Bold 9700 comes with 802.11b/g
Wi-Fi, delivering the same excellent
wireless security features, performance
and troubleshooting tools I’ve come to
expect from Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerrys
during the last two years. The Bold 9700
lacks the 802.11a support that differ-
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Palm Pixi
The WebOS-based Palm Pixi is a
worthy upgrade from Palm’s previous
low-end smartphone offerings, even
for enterprise users. The device offers good integration with Microsoft
Exchange and ActiveSync, including
the ability to enforce policies from
the Exchange management console.
However, the unit’s battery life is
poor with automated data services
enabled, and performance was
inconsistent during e WEEK Labs’
tests. For a full review, go to tinyurl.
