BlackBerry Bold 9650
delivers more of the same
REVIEW: The BlackBerry Bold 9650 treads a beaten path, delivering features
and forms seen time and again. While the Bold 9650 is a good device overall,
now may not be the best time to buy a new BlackBerry.
By Andrew Garcia
While the BlackBerry Bold 9650 delivers a fine overall experi- ence, Research In
Motion’s latest smartphone breaks no
new ground, delivering a form factor
and features seen time and again. The
Bold 9650 does offer a nice bump in
memory, which lends hope for future
enhancements, but the vagaries of
carrier upgrade patterns indicate it
is probably not a wise time to invest
in a new BlackBerry—not until more
details are revealed about the new OS
iteration already in the pipeline.
In terms of style and form factor,
the Bold 9650 is most analogous to last
year’s BlackBerry Tour 9630. The Bold
9650 is almost identical to the Tour in
size, shape and layout, and it offers
similar world-phone capability, with
support for both CDMA/EVDO and
GSM/UMTS networks. Over the now
scrap-heaped Tour, the Bold 9650 adds
an updated operating system revision,
an increase in flash memory, WiFi
connectivity and an optical trackpad.
Frankly, I’m a bit confused about
how RIM is positioning the entire
family. When the original Bold 9000
launched, RIM marketed the device’s
screen quality and horsepower, and it
delivered a comparatively large, manly
device. Some customers found that
BlackBerry too manly, so RIM slimmed
5GHz band support—I was disap-
pointed that the legacy does not extend
to the Bold 9650. Instead of including
its first 802.11n radio in the 9650, RIM
chose to plant its 802.11n flag in the
forthcoming Pearl 3G instead.
Like the Tour, the Bold 9650 is
designed to be a world phone. The
9650 supports the 800 and 1,900MHz
bands for CDMA and EVDO Rev A
down the form factor, retreated a tad
on a few critical specs and came out
with the Bold 9700. Now, with the
launch of the Bold 9650, the first thing
RIM advertises on the Bold family
page is exceptional battery life.
When I think of the BlackBerry
Curve portfolio, I think affordable
multimedia. For the Storm, I think
touch screen. For the Bold, I think
leatherette back plate, which remains
one of the few remaining unifying
traits of the family.
Sizewise, the Bold 9650 rests firmly
between the Bold 9000 and Bold 9700.
At 4. 43 by 2.4 by 0.56 inches and 4. 8
ounces, the Bold 9650 is noticeably
longer, wider and heavier than the
slim Bold 9700 ( 4. 29 by 2.36 by 0.59
inches and 4. 3 ounces), and slightly
narrower than the Bold 9000 ( 4.48 by
2.6 by 0.59 inches and 4. 8 ounces).
The Bold 9650 is now available in the
United States for the Sprint network,
with a Verizon iteration anticipated in
the near future. The Sprint version
retails for a list price of $450 ($200
after rebates with a two-year contract).
The device comes with the Black-
Berry-standard 802.11b/g radio imple-
mentation, leveraging the same soft-
ware and tools as RIM’s other recent
WiFi-enabled devices. Given that the
Bold product line was once a place for
WiFi innovation—the original Bold
9000 was the only BlackBerry with
Save for the optical trackpad, the Bold
9650 looks and feels almost exactly like
its predecessor, the Tour 9630.
