BlackBerry 9700, boldly going where no BlackBerry has gone before

BlackBerry 9700, boldly going where no BlackBerry has gone before

With its BlackBerry Bold range, the phone maker RIM (Research in Motion) has pulled out all the stops to produce a top quality smartphone. To do this, RIM has innovated and developed. And the company’s efforts have met with success.

Size and weight
BlackBerry phones have tended to be a little heavy and bulky in the past. The BlackBerry 9700 changes this.

In keeping with the demand for sleek, lightweight devices, the BlackBerry 9700 is 4.29-inches high, 2.36-inches wide and 0.56-inches deep. In metric, these figures are 109 mm by 60 mm by 14.1 mm.

The result is a compact and stylish phone. The unit is also light for a piece of technology that has so much packed into it: just 4.3 ounces (122 grammes).

Screen
The reduction in size of the BlackBerry 9700 means that the screen is also smaller. But if you’re used to previous BlackBerry phones, you’re unlikely to notice much difference.

This is because RIM has installed a high resolution 480 by 360 pixel display. The TFT LCD screen supports more than 65,000 colours. When you use a BlackBerry 9700, you can enjoy bright, sharply-defined images in dazzling colours.

Camera
With such a screen, you want a good camera. To meet this demand, RIM has upgraded from its previous 2-megapixel unit.

The BlackBerry 9700 comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera that has auto focus, a flash, image stabilisation, a 2X digital zoom and the ability to record video clips. The BlackBerry 9700 lets you take photos as good as those from many mid-range compact digital cameras.

Optical trackpad
For a while now, BlackBerry owners have relied on a trackball to navigate across their phones’ screens. The trackball worked well but was prone to the occasional problem. What RIM has done with the BlackBerry 9700 is give you an optical trackpad instead.

The trackpad is just like the touchpad of a laptop. You run your finger over the phone’s trackpad to view your icons and menus. Then, when you want to choose an item on the screen, you push down lightly.

This feature is proving popular with BlackBerry 9700 owners and reviewers, and has attracted a lot of praise.

Memory
The BlackBerry 9700 has a built-in memory of 256 MB. But RIM knows that if the phone is to make a serious claim to be a multimedia device, it needs expandable storage.

The phone therefore comes with a 2 GB MicroSD card. This gives room for music, photos, videos, apps, documents and other data. It’s also easy to install and replace the card: you don’t need to remove the battery to gain access to it.

The extra capacity the MicroSD card gives you combines well with the BlackBerry 9700’s other refinements. As a result, the BlackBerry 9700 is one of the most practical and desirable smartphones RIM has produced.

Jake Reacher is a mobile phone enthusiast who has loved phones ever since he got his first Nokia 5110. Having grown up abit and having to look more professional, he now uses his Blackberry Bold with as much passion as he once used his little 5110.