Camera work
The new BlackBerry 7 OS looks a little different to the previous version, but in truth, not much different. The menu icons are nice and colourful, but still not particularly intuitive, though you can organise them into related menus for convenience. There are none of those lovely widgets that we’ve got used to with Android either.
Look familiar? BlackBerry 7 OS homescreen
The new OS includes NFC (Near Field Communication), helping it to keep up with Android and offering the chance to pay for things using your handset – not that there’s much you can buy in this way yet. BlackBerry Maps is also integrated into the OS, so you can set it to automatically map your position when you’re using the camera, for instance.
But perhaps the most striking thing about the Bold 9900 is its speed. The single-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor backed by 768MB is certainly powerful enough to handle whatever you care to throw at it, and whips between apps at an alarming rate.
Sample Shots
Click for a full-resolution image
Taken with flash
Click for a full-resolution image
Click for a full-resolution image
Click for a full-resolution image
The 5Mp camera includes 4x digital zoom, autofocus, image stabilisation, LED flash, geo-tagging and face detection. It starts up very quickly in about two seconds, and picture quality is generally good, with nice, sharp edges and good colour balance. The 720p HD video recording is a nice extra touch too, and delivers decent quality images. However, there’s no camera on the front for video chat.
Next page: Social awareness
COMMENTS
how much?
Over 500 quid for an averagely specified qwerty phone? I think I'll be sticking with my Nokia E72 for some time yet has much the same features, if not as slick but much cheaper. The Bold's seem to be endlessly tweaked with minor upgrades - when you can get a Curve on PAYG for about £140 I'm struggling to see who'll actually be buying this.
Keep that E72
If I were you, I would keep an eye on software updates and ovi app store since E72 guys get some cool stuff for free nowadays. Nokia licensed Joikuspot (pro) globally for example.
It is running an advanced version of J2ME with "close to hardware" extensions, it can't beat your E72 running everything from C to J2ME to Web widgets. Unless you are sick of Nokia brand as I do, keep your E72.
Userbase issue
RIM users love to use a powerful hardware like a feature phone. That was the same issue with Symbian and sad thing is, there is no limit what you can do with Symbian development. For example you can even code a smart IR remote (Psiloc) or location based "setting robot".
There are Nokia users who doesn't even know they have a full feature maps app in their phone, for free.
So userbase like that is the issue itself. I can't even convince BB users to update their firmware, the built in apps!
HTC Cha Cha?!
Seriously? 'Cha Cha'? I'm not sure I could buy a phone with that name no matter how good it is; it'd make you sound like a secondary Looney Toons character whenever you talked about it!
"Hey, what phone is that?"
"A Cha Cha!"
"Very funny. Come on, what phone is it?"
title
I think you're bang on the money with BB's appworld being its achilles heel.
Apps are now touted a central point to expanding the use of your phone. Sure you may not want them, but if you do, there are thousands of free and paid for apps - on the droid or iphone markets.
Blackberry treats its appworld like a freakshow attraction. You can have a look if you want, but you'll be just fine if you ignore it.
That was all fine and dandy when RIM was seen as an business tool. But they are not seen that way anymore, and people are not content with just a secure reliable phone. They want the razzle dazzle of turning their phone into a torch, or install a new browser, or IM client or whatever takes the fancy.
