AT&T just announced the availability date for the new BlackBerry Bold. If you’re an avid BlackBerry user, this is happy news. I currently use the BlackBerry Curve and have been quite jealous of the 3G speeds and the beautiful browsing experience of the 3G Apple iPhones. That said, I still prefer a full non-virtual keyboard and the better Enterprise integration of my email and address book. With the introduction of the BlackBerry Bold, at least one of my high priority items are being addressed (3G speeds).
As a road warrior, among all the features, I’m most excited about the new speed benefits from the 3G support and the beefed up processor. The processor is about twice as fast as the previous generation phones (e.g. Curve, Pearl, etc.) so the screen should be more responsive to navigation and load times should decrease for applications. 3G speed will play into anything you do which requires real-time connectivity (browsing, IM chatting, etc.) The higher resolution should also help with access to better fonts for readability.
There are plenty of reviews out there comparing it to the iPhone and previous generations of BlackBerry’s. If and when I get my hands on one, I’ll post an in depth review based on real-world experience as a road warrior. It won’t cover the lab tests of "academic" reviewers, but it will do a better job of covering real-world usage in airports and various cities :-)
I’ve copied the press release, but no need to read it unless you’re interested in hearing from the AT&T marketing machine.
AT&T Customers to Enter a ‘Bold’ New Wireless World
Waterloo, Ontario — AT&T customers will be entering a bold new wireless world with the launch of the BlackBerry® Bold™, a breakthrough 3G BlackBerry® smartphone that operates on the nation’s fastest 3G network and is the first to support HSDPA networks around the world, including in Japan and Korea. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Research In Motion (Nasdaq:RIMM; TSX:RIM) announced today that the highly anticipated BlackBerry Bold smartphone will be available in the United States for as low as $299.99¹ on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in AT&T retail stores nationwide, through www.att.com and select national retailers, as well as through AT&T’s business-to-business sales teams.
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone, which is being introduced in the United States only for AT&T customers, can be used in the most countries abroad, including more than 60 with 3G networks. AT&T is the world’s leading provider of BlackBerry services.
Bold Design
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s design and performance live up to its name. The elegant smartphone features a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome-finished frame and stylish, leatherette backplate with a stunning half-VGA (480 x 320 at 217 ppi) color display for eye-popping visuals and a newly designed full QWERTY keyboard for exceptionally fast and easy typing. On the inside, the BlackBerry Bold features built-in GPS and Wi-Fi®, a powerful new 624 MHz mobile processor that provides impressive performance, more storage memory than ever before — 1 GB on board and up to 16 GB via its microSD/SDHC expansion slot — and a rich set of multimedia capabilities, including an advanced media player for music, videos and photos and a 2 megapixel camera with built-in flash, zoom and video recording, as well as an optimized Web-browsing experience with desktop-style depiction.
"The BlackBerry Bold is the best BlackBerry smartphone ever, backed by the nation’s fastest 3G network and the hands-down best international coverage of any carrier," said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive officer of AT&T Mobility. "The BlackBerry Bold is the complete package, providing customers with an absolutely outstanding mobile experience whether doing e-mail, browsing the Web, viewing streaming video or simply making a phone call. And it is being introduced in the U.S. only from AT&T."
Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO at Research In Motion, said: "The development of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone was an ambitious undertaking, and we focused intensely on the things that are most important to mobile customers when developing this best-in-class smartphone for HSDPA networks around the world. The BlackBerry Bold exudes quality in everything from its stunning display sharpness and incredible keyboard to its premium phone performance and sophisticated software applications. It provides an extraordinary mobile communications and multimedia experience, and we are very proud to introduce this breakthrough smartphone in the United States together with AT&T."
There has been chatter about TSA and laptop manufacturers working together to create TSA-approved laptop bags for speeding up security checks. The idea is travelers could avoid removing laptop from TSA-approved laptop bags. The driving requirement is allowing clear access to the laptop as if it were separated in its own security bin. You can expect bags which roll-out flat to separate the laptop from the other items in your bag which may prevent an unobstructed view of the laptop. Targus and a few other vendors have already announced TSA-approved models which should be available in the coming months.
I don’t believe this will save time in the short run as travelers and TSA personnel get accustomed to an updated security process incorporating the new laptop bags. I can see inexperienced travelers taking a cue from travelers with TSA-approved bags and sending in their unapproved laptop bags. Expect additional questions from TSA personnel if a travelers fails to remove their laptop into a separate bin. In the long run things should speed things up if there are enough travelers who purchase TSA-approved bags and we work through a few iterations.
I plan to keep my Tumi. I’ve my security process down to an art. Have a happy Monday morning.
Real reviews are exactly that – reviews targeted towards real users. We don’t run any sort of performance tests. show you boot-up times, or colorful trend charts on battery life, etc. What we give you are real experiences from people who use the product on a day-to-day basis. If you want to read about the specs, feel free to Google them. These reviews are more qualitative and hopefully provide you something that you don’t necessarily find elsewhere.
The Background
The first product is the latest and greatest Treo 700P. The reviewer is a co-worker and previously had the Treo 600. He found himself due for an upgrade after dropping his Treo 600 one too many times.
- Owned: 2 Months
- Wireless Carrier: Verizon
And now, in his own words:
The Good
- Since the carrier is Verizon, I can take advantage of the EV-DO network which provides near-DSL speeds. Browsing the web is actually bearable. I find myself surfing the phone to find things like flight times, news, directions/locations, movie times, etc.
- Bluetooth 1.2 support lets me use my headset from up to 20 feet away. [Please don’t wear your headset like jewelry – when you’re done, take it off!]
- The built-in camera is 1.3 megapixels (1280x1024 resolution). While not the best, I found myself carrying pictures of my wife and kids around for quick photo-sharing ops with co-workers and clients. For work, the camera comes in handy for the numerous white-boarding sessions that come with the territory. Instead of relying solely on my notes, I can take a quick snap-shot of the whiteboard, transfer it to my computer, and attach it in an email. My clients love it!
- There is a video capture tool include that lets me catch my 16-month old son being 16-months old :-)
- For email support, you have multiple options, but I ended up going with a third-party email client called Chatteremail (www.chatteremail.com) which I found to be high on user functionality. It does come with a $39.95 one-time licensing fee.
- The QWERTY keyboard comes in extremely handy for efficient input, especially if you’re big on text messaging
- It comes default with 60MB of free memory in addition to an SD expansion slot
- As an extremely organized person, I like having all my appointments and tasks entered into my phone. I use Keysuites (www.chapura.com) to manage the synchronization between my Treo and my laptop. The one drawback is it currently does not address time zone sychronization which is a pain if you travel quite a bit, like I do.
The Bad
- Although it’s alot easier to surf the web, websites updated to render on small screens are still lacking.
- The wireless sync email client that comes with the Treo did not impress me with its poor usability. It appeared to always be “syncing”, thereby using up my battery faster; it also didn’t sync well with my mail server when I deleted mail on my Treo.
The Ugly
- Compared to prior versions of the Treo, the battery life is short! I have to charge it as least once a day and depending on how many conversations I have on it, more than once a day.
- The Treo seems to slow down as the battery power gets low
- I’ve noticed some lag time (2-3 seconds) when switching between applications which requires a soft reset to clear up. I find myself resetting the Treo 700P about once a week.
The Short of It
For me, the pros of the Treo 700P outweigh its shortcomings and I recommend it to business travelers such as myself. While it is pricy compared to the Motorola Q and Blackberry, it contains more functionality and can increase productivity at work and at home.