I TESTED the BlackBerry Storm a while back and had mixed reviews but overall I liked it. So, I was asked to give the BlackBerry Bold 9000 a hands-on like the Storm. What is interesting is, for a long time I was using a the Samsung i-600 which is similar in form as the Bold but a lot different in operation mainly due to operating system. Take a look at the Bold against the Samsung. Quite a contrast don’t you think. The Bold is like the big American muscle car while the Samsung comes across more like the Japanese compact.

Both feature a landscape screen with a full qwerty style keyboard. Some big obvious differences:

• Bold has higher resolution display
• Bold is heavier and bulkier
• Bold runs on RIM’S Operating System
• Bold uses a trackball

Otherwise the unit has pretty much the same connectivity (ports) and functionality. So, it was only natural that I’d gravitate to liking the Bold.

The keyboard is really great and if put to the test against a touchscreen I believe the real keyboard would without a doubt win.

The Bold feels like a real computing device because it also incorporates a trackball device for navigation. The one area I felt may develop into an issue with the trackball is the build up of lint. The old mechanical mice had this problem so I can only see this being an issue with continued use. An interesting feature for the trackball would be to have it light up in different colours for notification messages.

The Bold is on the heavy side and it may not be liked by ladies going out for a night on the town. Although, I have spoken to some woman friends using a Bold and they absolutely love it and one of the main reasons is they can never comfortably use a touchscreen device, like Apple’s iPhone, because of their well manicured fingernails.

A very nice feature for all the BlackBerry devices is the auto-sleep come screen lock functionality of the included slipcase. Just slide your Bold into the case and your Bold or Storm auto-magically closes down to save on battery life. Even though this is a cool feature I did feel the included slip case sub-standard, not in quality, but functionality. As a guy I would prefer to have things out of my trouser pockets. I don’t carry a purse so maybe for women it is fine. It would have been more functional if the case where the kind that could be fixed by clasp or other method to a belt. Granted, there are such cases available from the BlackBerry store and third parties. I felt that if I had paid a premium for the BlackBerry I’d expect other premiums to be included.

As a connected device I felt the Bold really shines. Part of this is the quality of the social networking and instant messaging applications. I covered that in the Storm hands-on as well. There are a few Twitter clients (all free), the sophisticated FaceBook and nicely done MSN Instant Messenger. The Bold features multiple antennas – 3.5G, Wi-Fi and BlueTooth and a the built-in GPS receiver, so there is no shortage of connectivity for personal networkor wide network coverage.

If you are not the Social Media type but like to browse the web you also get a decent web-browser. That said, a couple of my friends using both the Bold and an iPhone thinks the Internet Browser on the Bold is not up to par. He compared it to the iPhone’s. Never-the-less, I personally felt the BlackBerry browser was decent. It rendered most pages I visited, albeit sometimes very slowly and because the screen resolution is limited I did encounter having to zoom in and out on occasion. What made the BlackBerry browser quite useful is the ability to change the emulation mode, that is, being able to tell it to look like Firefox, Microsoft IE or BlackBerry.

What really makes the Bold appealing at this stage of the smartphone game amongst all the competitors is the amazing integration of the applications available. Obvious services and required applications were available through the local telco or you needed to be a bit nerdy to find and install them that is because only recently has RIM’s App World come online for Singapore and Rest of  Asia. It isn’t fully implemented yet because there are no paid apps available. Still it is currently better than nothing.

Summary

I am sad having to return the Bold to RIM’S local agency Lewis PR after my couple of weeks testing. Truthfully, I was about to go out and redo my telco contract and get a Bold but…a new Bold (the 9700) is coming to town (not soon enough for Singapore) and it has been released to some continents just not Asia. So, now I wait. I did have a consolation and that is being the recipient of a lucky draw and the prize, a new BlackBerry Storm (no not the Storm 2 – also not yet in Asia market   ).

I guess it is clear that my choice for a smartphone device will be a BlackBerry but just so you understand why here’s the good and bad highlights.

Good

• Battery life was excellent (actually much better than the Storm)
• The Qwerty keyboard is to die for
• Display resolution is sharp - (piTooie if you are a manufacturer still making QVGA smartphones)
• Navigation is a breeze with the trackball
• Sleep / Lock mode using the magnetic switch (no more fumbling to figure out how to lock/unlock the phone)

Bad

• Sub-standard consideration for a suitable carrying case (my really opinionated view)
• Digital camera quality – damn can RIM go speak with Zeiss or some other optics manufacturer to get a decent lens and CMOS or CCD device, I’ve had Sony Ericsson phones with 3.2Mpxl cameras that take wonder pics
• Size and weight

Ed’s Note: The Bold and Storm’s in Singapore are not running the latest version 5.0 of the RIM operating system. I don’t know of anyone that has tried the firmware upgrades that are circulating the Internet. Perhaps, if you are one of those in Asia that has done it, successfully or unsuccessfully, just post a comment to let us all know.