Mobility

Image Gallery: First Impressions of the BlackBerry Bold

By // November 9, 2008, 9:34 PM PST

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  • BlackBerry Bold retail box

    The BlackBerry Bold is the first BlackBerry with HSDPA support and also includes WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It has a powerful 624MHz processor and comes with 1GB of on-board flash memory. The following gallery shows the hardware and some of the new screens you will see in BlackBerry OS 4.6.

  • BlackBerry Bold Getting Started Guide

    The Guide is found under the top flap when you open up your box.

  • Here is the Bold

    The Bold is found under a protective plastic shield and cardboard flap.

  • Bottom box contents

    In the bottom you will find the travel charger, USB cable, stereo headset, very nice holster, CD with Desktop software, and another Getting Started pamphlet.

  • Takes several minutes on initial startup

    I made sure the battery had some charge and then turned on the Bold. It takes something like 3-4 minutes for the initial startup of the device and this clock icon appears.

  • Bold starting up in hand

    The Bold still fits nicely in my hand, but it is a bit wide and not as sleek and sexy as some of these latest devices. It is definitely a masculine device.

  • Clock feature when plugged in via USB

    When I plugged the device in to a PC or into the power source the clock appeared on the display. You can switch between analog or digital mode and also setup alarms using the Clock application.

  • Bottom half of the Bold

    There are four hardware buttons around the traditional trackball with the full QWERTY keyboard below that.

  • Left side of the keyboard

    There are left and right shift keys and the buttons are well spaced and well sized. There is also great feedback as you press down on each button and the Bold keyboard is tough to beat.

  • Right lower side of keyboard

    You can see there is a right shift as well, along with a symbol key to access more characters.

  • Four hardware buttons

    You will find send and end buttons on the outer part of the front, with the back and menu buttons closer to the trackball.

  • Trackball

    The trackball is like the ones found on the Pearl and Curve devices and IMHO is one of the best navigation controls ever found on a mobile device.

  • Back of the Bold

    The back looks pretty plain with just the camera up top. The back is also textured, as you will see closer in the next few photos.

  • Camera and flash

    The Bold comes with a 2 megapixel camera and flash that take decent photos. I think a 3.2 megapixel version should have been used and should be the new standard for cameras on these higher end mobile phones.

  • Close up of the back textured cover

    The cover feels like leather over plastic and may actually be leather, but I doubt it. It feels great in your hand and gives a professional look to an already solid device.

  • Left side of the Bold

    I was very pleased to see two standards used on the Bold with the 3.5mm headset jack and miniUSB connector for syncing and charging. Nothing makes me happier than seeing these two standard ports on mobile phones. Just above the 3.5mm headset jack is the left stereo speaker opening too.

  • Mid to lower left side

    There are customizable application launcher buttons on each side of the Bold and this one is found about halfway down the device. Below this button is the externally accessible microSD card slot. The cover flips open easily, yet seems to protect the card as well.

  • Mysterious bottom design

    I am not sure what these two features are on each side of the bottom of the device, but they do not seem to perform any function.

  • Bottom of the Bold

    The back cover release switch is found in the middle of the bottom with the microphone and another opening (I believe it may be a lanyard opening) found on either side.

  • Bottom right side

    Another one of those mysterious openings is at the bottom right with the second customizable application button above that.

  • Upper right side

    The volume toggle switch is found on the upper right side with the right stereo speaker opening above that wrapping around from the back.

  • Treo Pro, Bold, and E71

    Here are three of the latest and greatest QWERTY devices, each running a different operating system.

  • Three devices stacked

    The Bold is under the Treo Pro and E71 in this photo showing some size comparisons.

  • Three devices from the bottom

    The Bold is noticeably wider than the Treo Pro and E71, but is actually a bit thinner than the Treo Pro. The E71 is the slimmest of them all.

  • Right side stacked up

    Here is a shot of these same three devices from the right side.

  • Above the display

    The handset speaker is centered above the display with the indicator light positioned over to the upper right.

  • Default standby screen

    This is the display you will see when you first turn on your AT&T BlackBerry Bold. Other carriers throughout the world have it as well and may have other backgrounds.

  • Customizing the standby screen

    I am a big fan of the Dodge Challenger and included an image of one on my standby screen.

  • Display after pressing the Menu key

    When you press the left Menu key you will be taken to this display that shows everything loaded on your device. You can move the icons around and change the types of icons by changing your themes.

  • More icons on the device

    As you can see there is a LOT loaded on the device just as part of the operating system. The PR company that sent the review unit also loaded a few trial applications for evaluation.

  • Month view is still lame

    With all of the improvements in the BlackBerry OS, I have to say the calendar is still a bit lame and needs some attention. The month view is pretty worthless and just shows you the days of the month without any details at all.

  • Media application

    BB OS 4.6 offers a much improved media application that lets you manage and view your videos, photos, ringtones, music, and voice notes.

  • Music player

    The music player is pretty basic, but meets my basic player needs.

  • Ringtones

    There are several ringtones and other included alarm and notification sounds on the Bold.

  • Recording a voice note

    Voice recording is a very handy utility to have while driving when a thought pops into your mind that you want to remember for the future.

  • AT&T Music folder

    AT&T loads up shortcuts to some of their services and as you can see there are several options in the Music folder. These are paid services that I personally do not use.

  • XM Radio access included

    You can pay to listen to XM Radio on your Bold through an AT&T subscription.

  • AT&T Mall folder

    AT&T includes several shortcuts in their Mall folder too so you can buy things from their stores.

  • Cellular video included

    The AT&T cellular video service option is also available on the Bold.

  • Browsing on the Bold

    I use Google Reader quite a bit for reading content on the go and the new browser works well with the mobile version. The browser is much better than previous browsers, but still doesn't support flash.

  • Camera settings

    You can control many of your camera settings with this utility.

  • Applications folder

    Many applications are loaded into this folder by default, but you can always customize their location on the Bold.

  • Setup folder

    Setup wizards can be found in the Setup folder.

  • Games are included

    You actually get some fun games on the Bold, including Texas Hold'Em and Klondike.

  • Downloads

    When you download applications from the web they appear in this folder by default. You can then move them around as you like. As you can see there were several applications included on this review device.

  • Handmark Express on the Bold

    Handmark Express is a full featured application that requires you to pay a monthly service fee for many of the services.

  • Viigo

    I never tried Viigo before, but it also provides you with a lot of useful data and I understand it is currently available for free.

  • Settings folder

    There are a few settings options found in this default folder.

  • Options are still lame

    The Bold and OS 4.6 are pretty polished, but then you select Options and are taken back to the 90s. It would be nice to see BlackBerry improve this interface as well.

  • Documents To Go Standard is included

    You can view and edit documents (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) with the included applications from DataViz.

  • Premium Edition gives you more functions

    You can also upgrade to Documents To Go Premium for creating new documents and getting access to more functions like spell checking and word count.

  • Wireless connection manager

    A nice manager is available so you can manage all of those wireless radios.

  • Watching Ironman on the Bold

    Videos look fantastic on the Bold and I think I have found my new media player and ultimate converged device.

  • BlackBerry Bold retail box

    Gallery image 1

  • BlackBerry Bold keyboard

    Gallery image 2

BlackBerry Bold retail box

The BlackBerry Bold is the first BlackBerry with HSDPA support and also includes WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It has a powerful 624MHz processor and comes with 1GB of on-board flash memory. The following gallery shows the hardware and some of the new screens you will see in BlackBerry OS 4.6.

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