Blackberry

Features

• Optical trackpad for easy and fluid navigation
• Built-in Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g)
• Push to Talk feature
• VZ Navigator® version 6
• VZ Navigator Global capabilities
• Mobile e-mail and messaging capabilities
• Large (2.45″) high-resolution display (480 x 360 resolution at 245 ppi)
• 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, variable zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording
• Advanced media player for videos, pictures and music; a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack; and support for the Bluetooth® Stereo Audio Profile (A2DP/AVCRP)
• BlackBerry® Media Sync to easily sync music as well as photos
• Easy mobile access to Facebook®, MySpace and Flickr® as well as popular instant messaging services, including BlackBerry® Messenger
• Support for BlackBerry App World(TM), featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for lackBerry smartphones
• 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 16 GB microSD(TM) HC cards (a 2 GB card is pre-installed)
• Full HTML Web browser, streaming audio and video via RTSP
• Built-in GPS with support for location-based applications and services as well as geotagging
• Premium phone features, including voice-activated dialing, speakerphone, and Bluetooth (2.1)
• Support for high-speed EV-DO Rev. A networks in North America as well as single band UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad
• Removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery for up to 5 hours of CDMA
  talk time

Hardware

If you have ever used a Tour you will be right at home here. On the outside everything feels exactly the same except for the trackpad which replaced the Tour’s trackball. That said, as someone who used the a BlackBerry Tour every day for nearly a year, I can attest to all the small things that RIM has done to improve the experience with this device. For starters, the keyboard juts out more than the Tour’s did. While this might sound obtrusive and ugly at first, I assure you it’s not. In fact, it makes it much easier to type on because each key is more accesible. The bottom row of keys is also smaller from top to bottom than on the Tour. This gives the other rows more room while also making the four buttons in line with the trackpad larger and more finger-friendly.

Gone is the wobbly, loose battery door of the Tour, and the screen rippling caused by pressing the buttons below the screen too hard. Overall everything feels tighter and more refined with none of the loose or cheap-feeling qualities of the Tour.

Bold 9650 Rear View

If you were hoping that the microUSB jack had moved from the awkward spot directly next to the keyboard making it impossible to type and charge, then you’re going to be disappointed. RIM did however, move the jack up on the device about an eighth of an inch. I’m not entirely sure what this was making room for (WiFi, extra memory) but I can report that the cases I used on my Tour still work fine on the Bold.

Bold 9650 Side View

The two biggest additions on the Bold 9650 hardware-wise are the inclusion on WiFi 802.11 b/g, and 512MB of memory, which is a significant boot from the Tour’s 256MB. WiFi works just as one would expect, while the doubled memory makes the software side of things much speedier and certainly roomier as far as application space is concerned.

One other thing to take note of is that the Bold 9650 supports OpenGL for 3D gaming, unlike the Tour. If you’re into playing Need For Speed on that tiny screen with no accelerometer controls, then this is your chance.

Software

There aren’t any surprises as far as software goes. The Bold 9650 came loaded with 5.0.0.699 but I wiped it immediately and installed the newest official OS from Verizon (5.0.0.732) on it. Boot time is considerably faster than the Tour 9630, with boot times usually in the 2-3 minute range which is likely due to the boost in memory on the device. While we are on the subject of device memory, it is certainly mentionable what a difference there is in the amount of memory leaks between the Tour and the Bold. On the Tour I would typically see 15-20MB leaks during the duration of a day. With the Bold, my memory hardly fluctuates. The most I’ve seen it drop over the course of a few days is maybe 2MB. Even with this slight drop, my device has over 300MB free compared to a typical 110MB free with the Tour.

Due to the larger amount of device memory, I rarely see slowdowns or stalls even when running several intensive apps at the same time. With the Tour, stalls were a fairly common occurrence which I have heard were caused by the system trying to allocate room for files to be stored temporarily. Because of the extra memory in the Bold, it seems that allocation is much smoother, rarely slowing down the operation of the device.

Battery life is fairly comparable to the Tour but when making good use of the new WiFi radio I was able to get some great battery life. For example: today the Bold has been off the charger for 20 hours and it is currently sitting at 40% which is pretty excellent considering it is using the nearly one-year-old battery from my Tour.

While OS 5.0 is fun and all, and certainly does get the job done, what is really exciting about the Bold 9650, is that it is slated (as far as we know) to run RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 6 operating system. The jury is still out on just how good BlackBerry 6 will be (especially on non-touchscreen devices). Still, it’s exciting to at least have the chance to run the next big iteration of the BlackBerry OS.

Nitpicking

Trackpad Crookedness

While my general impression of the Bold 9650 is positive, I did find a few things to nitpick on. First, the trackpad on my unit is crooked and raised slightly on the left side. The worst thing is, it isn’t just my device. The majority of people in CrackBerry’s Bold 9650 forums are reporting similar crookedness which apparently results from the cable connecting the trackpad being too tight. The trackpad thing is fairly minor, but definitely noticeable after a while and it’s a shame that RIM couldn’t show some better quality control skills here.

Secondly, the speaker volume is significantly weaker than the Tour’s at the exact same settings. I find that an alert on the Tour set at the volume rating 5, is comparable to the Bold with the same tone set at 7 or 8. You may think it’s not a big deal, and that I should just crank the volume and quit complaining. Don’t get me wrong, I have, and it works just fine for customizable profile options. However, for things such as playing music out of the speaker, using the speakerphone, and touchtones, everything is quieter than it was on the Tour. It’s not unbearable by any means, but it certainly is perplexing. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can dive into the engineering screen and tweak sound settings to boost system output. Hopefully we will see a software update to fix this issue soon.

Third and finally, the colored numbers on the Bold’s keys are a faint pink when backlit in a dimly lit room. The end key is a nice dark red, but the number keys are definitely a much lighter hue. This is also a really minor detail, but I find the lack of consistency confusing.

Wrap Up

There isn’t much more to say about it. If you’re on Verizon or Sprint and you are looking for a workhorse BlackBerry, then look no further than the Bold 9650. It’s a rock solid device that has a bright future with support for BlackBerry 6 when it is released. That said, if you’re currently using a Tour, you aren’t missing a whole lot. Unless WiFi is absolutely crucial, or you can’t take the trackball’s shenanigans any longer, then I can’t really recommend throwing down the cash to get a device that is only marginally better. If you managed to score a Bold as a free replacement for your Tour, then congratulations. For a free, no strings attached upgrade this is a pretty sweet deal.