Mobile Phone Reviews : The Regulars

Designed for the user on the go and loaded with features, the BlackBerry Bold 9000 is a fine alternative to the touchscreen technology found on many new mobile phones.

Pros

The screen display is clear and bright, sitting atop an intuitive keypad.  Users will delight in composing long texts and emails, as the keys are comfortable and easy to use.

The Bold 9000 incorporates many of the features that previous BlackBerry mobile phones have lacked including HSDPA and Wi-Fi internet connectivity, GPS, and an integrated 3.5mm headphone jack.  The email feature supports every major provider, even corporate accounts, and is easy to get up and running.  Whether users want a smartphone to handle on-the-go social networking or need a device that will provide instant mobile access to business email, the Bold delivers.

Overall, the Bold more than lives up to its name in both looks and features.

Cons

The Bold 9000 is quite wide, and some users may find it bulky.  The 2 megapixel camera is decidedly uninspired and belies the rest of the phone’s great features.  The Bold 9000 will not replace users’ standalone digital cameras.  The interface has been revamped but remains confusing for new BlackBerry users, who will likely find themselves searching the internet for operating tips.

Conclusion

RIM has put all of its firepower behind the Bold 9000 with brilliant results.  The screen and keypad make this a real winner among the latest mobile phones from competitors.  For work or play, this phone is a top-notch performer despite the absence of a trendy touchscreen.

The first-ever touchscreen offering from RIM, the BlackBerry Storm 9500 crowds a load of features and performance into a sleek, commercial package.

Pros

The touchscreen on the Storm is large and bright, perfect for viewing photos or video.  The design is sophisticated, but the feel is sturdy and rugged.  The adapted BlackBerry software performs well on the touchscreen, though at slower speed than an iPhone.  Media playback is first-rate.

The Storm’s GPS system is very practical, email is fast and functional, and users will have no trouble accessing all the standard web providers and corporate servers. 

The clickable touchscreen is something of a new development in the latest mobile phones, and users accustomed to traditional keypads are likely to enjoy the click technology.  Instead of simply touching the screen to select options and activate buttons, users actually press down.  The concept might feel a bit uncomfortable for touchscreen veterans, but newcomers will feel right at home.

Cons

Adjusting to the clickable touchscreen can be awkward.  This factor alone makes the Storm a rather poor choice for users familiar with the touchscreen technology of other new mobile phones.  Also, there’s no convenient pinch and zoom feature on the Storm.

The most obvious omission is the Storm’s lack of Wi-Fi, a factor that was resolved in later versions of this smartphone.

Conclusion

This first touchscreen from RIM is an acceptable first attempt.  Users looking for great mobile phone deals should not be disappointed with the features and performance of the BlackBerry Storm.

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 focuses mainly on providing mobile email services. The mobile phone was released in 2008 and is the successor to the BlackBerry 8800. BlackBerry mobile phones generally are associated with email services targeted at the business market segment; the BlackBerry 9000 falls within this category.

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 measures 4.49 by 2.60 by 0.59 inches. It weighs 4.8 ounces. Its battery life is five hours of talk time, and 13 days (312 hours) of standby time. The screen has a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels and measures 2.6 inches.

The BlackBerry Bold 9000’s camera has 2-megapixels resolution, with flash and digital zoom. In terms of multimedia applications, the mobile phone has video supporting files in H.263, H.264, DivX 4, DivX 5, XviD and WMV formats and a music player supporting files in MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, and WMA formats.

Impressively, the inbuilt memory is 1024 MB. The operating software is BlackBerry OS 4.6x. The BlackBerry Bold 9000 has a full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, 2.0 stereo Bluetooth and GPS. Its email service works with IMAP, POP3, SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino or BlackBerry Connect.

The high quality of the screen and the ease of use of the keyboard both feature strongly in the BlackBerry Bold 9000’s reviews. The mobile phone is exceptionally easy to use. On the downside, the mobile phone is quite bulky and may not suit everybody’s taste.

BlackBerry Bold 9000 deals are mostly two year contracts offered by the major networks.

Joining the touchscreen fray has been a bit of a challenge for RIM and the BlackBerry.  While the first Storm model couldn’t live up to the performance of some of the latest mobile phones with touchscreen technology, the new Blackberry Storm 2 9520 aims to be an improvement.

Pros

The Storm 2 feels solid and looks chic.  Curved edges, metallic accents, and a more sophisticated key layout give the phone an overall elegant appearance.

The clickable touchscreen marks a vast improvement over the first BlackBerry Storm.  The Storm 2’s capacitive technology feels significantly more reactive, and the typing experience is enjoyable.

Email functionality is in line with the latest mobile phones.  The touchscreen makes scrolling through emails super fast and easy, and the rapid portrait to landscape rotation is a marked improvement over the Storm 2’s predecessor.  There’s also 256MB of internal memory included and support for a 2GB microSD card.

Cons

The touchscreen on the Storm 2 still seems to be lacking.  The clickable screen interface can be frustrating, particularly for users familiar with other touchscreen phones.

The media suite is also a bit thin.  RIM has been putting a lot more focus on developing other BlackBerry mobile phones, so apps for the touchscreen line are disappointingly few.  Hopefully this is something that will remedy itself in the future.

Conclusion

The Storm 2 is an adequately refined version of the original BlackBerry Storm.  While users won’t get an iPhone experience, there are still plenty of features and performance benefits that will help this model stand up favourably, when users compare mobile phones.

The Blackberry Bold 9000 is a popular BlackBerry mobile phone model with plenty of satisfied users. It has many useful features such as Wi-Fi, which is perfect for those who work on the go, as they can connect to the internet to check and send emails wherever there is a Wi-Fi hotspot.  The Bold also boasts excellent download speeds and has a very useful GPS to help with easier navigation.

With a stylish appearance the BlackBerry Bold 9000 looks elegant and modern and users will find that it is easy to operate with a clear screen and very sharp images making texts easier to see. There is also a massive 1GB memory which is ideal for those who like to store and listen to music on their phone and to take photos using the Bold’s camera function.  In addition there is always extra storage space via a memory card which can mean virtually unlimited memory capacity.

As with all phones there are some downsides to the Blackberry Bold 9000.  Some users find the phone a little bulky and not suitable to be carried around in a pocket while others say the camera function is a little disappointing, although if it is being used for quick shots and not as the main household camera it is perfectly adequate. Those who like to work and play may find that the lack of games included on the Bold is a bit of a letdown.

Overall this is a stunning phone with great features, and there are some good deals to be found on contract mobile phones.

It’s hard to know whether you should be looking for a contract mobile phone or a pay as you go mobile phone; there are pros and cons to each.  For the most part the only way to get the latest mobile technology is to go with contract mobile phones, as the cost of buying the latest model can be simply too expensive, whereas a monthly payment is something we can all afford.  The Blackberry Curve 8520 is one of the newer offerings from the Blackberry family and this one is designed to be more affordable.  This means that the cost of the pay as you go version isn’t as large as some of the price tags, and on monthly contract it is really affordable. 

When you compare mobile phones you will see that the Blackberry Curve 8520 is actually pretty comparable to their more superior phones. This one in particular is designed to appeal to the younger user as it offers access to social networking sites. The technology is not the best we have seen, however it does let you access the popular sites such as Twitter and Facebook.  The standard Blackberry keyboard is built into the handset and you can use this device to send emails on the run, or access the instant messaging. For a lower end device this really is quite a natty piece of kit and great for the young professional, even on contract the price isn’t bad.  It is well worth reading more about this phone in the mobile phone reviews.