Research in Motion created one of the most popular smartphones when they designed the Blackberry. The businesslike handset quickly became renowned for its email capabilities and innovations. In order to keep the Blackberry fresh and at the front of the smartphone field, RIM developed the Blackberry Bold, a device that takes what came before and improves upon it.
Where the Bold really excels is with its improvements on the screen. The 2.6-inch diagonal screen is slightly larger than the one found on the Curve. The Bold also adds three quarters of an inch to the width of the screen, bringing the total to 2.25 inches. The clarity and vivid colors on the Bold make older Blackberry screens seem dull by comparison. The resolution of the Bold is 480 x 320p, and Samsung has utilized the larger screen and better picture quality by updating the UI with bigger icons that are clearer and easier to handle.
The UI in question is the Blackberry OS 4.6. Precision Zen is the default theme this time around and wallpaper can of course be applied to the home screen. Precision Zen’s display arranges six icons dock-style along the bottom of the screen. Dimension Zen is also available, adding color only to the icon selected. Larger icons lead to fewer rows, as the Bold offers only three rows instead of four. This leads to a bit more scrolling around. If you have a hankering for some fun, the Games folder contains Sudoku and solitaire. There are also two online games that let you try your skill against multiple Bold users.
The Blackberry really made its name with email, a fact that RIM knows well. That is why the company chose to keep things relatively the same on the Bold. Older Blackberry smartphones did the job so well, RIM only updated and modernized the email functions rather than giving them a complete overhaul. Now, the user can see pictures in message and get full HTML. Attachment viewing is also nice, but other than that, it is still the same email procedure as usual. The text is obviously easier to see on the bigger and clearer screen, but actual mailing hasn’t changed much.
Much as they often do RIM has taken a good concept and revitalized it. With the Blackberry Bold, the company has taken the familiar aspects of handsets past and improved and tweaked them to maintain relevance. Blackberry fans will find a familiar and fresh device with the Bold.