BlackBerry Bold 9700 tested

BlackBerry Bold 9700

Overall verdict from the Your Mobile Phone Reviews Test Team

The Your Mobile Phone Reviews test team liked the size & weight of the Bold 9700 but generally we felt the appearance & design lacked that wow factor we want from a new handset. There is so escaping this is a power Smartphone which has a very solid & high quality designed casing. Its screen is a little small in size but provides a clear display & we loved the full QWERTY keyboard for superb usability when we got used to it. Messaging communication is simple using the QWERTY keyboard & the Bold 9700 supports a wide selection of services. A good battery was a real high point for our testers & an easily removed back cover made our testers very happy indeed, as it is never a good start if you have difficulty inserting your battery after unpacking your new handset. We liked the trackpad navigation when compared to a trackball design but some of our testers craved a touch screen & continued to tap the screen to no avail. Our team were a little disappointed as the BlackBerry Bold 9700 just lacked excitement in design & its features were a little predictable.

Here are some conclusion comments from our test team:

- A dated design handset
- Powerful Smartphone
- Would I recommend it? Probably to a business users but not the fashion conscious user
- Reliable & typical BlackBerry design
- Perfect for messaging, I couldn't stop using emailing & SMS
- Good for business but dull design
- No wow factor & not exciting to use, sorry

Read more details of our testing results below.

Our test team gave the BlackBerry Bold 9700 an average score of:

85%

Appearance & Size

The Your Mobile Phone Reviews test team liked the overall appearance & size of the Bold 9700 on opening the box. This Smartphone has a sophisticated appearance & it fitted nicely in our tester's hands when in use. Its dimensions made it easy for all our testers to carry & hold, although it's not the slimmest design Smartphone but its compact width makes its comfortable to handle. It is 14mm in depth, 60mm in width & 109mm in height. We all found the BlackBerry Bold 9700 to be lightweight when in use & for carrying, this is a really positive aspect to its design as some Smartphone's tend to be on the heavy side.

The front of the handset has a smooth & silky appearance with a high gloss finish complete with stylish chrome effect edging. There is a 2.6 inch colour TFT screen on the top section & a full QWERTY keyboard on the lower section, complete with bevelled keys which made selecting individual keys easy for our testers. Below the screen is a good sized back or escape key & the navigation trackpad is very responsive to touch although a little small in size but all our testers agreed this design is so much better than a trackball navigation control. We liked the well positioned main menu key which is clearly indicated with a BlackBerry logo & led us the many applications. There is also a call send key & a call end or power key which we liked the size of, plus these keys are in easy to reach positions. We generally like the QWERTY keyboard design although some of testers simply prefer touch screen style keyboards, but when you get used to this handset design it is a very useable input method. The back of the casing has a textured leather effect complete with very discrete built in camera lens & flash. The majority of our testers complimented the leather feel casing whereas some of our younger testers felt this styling was slightly dated & not very fashionable, we guess it's a matter of opinion but it does feel rather nice when holding the handset. The top edge of the handset has a lock key on the left hand side, which is actually not a key at all but more like a clickable section of the Smartphone's casing, which we loved as it its very touchy feely. On the right hand side of this top edge is another clickable section which allowed our testers to mute & pause sound. On the left hand side is a conveniently positioned headset jack, micro USB port & convenience key which is set to activate the voice dialling but this convenience key can be set to activate a wide selection of features & each tester customised this key to best suit their needs. The convenience key can be easily changed & set by accessing the main menu applications, selecting options, accessing screen/keyboard followed by convenience key. On the right hand side of the casing is a two way volume control key & a camera key for accessing the camera feature, capturing & this key can be used for the automatic focus feature.

Our team were keen on the overall style, weight, size & key layout of the BlackBerry Bold 9700 but many of our testers did not get the wow factor about this handset which tends to be important when buying a new Smartphone.

Our test team scored the appearance & size at:

80%

Durability & Usability

Our team fully appreciated the solid design of this Smartphone & all our testers reported back that this was not a flimsy handset & it has been manufactured well. We agreed this phone could withstand a few knocks during general day to day use & not become damaged. Its screen is tough & not huge in size therefore it would take mistreatment to become seriously damaged. The BlackBerry Bold 9700 provided all our testers with a real quality feel from its overall casing design, well done BlackBerry.

The Bold 9700 proved to have good usability but a few of our test team member's comment on the handset definitely lacking the wow factor. It is a great business focused phone & our team wanted to make it very clear that this is most definitely a high quality Smartphone, but it does lack that exciting feel some of our testers like from a new handset. We found the interface user friendly & the main menu is easily accessed with many applications & features available. All the applications & features have simple icons & come with clear labelling. Our testers liked the flexibility & usability of using multiple applications on the Bold 9700. The QWERTY keyboard is excellent to use & the general feedback regarding the trackpad was very good as it is highly responsive to touch. All in all the usability of this handset is to a high standard & pretty predictable which some testers liked but others found a little boring.

Our test team scored the durability & usability at:

75%

Battery

Hooray, all our test team commented how easy it was to remove the back cover when inserting the battery which was an easy task for all. We found removing the cover, inserting the SIM card & fitting the battery was an uncomplicated procedure.

None of our testers experienced any poor performance from the battery provided with the BlackBerry Bold 9700 which is excellent. We enjoy surfing the Web, making many calls, taking photos & listening to music & there was still two bars indicated at the end of the day. The battery is a 1500 mAH lithium-ion battery & it impressed all of the Your Mobile Phone Reviews testers on its overall performance.

Our test team scored the battery at:

95%

Camera

When accesses the camera features our testers found this an easy experience as many accessed the camera feature via the side located dedicated camera key on the handset & access is available also via the main menu. Our testers enjoyed capturing a photo or starting a video recording using either by pressing the trackpad control or by pressing the dedicated camera key which makes usability easy. The camera lens is 3.1 megapixel which provides a clear capture thanks to its flash feature, it is not as good as other camera focused phones but this is a business Smartphone. All photos & video are stored in the media feature menu & when viewing photos our testers enjoyed the zoom function when viewing their captured photos. Video playback can be gained by accessing the media feature which provides easy to manage video storage & a good viewing experience although the Bold 9700 only has a 2.6 inch screen. We feel that short video playback is fine on this handset but our testers did not enjoy long video playback such as movies on such a small screen.

Our test team scored the camera at:

80%

Music

The test team enjoyed the flexibility of all the media features on this handset although nothing new or amazing was experienced from this Smartphone. Access to the music features can be gained via the home screen or main menu by accessing the media features menu. Searching for our music was an easy task with a search for all songs, artists, albums, genres all available plus a playlists or shuffle songs feature on the Bold 9700. Good sound quality was experienced either over the speakers or by using headphones & our users liked the smooth music controls using the trackpad to select the back key, pause/play, stop or forward keys. We liked the useful pause/play key which is located on the right hand side on the top edge of the casing. The music feature is nothing special on this handset but it is easy to use & a convenient feature with good sound.

Many of our testers did not raise any comments on the gaming experience as they were too busy browsing the Web for entertainment but our games enthusiast was keen to share their feeling on the preloaded games & overall gaming experience. Our games loving tester reported that the screen & its resolution was small for games. Its preloaded games included BrickBreaker, Word Mole, Texas Hold'em King 2, Sudoku & Klondike which are all focused at older users or business type users for a more grown up gaming experience, which is exactly what we would expect on a high quality Smartphone. Our tester did not score the preloaded games or the playing experience very highly as the screen & trackpad prevented a pleasing gaming experience.

Our test team scored the music capabilities at:

95%

Messaging

BlackBerry did not let our testers down as this Smartphone is crammed full of messaging service to suit all our messaging needs. The QWERTY keyboard made messaging a straightforward task & although a few of our testers initially found the QWERTY controls difficult rather than having touch screen controls, the QWERTY was great for messaging. We enjoyed BlackBerry messenger for instant messaging plus SMS & MMS is combined which has a conversation style layout. The message labelled icon took us to our emails which can be slightly confusing, whereas the SMS & MMS labelled icon has a separate icon. Our testers changed their messaging setting by going to option to access either SMS or MMS to change notification settings & message filtering settings. All the messaging services can be accessed via the main menu or via the home screen.

Our test team scored the messaging capabilities at:

90%

Connectivity & Technology

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is packed with a 600 MHz processor & a BlackBerry® 5 operating system which makes this a powerful compact Smartphone. The Your Mobile Phone Reviews test team enjoy the speed of this handset & it's built in technologies proved to be reliable & easy to use.

It's a 3G HSDPA Smartphone which supports Wi-Fi® technology. We tested the handset in the United Kingdom & connectivity was extremely good in the majority of towns when using our chosen service provider for testing. We experienced no issues connecting to our computers & other mobile phones using both micro USB connectivity & Bluetooth connectivity. All our testers browsed the Web for long periods of time & we are pleased to report a great Internet experience & Web browser on the Bold 9700.

Our test team scored the connectivity & technology at:

95%

Screen & User Interface

The screen on the Blackberry Bold 9700 is fairly small measuring 2.6 inches in size. Our test team agreed the viewing display was clear & colourful but nothing amazing when compared to other Smartphone's with higher resolution viewing experiences. The screen did not show many smudges but our testers agreed this is due to it not being a touch screen, therefore the screen was not touched continuously to cause any smudges. To change & adjust the screen brightness, backlight time out, key tone, font size or font style, we simply selected options from the main menu & entered the screen & keyboard settings.

Our testers agreed the interface is easy to use although most of our test team did not highly rate the overall look as it lacked a fresh & fashionable design. All in all, a highly useable interface with access to all the phones applications & features but the general feel was it lacks that excitement our testers where looking for.

Our test team scored the screen & interface at:

70%

BlackBerry Bold 9700 Gallery

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 next to its product box

Top and bottom of the BlackBerry Bold 9700

The back removed and the battery taken out of the Bold 9700

Would you like to learn more? Read our users BlackBerry Bold 9700 reviews

Many thanks to our friends at mobiles.co.uk for providing the BlackBerry Bold 9700 for testing.

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BlackBerry Bold 9700 © 2006 - 2012, Your Mobile Phone Reviews UK Limited

UK mobile phones tested - BlackBerry Bold 9700