BlackBerry Bold - Dare to be Different

Design

A Macro Perspective

To put things into perspective, the Bold has definitely gone for a major overhaul in its aesthetic department. For one, you'll notice that it is a huge departure from its previous predecessors' less than stellar plastic look, the Bold now comes in two shades, i.e. primarily black with a chrome silver lining along its sides. We are reviewing a BlackBerry device after all, and when it comes to the BlackBerry name, QWERTY keyboards are often than not associated with it. Thus, we did the standard messaging tests on the Bold's keyboard, and out of ten attempts at typing "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.", we had at least two attempts with some mistyping. But even so, we can safely say the Bold has managed to give its other QWERTY keyboard rivals a run for their money with its wide keyboard, appropriately raised keys without compromising on the smoothness of its design.

Undeniably, the Bold comes with some vast design improvements, one of which is the microSD card slot. For those who are familiar with earlier BlackBerry models, you might remember and wince at the inaccessibility of the microSD slot which requires one to remove the battery casing and lifting the microSD holder (yes, we are using the word holder since it acts more like a holder than a slot) to reach your microSD. The RIM folks have made a wise decision to do away with the location, and instead shifted the microSD slot to an easily accessible location, i.e at the left profile of the device. Furthermore, the microSD slot is now protected by a hinged cover and easily opened, so you can bid farewell to inaccessible microSD cards. Likewise, the Bold follows through with the inclusion of a 3.5mm audio jack, a mini-USB slot (which, in our opinion, has more merits than using a micro-USB slot that's not easily interchangeable) and finally the voice tag button, all positioned with the microSD slot at the left profile. This leaves the right profile much cleaner, with only the Volume buttons and the dedicated camera button for its 2.0-megapixel camera.

As mentioned, the Bold comes with a 2-megapixel and an LED flash to combat low lighting conditions. But what caught our attention, and probably yours, will be the leather-textured battery casing that not only makes the Bold look good, but also provides a practical usage, i.e. a good grip with the traction of the leather material. As we move on to the Bold's display screen, there'll be some questions on its screen size and display resolution. On estimation, the Bold measures at up to 2.6-inches for its screen size, and comes as a half-VGA screen with resolutions at 480 x 320. We'll be going into further details on the screen performance, so in the meantime, here's a better look at both the screen and the back of the Bold.