BlackBerry Bold 9700 - Twice as Bold
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Design
Small but Bold
Some, like us, loved the overall design of the Bold 9000, with the right amount of girth, weight and usability of its QWERTY keyboard. So, when we laid our eyes on the Bold 9700, we were taken aback at how much smaller it looks compared to its predecessor. The new compact build is geared towards an audience that wished for a more space-saving device. However, we'd prefer the more solid build and larger dimensions of the Bold 9000.
The Bold 9700 retains some of the things that were done right on the Bold 9000, such as the inclusion of the 3.5mm audio port. On other aspects, we also see a few updates, such as a higher screen resolution at 480 x 360 (Bold 9000 being on 480 x 320) and the switch from miniUSB to microUSB. But with the change in size, we also have the Bold 9700 seeing its screen being shrunk down to 2.44 inches from its original 2.6-inch size.
Besides the size reduction, a few noticeable changes were spotted on the Bold 9700, most prominent being the absence of the familiar trackball. In its place, we have an optical trackpad that first saw the light of day on the Curve 8520. From our earlier experience with the 8520 Curve, we weren't exactly comfortable with how sensitive the trackpad was. We approached the Bold 9700 with as little skepticism as possible, but alas, it was once again proven that the trackball would have been the more accurate tool.
However, we've heard of Bold 9000 users having issues with the trackball after extensive usage. In retrospect, the switch to the optical trackpad could prove to resolve the issue of users wearing out the trackball. Give or take, you might have better mileage with the trackpad, but at the expense of lower usability level.
Thankfully, the Bold 9700 retains the same design aspect of the original QWERTY keyboard of the Bold 9000 with its slightly raised and curved individual keys that give it a tactile feel. However, we did experience slightly slower speeds and lower key accuracy as compared to the Bold 9000, which wasn't that much of a surprise to us since the keys are physically a tad smaller.
We've once shared a story on how a Bold 9000 survived a ride on the roof of a car, thanks to its faux leather backing. The Bold 9700 will come with the same backing, albeit not fully covering the casing. Its microSD card slot has also seen a change in location, back to underneath the casing. We were glad that it doesn't follow its older generation BlackBerry devices, allowing you to slot in the microSD card at an angle, and utilizes a spring mechanism instead of a catch.
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