Research in Motion, the Canadian company that produces BlackBerry phones, has been struggling to keep afloat in the world of smartphones in recent years. While the traditional BlackBerry form factor remains popular with some professional phone users and, strangely, school kids (largely due to BlackBerry Messenger which effectively offers a free alternative to SMS messages), RIM‘s market share has taken a bit of a tumble as many people make a transition to touchscreen phones such as the iPhone.
The full touchscreen BlackBerry Torch 9860 is a shining example that RIM knows how to make these sort of phones as well and this phone may very soon completely reverse the company’s recent misfortunes. But longstanding fans of the brand need not despair as the Bold 9900 combines the best of modern touch screen features with a more traditional BlackBerry form factor. With BlackBerry 9900 deals to be on offer at competitive prices this is the obvious choice for serious fans of QWERTY phones. What these phones both have in common is the new BlackBerry OS7, a truly modern interface that is giving BlackBerry handsets a whole new lease of life.
The Bold series has been one of the most popular line of phones released by BlackBerry, and it is nice to see it getting a revamp with the 9900. This is the first Bold to come with a touchscreen display, and the screen is a little larger than the previous Bold. Obviously, the Bold 9900 will not offer the same sort of experience as a phone with a full frontal touchscreen display like the Torch 9860, but it offers a nice set of additional features that were not found on previous models.
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BlackBerry OS7 has been designed with this functionality in mind as well. The interface is a great deal more visually appealing than the ones found on previous Bold phones, and now features Liquid Graphics for smooth transitions and a more pleasant user experience. OS7 now comes with native support for HTML5 video and an improved JavaScript compiler affords it a speedy and smooth web browsing experience.
Although BlackBerry is not joining the ranks of HTC and Samsung in the dual core club, the 1.2GHz processor on the Bold 9900 is one of the fastest chips to be found in a BlackBerry phone. Because of this the whole interface is much slicker, and apps load at a faster rate than on earlier BlackBerry phones. Of course, the Bold 9900 comes with the usual array of BlackBerry services including BlackBerry Messenger and BlackBerry Maps.
Like all BlackBerry phones the Bold 9900 comes with excellent email support too. The Bold features Docs To Go so you can update and amend your business documents while commuting to and from the office and the phone doesn’t forget a decent amount of entertainment with music, video and games – plenty of which are available from BlackBerry App World.
Although the 5 megapixel camera on the Bold 9900 offers the same resolution photos as the earlier Bold 9780 it also includes improved video recording with 720p video support. This camera has an LED flash and features like geo-tagging and face detection. Photos and videos can also be shared through online services such as social networks like Facebook.
The Bold range have always been the most popular BlackBerry phones going and the Bold 9900 is easily the best yet. Physically it is not a whole lot different to previous models, but the addition of a touchscreen display, a vastly improved interface and some major upgrades in the hardware department make this a phone that is not to be missed for all serious BlackBerry addicts. This latest Bold will be introduced to the market with some fantastic cheap mobile phone deals in the various markets where it is to make an appearance.