BlackBerry Bold 9000 Packs Pixels and Speed
May 12, 2008 | by Geoff Duncan
RIM has announced its new BlackBerry Bold 9000 smartphone, packing a 624 MHz processor, a 480 by 320-pixel display...along with Wi-Fi and 3G data capability.
Canada's Research in Motion has announced its new BlackBerry Bold 9000, the company's first new smartphone platform in two years. The BlackBerry Bold takes solid aim at the business and professional market, improving the BlackBerry's raw performance by rolling in a 624 MHz processor and 3G wireless broadband capability, along with a new 48 by 320-pixel LCD display.
"The new BlackBerry Bold represents a tremendous step forward in business-grade smartphones and lives up to its name with incredible speed, power, and functionality, all wrapped in a beautiful and confident design," said RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis, in a statement.
Under the hood, the BlackBerry Bold packs a 624 MHz Marvell Tavor PXA930 processor, which should help speed along the BlackBerry's everyday activities as well as the phone's new media-centric capabilities. The unit incudes 128 MB of flash memory, 1 GB of onboard storage, plus support for SDHC cards capable of carrying up to 16 GB. The BlackBerry Bold packs an integrated GPS, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, and (at least for now) supports HSDPA tri-band 3G mobile data services. The phone also features a two megapixel video-capable camera, dual speakers, and (of course) video playback capability and the capability to sync music collections with iTunes (via a new BlackBerry Media Sync application). The integrated GPS enables users to tap into BlackBerry Maps and other location-based services, as well as geo-tag photos. And, of course, the BlackBerry Bold supports the device's well-known line of communication and productivity software, including full-HTML Web browsing, enterprise-capable email and messaging, and DataViz's Documents To Go suite for accessing Microsoft Office documents.
The BlackBerry Bold is the first of a series in a new smartphone platform from the U.S.'s leading smartphone maker: eventually, phones, in the 900 series will be available in a variety of form factors on both CDMA and GSM networks—even an AWS-capable 1700 MHz version for T-Mobile's network.
According to RIM, the BlackBerry Bold should be available from carriers worldwide "beginning this summer"—we're assuming that refers to the northern hemisphere—although the company hasn't yet released any pricing information.
Microsoft and RIM have also announced an agreement to bring Windows Live services to BlackBerry smartphones "beginning this summer," starting with Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger for Blackberry.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Jason Howard on May 13th, 2008 at 12:45 AM:
Me too. They phone on the curve is not that great. It has a 2megapixel camera, but let's hope it's sensor is good.
I'm pretty surprised it will sync with iTunes! That is great! But will it sync iTunes Music store songs? I think the phone looks awesome.
James on May 13th, 2008 at 9:10 AM:
I like the look, but would prefer something not so wide.
Matt on May 14th, 2008 at 10:27 AM:
I'm not thrilled with a wider phone either (currently using Blackberry Pearl). But so many people love their iPhones and they look to be about the same width. And before the iPhone the larger Blackberry was widely accepted. I hope it's not as bulky as the Palm phones.
abcyesn on May 15th, 2008 at 4:12 AM:
Awesome, just awesome, there's already a fans website up for the blackberry bold.
check out http://www.BlackBerryBoldForum.com if you are a fan of the Bold
Bill Pringte on May 17th, 2008 at 1:11 PM:
I don't mind a wide phone, like the Curve. I'm more anxious for the touch screen blackberry that is going to compete with the iPhone. That should be pretty interesting. Is this the same phone as that?
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Alex R. on May 12th, 2008 at 9:39 AM:
That's a nice phone, I wonder if they improved the camera yet?