BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 Hands-On Video and First Impressions

[ youtube video link for mobile viewing ]

OK, so the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 Experience Room at BlackBerry World is a zoo right now, but I just managed to spend a few minutes of hands-on time with RIM's newest Boldand all I can say is wow wow WOW WOW WOW. For anybody out there who wants a Smartphone with a front-facing full qwerty keyboard, THIS IS THE BLACKBERRY FOR YOU. We'll be reporting back later with a lot more info, but you can check out the video above to get a quick look and comparison to the Bold 9780, and keep reading for some initial impressions!

BlackBerry Bold 9930/9900 Hardware Impressions:

• Deceptively light. Looking at the device you'd think it would be sort of heavy, but picking it up the new Bold feels very light in the hand
• THIN. Definitely the thinnest BlackBerry to date.
• RICH looking. The one piece metal band around the perimeter of the device really ups the look and quality feel of the device.
• Awesome keyboard. The device is tied down for security reasons, so haven't been able to really stress test it fully, but even so you the typing I've done on it feels great. The extra width on the keyboard makes a big difference and RIM has re-shaped the keys slightly to maximize the strike area on each key.
• Wicked display. At 287ppi and 640x480 resolution on a bigger 2.8" diagonal display (as compared to Bold 9780/9700), the screen on the new Bold is really hawt. I was super impressed when I pulled up the full CrackBerry.com website on the browser and could read the blog post text with no zooming in. The text was tiny, but still legible.
• FAST - 1.2GHz in on the BlackBerry Smartphone OS is huge. Really makes the whole OS feel more modern. Definitely helps to keep the Smartphones in alignment with the awesome performance of the QNX OS on the PlayBook.

BlackBerry 7 First Impressions

• Obviously very similar to BlackBerry 6, but thanks to the faster processor and GPU the experience definitely feels improved. It's faster and the the UI is much more smooth and fluid (RIM calls this liquid graphics)
• New icons throughout the OS update the look and do look nice
• Being able to customize the homescreen and changeup the homescreen views is huge
• Lots of new features we stlil have to go back and play with! NFC, Magnetometer, etc.

All in all, I'm super stoked for the new BlackBerry Bold. Need it now!! We'll be playing with the new Bold all week, so I'll follow up in next couple of days with a more in-depth review. It's definitelly a BlackBerry Smartphone to be excited about. Start saving your pennies!

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