Alright, so I've had my bold on AT&T for about 2 and a half weeks now and finally felt like I should post a review on it, and from the teenage perspective. I know I've never been active on the forums before, but I just had to post about this phone, and decided I should get active, so why not kill two birds with one stone, hmm?
Initial Impressions-
My first thought when I unpack the bold, make sure its charged, all the parts in the box etc. (yes I do all that, expensive phone, want to make sure I get everything I should!) The pure sleek and sexy style of it! Sure the pictures look good, but until you hold the phone in your hand you have no real idea. All the smooth lines, the great bezel, the shape. Just wow! And the trackpad certainly adds to this look! Keeps it smooth and glossy, no little ball sticking up with a light behind it.
Setup-
Setting up the phone for my use, I noticed the battery door has a "sweet-spot" to remove it, and I couldn't find it at first so that was a bit frustrating, but once you find it, its very simple.
After taking out the battery I had to remove the SIM it came packaged with (which due to later complications I couldn't use anyway), and I had a really tough time of it. I don't have long fingernails by any means so I couldn't get under it, and I couldn't get it to slide it either. I eventually used the battery door to lift it up to get it out and had no problems putting in my old SIM. Being as it's something that isn't removed often or fiddled with I didn't find it to be too big of a problem.
The microSD also gave me some problems. I had my own 4GB one to put in, already loaded with my old pictures and my music, but I just couldn't seem to get the old one out. I'd push it in so it would click out, but from there it just seemed stuck. I tried everything I could think of, short of taking the phone apart, before giving it to my friend with long nails. She struggled for a while too but was eventually able to remove it (my father didn't seem to have this problem at all, so it may just be my phone, or I'm stupid). But as I mentioned with the SIM, for me at least, it's not often removed or fiddled with so I don't consider it that big of an issue.
Use-
Coming from my dad's old 8820 (my curve went and broke on me, just decided to use that until I could afford this beauty) you can really tell how much the processor and screen improved. The speed and fluidity of movement with the trackpad was great, and opening all the different apps, testing them out, setting up wifi, importing contacts, etc. took such a short time to do. I was very impressed with the fact that my new berry was setup to my liking (including e-mails, and few new themes from the forums) in less than an hour.
Playing around with the camera and the video recorder was pretty fun, its a powerful little camera packed in there, but the real treat was watching the preloaded music video. Personally I didn't care for the song at all, but I was completely awestruck by the crisp, sharpness, and quality of it. I know it was preloaded so sure it was optimized, but it was impressive. The graphical improvements on this bold are great, even brickbreaker has a great new look (even if playing with the trackpad took me a little of getting used to).
The last thing that's a must for most teens? Music of course! The new media player on the phone is great, I read it plays over 36 hours (I believe it was) before the battery would die. The music sounds crystal clear, great quality. Unlike most teens I don't bother with an iPod and I just use my own 4GB microSD in it, and am very pleased. I compared it to my friends iPod Nano (4th gen (or whatever the new one with the camera is at, there are way to many of those things, get a new name already!!)) and the quality was just as good if not better. Last thing to touch on is the packaged headset it comes with, I looked at it in shock at first when I saw noise canceling earbuds. Don't want other sounds in the way of my music, so I guess i'll have no real use for my skull candy ones now, since they don't have the microphone for talking too).
Touching on the battery life of this phone with the music, its really impressive. 36 hours of straight music off a single full charge is great, and I'm able to multi task, have a bunch of programs open and it still lasts forever. The one problem though, in my opinion, is that they changed the micro-USB to a new head. I ended up ordering a charging pod, so thats not really an issue, but as for connecting it to the computer, if you loose it, your done. Or if you unexpectedly stay over at a friends house (as I often do) unless they own a new Bold 9700 too, you don't have a way to charge your phone (No I don't carry around my pod, or my computer plug-in, please don't be disappointed in me crackberry nation
). But it's battery life holds so well it's not bound to be too big an issue.
Longer Term Observations-
The phone just seems to get better. I've had none of the problems that I've been hearing and seeing other Bold 9700 owners complaining about (then again most of those seem to be on T-mobile's service). Playing around with the new true threaded SMS was a bit fun (yes, I was a WM treo user before the berrys changed me over). Found a few tricks with it didn't work anymore (such as hitting 'R' to reply if you're in the thread but not in the chatbox, not a big loss) but that a few new ones did, like an easier way to clear the entire thing you just typed out (although I only did that accidentally at first and it was rather annoying).
Conclusions-
Great phone for the teenager, business professional (my dad is one, and has one too now, I converted him from his old Bold 9000), or just the casual berry lover.
Pros / Cons-
Pros-
New sleek formfactor
New processor
Improved media player
Graphically pleasing screen
Ease of use
Cons-
To be honest I have a hard time even writing this list about the phone, but I do have some. As I mentioned in my review though, none of these are realy a big deal for me.
Changing the mini-USB
Difficulty of removing microSD
Difficulty of removing SIM card
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