Almost a month later....Blackberry Bold 9900
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Introduction
So here we are, almost a month later after one of the best received new phones from RIM.
After I had the Bold 9900 for over a week, I wrote a review that was more on the usability and feel than it was about processing power.
You can find that link here if you haven't read it.
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...review-641019/
On that note, I want to thank all the positive reviews to that posting and thanks to the new "virtual" friends I made that added me to BBM.
I decided to follow up that posting with one that talks about where I am at today with the Bold, and covers some of the issues people are bringing up.
Am I as enamoured today with the Bold as I was a few weeks ago?
Stay tuned.
A little about me.
Whenever I read a review or a posting by someone I try to understand who they are and whether anything taints what they write.
For example, if you are someone coming from the "ifad" world there will be a tendency to be more critical of a device that isn't apple vs someone who is a BB fan and who WANTS to like the device out of the box.
This also applies to the people that troll the forums looking for a way to get some attention.
I don't really pay much attention to those reviews as they don't represent the type of user that I am.
In order to understand my needs, you need to understand the environment that I am using this device in.
I'm married with 3 kids. Boy who is 17, and girls 15 and 13. They all have Blackberry's on data plans, two Torch 9800's and the youngest has a Storm 2 9550 that has been unlocked from Telus to use on the Rogers network.
My wife who works for a bank here in Winnipeg has a Curve 8530 on the Telus network.
I mention this because a lot of my communication happens with my family, using BBM and a family group that lets us share pictures, and appointments to keep us coordinated in a busy world.
I also own a small company that exists in the tech world. My company works with Samsung to represent their business line of phone systems that we install. We also represent RIM product to clients being able to resell the Playbook and certain Blackberry hardware and software. This ties in to the managed services aspect of my company as we take on the needs of SMB's and manage their environments and in most cases tend to recommend more efficient and cost effective ways to do things.
The third aspect is we work with Quantum on providing back up equipment and services to companies with multilple locations that need deduplication and replication of their data.
I mention this because the people I deal with in business require quick, if not immediate response, as does my staff.
When my phone turns on at 7:30 there are usually messages waiting.
I am the type of guy that keeps those red berry alerts clear.
I use my phone constantly throughout the day.
There are no dead periods.
I also came from a Storm 2 being my first blackberry when it came out, the Torch 9800 being my device from February of this year to just under a month ago.
I have a BES server account for work, a Shaw POP account for personal, and a Hotmail account for using with site logins, etc.
I do have to do text (damn iphone users lol) and use BBM as a business tool. We have a group that has all the staff in it, and one that links us to clients that use Blackberry's.
That is my world.
It is a busy one.
A device has to be able to keep up.
So after a month what are your thoughts?
So if you read my first review, you could tell that I was more impressed with the Bold than any phone I have ever used. Does that shine hold over time? With some negative posters really focusing on a couple of things, battery life and the camera, is it worth passing up on this phone to wait for something down the road?
Nope.
That simple.
I addressed these issues briefly in the other posting, but will revisit them here again.
The battery is thin. Very thin. Thin enough to allow the phone to be thin. Design was instrumental in this release, and I think that RIM realized that they were losing out in the "sexy and cool" areas.
Have no doubt that this is a well made device. It feels classy, from the glass touch screen to the band of metal that surrounds it. There is no part of this phone that feels cheap.
Now their have been reports of some bad phones out of the box, and I admitted earlier that I had one that I wasn't happy with because of a track pad that wasn't snapped in level. I returned mine that day to get one that didn't have the issue. If you find something off on your Bold 9900, take it back and get a new one. You shouldn't find anything to complain about even with a close scrutiny, and when you spend that much, and use the device as much as we do, you are entitled to have a product that is perfect out of the box. Make sure to look it over in the store if you can, or at least make arrangements to return it in a reasonable period if you find a problem. Battery life can fall into that catagory.
There are reports of people replacing their battery and seeing times that are double what they had before.
If that is the case, then make sure to inform the store before you buy that if you have bad battery life that there are reports of some bad batteries.
I have always found that if you get someones card, and then prepare them for these situations, that you won't have issues if you do have to return it.
I get through a complete work day on one charge. I don't have to because I have a car charger, a Playbook charger at my computer desk, and a BB charger plugged in for the family to use when we are watching TV if someone is low.
I am not in the desert, or climbing a mountain, where I don't have access to power.
I leave wifi and bluetooth on. I turn GPS off until I need it.
If you are someone who talks straight for 8 hours a day then you will go through this battery as much as you will almost any phone.
If you have an iphone, you have no options other than a battery charger that powers off another battery. With the Bold, you can swap batteries if you want to carry two.
I don't need to go 2 days without charging. I am never in that situation.
I don't think anyone else is either but with a device this good people want to find something wrong.
If that is it.....I can live with it knowing that everything else is so rock solid.
And it is solid.
OS7 has yet to require a battery pull SINCE I HAVE OWNED THE PHONE!!!
You heard that right. I have restarted it due to apps updating, but it hasn't frozen on me yet.
Now onto the camera, the other issue that people have had.
I have used the camera to take pictures of business cards to send through BBM to my staff to input into our accounting package so I can do a quote without coming back to the office. Works great.
I have taken video during a thunderstorm in the evening. Works great.
I have taken pictures during the day of scenery and people and can't tell the difference between the pics on the Bold 9900 and the Torch 9800.
Now if I take close up pictures the Torch is much better with the autofocus. I don't really do that many macro shots and if I am going to, I have a Canon T2i to do that.
This is a phone and communication device first, and the camera and music players to me are a bonus. They work great, but aren't as good as dedicated devices.
The Bold plays games too, but again, that is a bonus. It won't "out app" the iphone, but it will out work it, out message it, and out secure it.
Conclusion
Do I still love this phone as much now as I did before?
MORE.
Yes, you heard right. The more I use this phone, the more I appreciate what RIM has done. I have lost it in a pocket twice because of how thin it is when I was searching my car and home only to realize it was in my back pocket.
I am never annoyed by it. There are no "I wish" apps outside of Dropbox and Kindle which will come with time, and dropbox I can use through the browser. Due to the popularity of this phone you can be assured that OS7 will be getting a lot of interest from developers. Don't forget, the Torch 9810 and Torch 9860 are getting great reviews too and they run off OS7.
Congrats RIM on a great device.
Thanks from a raving fan.
Can't wait to see what you do with the Qnx versions.09-04-11 12:32 PMLike 9 -
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As you have said the longer you own this device the better it gets!
Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using TapatalkJake Storm likes this.09-04-11 12:37 PMLike 1 -
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I respect your opinion, but for me and millions more ( for what i've read) we don't want to be battery's slaves, dont wanna go to a party and oucchh i forget to plug my phone so no radio.... I dont wanna be traveling and use gps to find a street but ouuuch battery is at 3% , so forget about it... etc etc and countless more daily-daily situations....09-04-11 04:00 PMLike 0 -
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Ultimately, the average battery life of any given device will all be around the same (within the same type of devices), it really comes down to how you use it. What type of reception do you get day to day. The best way would be to pick one up for a week and if you do not like it, then return it.09-04-11 04:04 PMLike 0 -
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Thanks for your review...I am new here and looking to see what I find about this new BB I haven't owned a BB in years, not since the first Pearl. I am currently on an Moto Droid phone and one of the things I am hating about this Droid is that the longer I've owned it the slower it has gotten. Apps close on their own...gotta love that when you are typing out an email or text.
I don't think I will be missing my apps as much I have found myself mostly using FB, Twitter, SMS, Email. Now and then I play a video game but not very often; I have other devices for that: 3DS, iPad, MBA etc. So if my phone's market or app store doesn't have 200 fart sound boards I won't be upset or missing them.
What I am looking for is stability, I don't want battery pulls, been there and done that, that's what pushed me away from BB. I don't want sluggish, but I also do not need to two cores; it's a phone! Battery life? Yeah I want some but I don't need to go two days w/o charging, I find that silly that people want all of that and a powerful phone, makes no sense to me, but I also do not want to have to charge a phone often like I had to do with my very short week with a HTC Thunderbolt.09-04-11 04:28 PMLike 0 -
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So gonzo1x....what phone do you recommend then that does it all for you? I get through the day easily with 20% battery left and do all the things you talk about and probably more.
I also don't think that your opinion represents "millions" like you say.
If that is the case, how can the iphone millions get away with it. I would easily put the bold up against an iphone running wireless, etc and would expect it to hold it's own. Now I can get your side if you were running one of these massive screened android devices, 4 hours on some of them, but this phone easily gets me through a busy day. On a weekend like today, I have been going since this morning and have 75% left.
So what you are saying is that you only want to remember to plug it in at night, after all the partying is done, and not when you are driving to the party, or sending messages on crackberry.
Hey, each to their own but you are missing out on the best device out there right now and it isn't like this phone is getting a few hours on battery, so your opinion isn't going to change because I say anything.Jake Storm likes this.09-04-11 07:24 PMLike 1 -
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That was a great review.
I've been wanting to get this phone SOOOO much ever since it came out to the point that I don't even want to take my one month trip! lol.
I can't wait to get mine with Telus and I'm definitely going to take it back as much as needed if there is something even minutely wrong with it.
And I just saw the post on crackberry homepage about the dropbox app so I'm looking forward to that.Last edited by Zenogias; 09-04-11 at 07:53 PM.
09-04-11 07:50 PMLike 0 -
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Man, that was a bit long, but glad to hear. I'm finding it to be lots of fun to use and very productive.
There are times when it's almost too thin. I've had it whiplash out of my hands into the wall a time or two. Do I need to start a new thread about this?
mud314 likes this.09-04-11 08:02 PMLike 1 -
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Nice review but I'm going to wait for Verizon to drop the price to at least $199 before I pick this up.09-04-11 08:53 PMLike 0 -
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Another great follow up review. My thoughts exactly.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com09-04-11 09:08 PMLike 0 -
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The longer I have it, the better I like it. For one thing, I currently live in a building that I swear must be lead-lined, and the 9930 is the first mobile phone ever in here (mine or visitors') that can make and receive calls, email, text -- the works.
No complaints so far, and I don't expect any, here or when I'm traveling.
09-04-11 10:30 PMLike 0
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Almost a month later....Blackberry Bold 9900
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