Disqus
Five minutes to assess the Bold: yeah, it can be done!
You may have seen my other posts on my five-minute fiddles with the Nokia N96 and Sony Ericsson C905 – well today, I did really have 5 mins with the Blackberry Bold to check it out – headlines below (read the other posts here and here)….
By the way, just to recap on the point of the five-minute fiddle – I’d estimate this the average time that someone who is browsing/buying a phone in a shop might have to evaluate a phone before they make a decision on it. It cold of course equal be that a friend lends them their phone to try out – but overall, limited time to form an impression on whether it be gooood, or it be baaaaaad. That’s baaaaaaaad, just in case you were wondering on the spelling 
So for the Bold:
- build quality – felt VERY good in the hand – solid, yet light, nice tactile keys
- key layout – come on, it’s a BlackBerry – excellent, naturally
- O/S ease of use – top-level menus good, but spotted the bad old list menus have barely changed. Disappointed. RIM, you have work to do here….
- option-finding complexity – high – due to those list menus!
Email handling – well, the person I borrowed the phone off said they had had NO email delivered all morning – most unlike a BBerry to have push email issues, and I REALLY hope that isn’t a sign… - media handling –no time to check
- progression of BBerry series with this device: I’d say between good to excellent!
So in summary, I walked away impressed with the Bold – I’m sure the push email delivery problem was a config issue, and the Bold is at least competent in each area – and now it’s a little more consumer-friendly. Roll on the Storm for me to have a five-minute fiddle with please!
Overall rating: Good – I’d seriously consider one
Grade: A (solid performance)
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
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Simon Sage
