The BlackBerry Bold 9790 had what you might call an enthusiastic reception in Indonesia, and now that RIM’s latest entry-level smartphone has spread to Canada, we’ve had a chance to review it.
At first glance, the 9790 looks like yet another buttoned-down BlackBerry, and in a lot of ways, it is. As far as its positioning among existing RIM handsets goes, the BlackBerry 9790 is essentially a cheaper version of the Bold 9900, though it didn’t scale back quite as much as the Curve 9380 had from the Torch 9850 / 9860.
BlackBerry 10 is still a ways out, so odds are we’ll be seeing many more familiar phones like the 9790 in 2012. It’s been a rough year for RIM, and the next might not be any kinder if they try pitting 9790-grade phones against the fierce Android and iPhone competition out there.