Video playback continues to be tricky on BlackBerry, but is improving; for example, audio sync lag is lessening and file types that wouldn’t play anything before can at least do audio now. Streaming video on YouTube still sucks, although hopefully that Adobe arrangement and Torch Mobile acquisition will yield some fruits for the next device. The display itself remains impressively sharp, despite taking a hit in physical size since the 9000.
Lastly, playing music is still great, and the redesigned microSD slot makes it much easier to insert and swap cards. The desktop Media Sync software has received a couple of updates lately that make it easy to keep all of your music in order (both in iTunes and Windows Media Player, complete with playlist support). The external speaker is decent, but not something you would come to use regularly for anything other than phone calls. It makes me a little sad that the incredible speakers in the Bold 9000 weren’t recreated in its successor, but given the more reasonable price point at launch, I think it was a fair trade.