BlackBerry Bold 9790 SIM-free Smartphone - Black

I've decided to make a quick review on the Bold 9790.
I'd like to say to begin with, i've never owned a Blackberry handset before although my sister raves about them.

My last three phones were a HTC Hero,iPhone 3GS and a HTC Desire Z. All of these phones were good but since picking up the Bold 9790 yesterday i wondered why i didn't switch sooner.
I know that Android and especially iOS offer a more user friendly, slicker experience. I suppose it's just personal taste and from my own usage of these other phones i've started to dislike touch screen phones and touch screen keyboards especially! I am aware this also has a touch screen but it feels more like a nice extra rather than the focus of the handset.

The Bold 9790 has a really nice feel in your hand, not overly heavy and although it only weighs a mere 107g, because of the dimensions it doesn't feel overly light or cheap either.

Blackberry's os 7 also feel pretty polished and on this handset anyway i've suffered zero lag when navigating which is not something i can say about Android 2.3.
As with all blackberry's (i'm told anyway) e-mailing & texting are handled supremely well, again i'd say it gives the best experence i've had to date.

Quick run down of pro's and cons.

Pro's:
1)Nice size and design.
2)Full qwerty keyboard is excellent.
3)Unfussy os which is smoother than android and at the same time offers more options than iOS.
4)Good battery.
5)Call quality, e-mailing and texting is great.
6)Trackpad is very responsive and accurate to use.
7) Touch screen included.
8) 8GB built-in memory with a micro-sd slot for upto another 32gb.

Con's:
1)Camera is nothing special.
2)Screen maybe alittle on the small size for some. At 2.45" it takes some adjusting to.
3)Blackberry's app world is quite a way behind Apple's app store and the Adroid Market.
4)Built-in web browser is average compared to Apples, Androids.

I won't go into anymore detail as i've not used it long enough yet, but in my opinion if your looking for a new smartphone this is well worth looking at.

Now that RIM are finally making the use of touchscreens viable with their devices, we are starting to see a number of interesting handsets. The problem for RIM has always been how to combine the core functionality of a great keyboard with the heavy demand for touch devices. For me the stand-out device is currently the all touch Torch 9860, which does a better job of presenting a usable touch keyboard than Apple or Google, in my honest opinion. Sadly for RIM one of only a few wins.

This Bold 9790 handset combines the small form factor of the Bold 9700 with a very usable touchscreen. The device is very well designed and looks great, it sits very comfortably in hand. It is incredibly easy to use. The combination of keyboard application shortcuts and touch navigation worked very intuitively. A dream to use. The battery life was also very good in context to modern smartphones. I easily got a day and a half out of it. Although I ended up just charging it at night, it was reassuring knowing if I was late home I wasn't going to be worrying whether I'd have enough juice to phone home.

As with all Blackberry devices I found the call quality to be excellent and the Bold devices have always had great cameras. The 9790 is no exception in this regard. One of my big complaints of the Bold line has been the sloped keys. While these are sloped too, the keys seem to have a wider base which makes them more stable. I didn't struggle with my fingers slipping off the keys anywhere near as much as I have in the past.

The 9790 has one major flaw. The screen resolution is a nice 640x480, but the screen is only 2.5 inches in diameter. This means any web based activities are almost impossible because the text just appears so small. You can of course zoom into the text, but typically I struggled to get a good, readable size. It was a lot of fiddling when I just wanted to read the content.

In summary - I'm a heavy email user with five accounts hooked into my BB. The combination of the keyboard and touchscreen made using the 9790 a joy and increased my ability to get through email and respond in full using the excellent keyboard. I'm also a big Twitter user though and found myself cursing each time I clicked on a link to then find myself struggling to size the content just so I could read it. The high resolution screen combined with it's small size is a big drawback. If you want a keyboard for email and a good screen for web browsing then I would recommend you take a look at the Bold 9900. If you want an all touch device then I recommend the Torch 9860, which is my favourite BB at this time.

I hope this review was helpful.

I previously had a BlackBerry Curve 8900 and I've spent a lot of time with iOS and Android phones.

When I was choosing my next phone, I was torn between the Bold 9900 and the 9790 - both of which were released around the same time, similar specs etc. In the end I went for the 9790 and have had no regrets. Despite having a slightly slower processor, there is no hint of lag. The camera is better and battery is also better. The only thing is that the screen is smaller however it has the same resolution which means that the 9790 has a higher pixel density.

Build:
When I first received the 9790, I was surprised at how light and well built the phone is. It feels solid in the hand and that's more than I can say for some of the previous BlackBerrys. The rubberised back is nice to hold and ensures your phone won't slip out of your hand. The USB port has been moved to the bottom of the phone which is actually an advantage, this means holding the device is easier if you need to use it whist it's charging. The dock charging points on previous BlackBerrys have been removed so docks will have to use the USB port. The trackpad is very sensitive however there is a slight wobble when you use it, although having read other reviews, I'm assured this is normal. The top "Unlock" button seems to be a little tough and I'm unsure the longevity of the plastic over use; however, for now I'll say it works well.

Screen:
The screen is very responsive to touch and it's sharp with punchy colours. It's also very bright so you may want to turn it down to save some battery. The front of the phone including the screen is one piece of plastic that goes all the way to the top so if you scratch your screen it may be hard to replace. The flush screen means that a screen protector will be very noticable so you may want to invest in case. The screen is actually plastic, not gorilla glass (9900 has glass).

Keyboard:
One of the main reasons to get a BlackBerry is the physical keyboard and the 9790 has one of the best that BlackBerry has ever made. The keys are big and have a reassuring feel to them. It's also quiet, unlike the Curve keyboards which have a loud click with every button press. The keyboard uses the whole width of the phone, right up to the edge. This takes some getting used to but in the end it's been made that way so you have a larger keyboard.

Camera:
It's the same as the 9700. It's not amazing but it's not that bad either. It is fairly slow to focus sometimes but the photos are surprisingly natural. There is a dedicated camera key on the side of the phone but it's not a two stage press so you can't prefocus.

OS:
The OS is great, it's very fast compared to previous BlackBerry OSs and is designed well for the touch screen. I have had this phone over 2 months now and I haven't experienced any lag. It comes with OS7.0 which is good but I encourage you to update to OS7.1. It brings in extra features such as Mobile Hotspot, BlackBerry Tag (extra NFC capabilities) and most importantly it has much better battery life. BlackBerry remains the best operating system for Email and BBM is also great as ever. The web browser is much better than previous BlackBerrys but is still behind Android and iOS in terms of speed.

Cons:
-The battery life isn't great when you first receive it however after a few days it settles down and can easily last a day. It's slightly better than Android and iOS devices but you'd still need to charge it every day. The OS7.1 update has improved the battery life significantly and you can expect around 3-5% an hour drop with average use.
-Although integration is great throughout the phone, the Facebook app (v3.0) is still some way behind the Android/iOS/WP equivalents. The Twitter app is pretty good though.
-The rubberised coating on the back cover of the phone has started to wear off. Particularly in the top left corner and around the headphone and USB port. I guess this is due to the extra usage of those areas such as when you're fumbling to plug in your charger.
-The OS is designed for pure communication function and it's definitely the best OS for it. Email and messaging is far better than any other OS. Entertainment has taken a back seat and as such the media functions aren't as pretty as the other OS alternatives.
-Leading from the last point, the App World has far less apps and entertainment apps than the App Store or Android Play.

Overall I would highly recommend this phone, as long as you know what you're getting. It's the perfect BlackBerry and ideal for those of you who want the best communication device.