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There have been quite a few reviews on the Bold 2 9700, but thought I would share my own personal thoughts of it especially in relation to its use in Malaysia and a direct comparison to its predecessor the Bold 9000. To avoid confusion I would refer to each of the Bolds by its model number.

Looks: Size & Weight:

The 9700 does look quite sleek but doesn’t push any design boundaries sticking very firmly to its Blackberry roots. Rubberized buttons, chrome finish and a leather backing still makes it feel like a premium phone but it doesn’t stand out as much as a phone say like the Droid. In fact it looks very similar to a Tour + Curve combined.

The 9700′s size has been shrunk a lot and is now just very slightly longer than the Curve 8900 (in fact unless you put them side by side, you won’t see the difference). It is a HUGE difference from the 9000.

Weight of the 9000 is 136 grams while the 9700 is slightly lighter at 122 grams. Holding it in your hands, it’s hard to tell the difference except that the 9700 feels a lot more ‘dense’.

9000 on the left, 9700 on the right

Back view. Both using the leather backing.

As you can see the 9700 is slightly thinner

The memory card slot is only accessible once you take off the cover on the 9700. It's that groove in between the camera and flash.

Minor gripe is that unlike the 9000, the 9700′s memory card slot can only be accessed when taking off the battery cover. The 9700′s battery cover mechanism is a simple sliding mechanism as compared to the 9000′s dual clips but the 9700′s cover still fits snugly without rattling and makes those battery pulls a lot easier.

Keyboard:

The keyboard has been shrunk slightly and those who are used to the 9000′s plush keypad will find that it takes a while to get used to the 9700′s. However it is worth noting that the 9700′s keyboard occupies almost the entire width of the phone as compared to the 9000 which still has a chrome edge, so you aren’t losing as much as space as you would think.

Tactile wise, there’s a good bounce to the keypad, similar to the 9000 and typing is a pleasure and feels less plasticky than on the 8900 or the 8520 .

Trackball vs Trackpad:

This is an obvious win for the 9700.  The first few seconds felt weird when you were used to feeling a sphere for rolling about but the trackpad works VERY well. Slight strokes were detected and it was a lot more responsive than the trackball. No more dirt and grime to ruin your experience and no more replacement trackballs.

After a few days of use, you realize how it changes your experience of your Bold positively and to me is a significant step forward.

Battery Life

This was another very pleasant surprise. Now the Bold 9000 and 9700 use the exact same battery. For testing purposes, I used my 9000 battery inside my new 9700 one just to see how much of a difference it would make. Previously on OS5.0, the 9000 would last maybe about 14-16 hours before going into the red with moderate use. Now this jumps DRASTICALLY with the 9700. Using the exact same 1500 mah battery, it lasted past the 20-22 hour mark with moderate to heavy use with 3G on. In fact I think it might have gone well past 24 hours but I decided it was best to charge it to prepare for the upcoming day. This is pretty amazing considering it packs the same processor and it’s on 3G.

The 9700 also seemed to get a lot less hot than its predecessor which sometimes can feel a bit toasty.

Call Quality/3G Signal

Nothing that notable here. Similar sounding to other Blackberry phones. It is perhaps a little clearer as the ear piece is less depressed as compared to other Blackberry models. I haven’t had extended time to test whether calls are dropped but as of yet, no dropped calls yet.

I found something particularly peculiar. Whenever I streamed Youtube or Flycast my connection to the Blackberry servers will cut off but the streaming will go on with no issues. Once the youtube video ends, it would resume the 3G connection after a short wait. Not sure if this is a telco, OS or hardware issue. I had similar issues with the 9000 so perhaps it’s a telco issue.

Speaker

The sound from the speakerphone seems slightly inferior to the Bold’s sounding slightly more tinny and had a more ‘echoey’ effect. This is probably a result of the shrinking of the form factor. It is however still decent and can be used for casual listening.

OS5.0 and Responsiveness

I won’t cover this too much here as I have done so in my previous post but compared to the 9000 running on OS5.0, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did seem a tad snappier and more responsive than the 9000 despite it running on similar hardware. I believe I can attribute this to the 9000′s OS5.0 build still being a beta unreleased version while the 9700 being a more refined version.

Browser did feel more snappy with it loading pages with no issues.

I did notice that the Blackberry Messenger now allowed you to decide which size to send your pictures in (something I did not notice previously on my 4.6 build which forced you to send in full resolution) which is a very important and nice touch. Having already wiped my previous Bold of all data, I am unable to test if that BBM had a similar feature.

Camera

The pictures the 9700′s 3.2 megapixel camera takes are pretty respectable and performs its job well. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Last pic is a low light picture taken at 6.40 PM.

Screen

Screen is luscious with it boasting a 480×360 resolution (same as the 8900 curve and the Storm 2) which is up from the 9000′s 480×320 resolution. Ultimately this to me makes little difference as the screen is too small to actually notice such minor differences.

New Buttons

There’s now ‘buttonless buttons’ on top of the 9700. The left one locks the keypad while the right one sends the device into standby. A nice touch but I remembered accidentally putting the phone on standby and looking all over for the Mute button. Yes, real men don’t read manuals…

Price Currently

The 9700 is available in Malaysia from unofficial sources ranging from MYR2500-3000. Prices are similar in Singapore. Prices are continuing to climb as demand shoots up. I bought mine at MYR2700.00. Frankly this is way too much to pay for a slight revamp of the 9000. I expect prices to be a lot lower once Celcom and Maxis officially release it though there has not been a price indication so if you are not in a hurry, I suggest you wait.

For reference when the Bold 9000 was first released it was at RM1800.00 and then price increased to RM2.2-2.4k.

Conclusion

The Bold 9700 is a good update improving on all of its predecessor’s shortcomings (browser is still not perfect but has improved). However it also does not introduce anything  really new or revolutionary and hence cannot be considered a ‘must-upgrade’. I would however recommend this highly for anyone moving from the older 8xxx series or are new to Blackberries. The Bold 9700 provides a stellar ‘Blackberry’ experience with no major gripes besides its currently high price.

Pros:

• Amazing battery life
• Great trackpad experience
• No obvious flaws
• Good responsiveness
• Camera is pretty respectable

Cons:

• Currently expensive price
• Nothing revolutionary, just an update of the Bold 9000
• Still needs a new browser
• Smaller keyboard might not suit those with big fingers

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Remember my previous post about my 10 gripes with Blackberries? It seems that RIM were aware of these issues and were working on them (for some of them at least!).

Phone: Blackberry Bold 9000

OS Build: 5.0.0.348 (not an Official Release so may have some bugs till a final version is released)

Speed:

OS5.0 is FAST. Menus open and close with no noticeable delay and the device feels generally snappier. In fact, those that reviewed the Bold 2 9700 often attributed it to the newer device or the application memory but it appears it was entirely the new OS5 that comes preloaded with the new Bold. Upon loading it up in the older Bold 9000, the same snappiness was experienced.

This is the single biggest improvement of OS5 and makes using the Blackberry a real pleasure.

Battery Life:

Battery life seems to have improved a bit. With 3G turned on and moderate use, surfing, streaming Youtube, lots of Blackberry Messages, Google Talk running in the background, couple of texts and a few short calls and 17 hours later, I just hit red at 6% battery. This used to run flat about 3-4 hours earlier with IM off! Do note that my battery is rather old and it may have lost some of its original charge holding ability but you can expect your phone to last the day without the need for a recharge with moderate use.

Reception:

Now reception is a tricky one considering even on the 4.6 builds, this varied greatly from build to build. However I didn’t see any notable difference between this and my previous build 4.6.303 which is generally a good thing!

Bootup Time:

Another thing many reviewers reported was the faster bootup time. I’m actually not too sure about this as on my build, it did seem a tad faster though I have a suspicion it’s a psychological effect due to the new progress bar shown while on bootup. The bar gives you a rough idea of how far its into the bootup process and gives you the feeling that ‘something is moving’ rather than just a blank hour glass loading that has no apparent end.

On my test, my Bold took 5 minutes to boot-up, still far too long, but the progress bar makes things better.

Media:

Now perhaps the most important thing that was resolved is that thumbnails load quickly now and media scanning no longer takes an eternity.I loaded some 187 songs into my phone, complete with album pictures and folders and it scanned them all in less than 10 seconds. A pretty good improvement considering that it used to take minutes.

There are also some slight UI changes though nothing significant.

Media is now segregated within the folder now.

Some added shading on the buttons

Horrible music if you ask me

Browser:

Slightly faster, but still chokes on Javascript. We probably still have to wait for their Webkit based browser.

Almost the same just some slight cosmetic tweaks

Blackberry Messenger

Many of you who had upgraded to BBM version 5.0 which is available on the older OSes would see no surprises here. Those who haven’t would see use of Avatars, a nicer UI, the option for Blackberry Groups, barcode scanning and very importantly remote backup of your BBM Contacts.

Blackberry's Killer App is improved

Threaded SMS

For those of you envying IPhones for their threaded SMS feature, envy no more! Threaded SMS is here with a variety of styles and works pretty well making it feel like a BBM conversation. Expect your SMS bills to soar.

Threaded SMS finally!

IM Contact on Home Screen

I’m unsure if this is a new feature of OS5.0 or simply an updated function of Gtalk and MSN but now you can place contacts on your Home Screen or folder for quick access! I felt this was pretty neat.

GoogleTalk contact

MSN Contact. Teddy!

Video Recording

Video recording screen has been changed slightly.

Closing Thoughts

Now I didn’t have much expectations of OS5.0, expecting it to be a minor cosmetic update. Although yes the OS remains by and large the same, the speed improvements and snappier feeling, improved battery life combined with the faster media scanning makes it a must upgrade for Blackberry users (who know what they are doing). OS5.0 is a huge step in the right direction and all the Blackberry needs now is a real browser (and perhaps a slightly snazzier UI) and a bigger app library. Annoyingly, you still can’t easily add a new number to an existing contact….

It’s a bit of a bittersweet feeling as I recently purchased myself a 9700 Bold which will now feel almost exactly the same as my old Bold in terms of responsiveness since it has the same 624mhz processor. Battery is still at 1500mah and I have a feeling we’ll get similar battery performance. Suddenly the 9700 Bold seems to be a much less compelling upgrade with only a better 3.2 megapixel camera, trackpad, a smaller form factor (which to those with large fingers is a bad thing) and a higher definition screen (which in real life is practically unnoticeable).

Is the 9700 Bold worth the high RM2XXX price if you are an existing Bold user? Probably not with OS5.0 running so well on the 9000 Bold. I’m frankly quite surprised that RIM did not take the opportunity to upgrade the processor further but perhaps they didn’t see the need to with OS5.0 running so smoothly already on existing hardware. I do feel that it was a missed opportunity to really have a device that stands out considering the Bold IS the flagship device for RIM. I think this was most apparent when the 9700 Bold and Storm 2′s release was almost entirely overshadowed by Motorola Droid’s release. RIM seriously needs to get its ‘sexy’ back.

Oh and would appreciate if comments were steered away from ‘IPhone ROX’ sort by the Mac fans among you. They do rock as a lifestyle device but still have ways to go before becoming a true business communication device with secure e-mail and multi-tasking still unimplemented and a short battery life which I’m sure would be rectified in future releases.

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Canada/Commanche server under the Private Tracker configuration is currently under maintenance.

We do not see any interruption of service but it may take a while longer for you to get connected to the PrivateTracker configuration.

We expect the server to be up within the next 2 days.

Update 2 December 2009: Server is still down as it appears there are some hardware issues.

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Update: Maybank2u Appears to be up on 19 November 2009

For those of you who use Maybank to pay, it appears that Maybank2u’s online banking has been down for the whole day.

Rest assured you are not alone .

Worrying isn’t it?

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To those of you who donated to IPT for their own account, this has been delivered!

Check your spam and all!

I have 13 invites left Once again RM34 or USD10.00 to me and I will get it processed to you. All monies goes to IPT (+Paypal for their dumb charges).

Update: 9 invites left. I have also sent USD187.20 to IPT for 20 invites sent (Paypal after charges is USD9.36 received). I know some of you paid in RM so that also covers any conversion charges I need to pay. My formula was USD9.36×20=USD187.20.

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Those who purchased individual IPT accounts, will get their IPT invites tonight. Remember to check your spamboxes then!

These accounts are not freeleech but it is pretty easy to maintain with a seedbox (which are also available from us under Services he he) or simply well balanced downloading/seeding.

Also I’ve got hold of 10 additional accounts so we still have some for grabs

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Just to let you know that about half an hour ago, my Streamyx line is dead. As such, my replies to support queries will be slower until this is restored (using my phone now).

I also note that IPT’s ratio has gone a bit wonky. Hopefully no action is needed but just some heads up.

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New password is out for IPT and should be in your mailbox or spam box .

Hooray it’s a riddle for all,

A test of comprehension and reading,

But should you not make the score,

Blame Anwar for killing English from schooling.

We will not assist in deciphering the riddle in your e-mail. Our intention is to weed out those who cannot read.

Daun teratai di kolam Siti,

Mencecah lumpur dan berseri,

Untuk mendapatkan login IPT,

Sila baca e-mel dengan teliti!

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Please hold first.

They rolled back their database by one day due to some error and as a result ALL invites that I sent within the past 24 hours have been wiped.

I have spoken to the founder and he told me to give him 24 hours as he wants to make sure it does not happen again.

Once he has reissued the invites to me, I will send them all out again. Apologies for the mess up. Out of my control however .

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A bit of a back story for those of you out of the loop. First of all IPT is not affiliated to me. I do not receive any money from them and the founder is merely a friend of mine.

IPTorrents suffered a minor database error which resulted the IPT account being resetted. This was alright however their mailserver also crashed at the same time making recovery of passwords impossible.

Now this was actually rectified really quickly and the old password was restored, but somebody, reading the notice OR trying to steal the account took this opportunity to jump in and change the password.

After a day of downtime, I managed to get the founder to restore the account. However as soon as I tried to restore the old password, the password was changed again, I reset it, managed to log in, then a few minutes later, it was reset again.

As such, suspecting foul play, I have locked down on the account to prevent further abuse and a couple of other reasons

1. Cheating on the account remains rampant despite it being freeleech and an updated rule set.
2. People not reading IPT rules or my rules in using IPT.
3. People being jackasses.

Right now, whether the public freeleech account will be restored is up in the air. I do intend to restore access to all donators who helped support the freeleech account but for the rest, I don’t know yet as it’s become rather taxing and I don’t know whether people deserve it.

However for those long-term users who are fedup of having the IPT freeleech account meddled with can opt to have their own IPT account (which is however not freeleech). I currently have about 15 left. To qualify you need to be

1. A subscriber for more than 100 days (or have paid for such a period)
2. Familiar with private trackers and know how to behave and maintain ratio
3. Make a payment of RM34 or USD10.00 to the normal bank/Paypal accounts except send the e-mail to reuben@bolehvpn.net instead. All proceeds will go to IPT after the deduction of any Paypal charges and this will be totally accounted for. I am not making any money from this.

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