BlackBerry Bold comes to Asia and we're impressed

John Chan | Aug 26, 2008

At a press event in Singapore today, RIM announced its latest 3G BlackBerry device, the Bold for the island-state. This is not its first appearance in Asia as the Bold has already been announced in markets like Hong Kong and Australia. The company expects the Bold to be available in Singapore from late September. As with all BlackBerry devices, price and exact availability are determined by the operators, so check with your provider for more details on that.

We managed to get a few days with the device before today's event and experienced first-hand why they decided to name it "Bold". The first thing that strikes you is how sharp the display is. It has a resolution of 480 x 320--that's exactly the same as the iPhone, though squeezed into a much smaller physical size. Colors jump out at you when viewing images and videos and we were particularly impressed with its performance under bright sunlight--no squinting necessary. It is by far the best screen we have seen on any BlackBerry and is significantly better than displays on most mobile phones and handhelds currently available.

The audio from the device is also exceptional. Not only is it incredibly loud, the quality of music and voice clarity when viewing videos is good. And if you would rather not disturb those around you, there's a standard 3.5mm audio jack on the side so you can plug in your favorite headphones.

The Bold will launch with only the black faux-leather battery cover for now. Accessories to replace this back cover will be available later as reported by Crackberry.com a few months back.

Up till last month, some of the operators we surveyed in Singapore were still selling the 8707, the only 3G BlackBerry device before the Bold was announced. We asked RIM if it would continue providing that model now that the Bold will be available soon and found out that the 8707 will continue to ship to operators as long as they want to keep selling it. That said, we feel the demand for the 8707 should peter off now that the newer model is coming.

So is the BlackBerry Bold for you? For those accustomed to these email-centric handsets, it's definitely a worthy upgrade from whichever full-QWERTY model you are using now. At the heart of the Bold are still the strong push-email features we expect from RIM, so we don't really expect users of regular mobile phones to flock to it. Whatever the case, do yourself a favor and check out the screen and audio capabilities at a store when the Bold becomes available next month. You can also read our full review of this handheld here.

Filed under: Handhelds, Mobile Phones
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