I’ve been on the look out for a new handset for some time now. The one I’m using presently, the Nokia N70 seems to be giving way after superb service over the past 3-4 years. This was a phone that seemed to hit the sweet spot in terms of price and functionality and I’ve not really come across another piece that seemed just right to me.
HTC had some that were ok, and till now, I’d not really considered the Apple iPhone or any Blackberry, but am now seriously awaiting the Blackberry Bold 9700, due in November !!
In a press release, RIM said The BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone is expected to be available from carriers around the world beginning in November. According to President and Co-CEO of RIM, Mike Lazaridis,
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 builds on the success of the original BlackBerry Bold with new, state-of-the-art features and a smaller, lighter and highly optimized design that looks, feels and performs great.
Check out all the features on offer as well. Among the more notable ones is a higher resolution (480X360 pixels, 2.44 inches), and support for upto a 32GB microSD™ card for expandable memory. The battery is a 1500 mAh removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell with an estimated life as below;
GSM Talk Time: 6 hours
GSM Standby Time: 19 days
UMTS Talk Time: 6 hours
UMTS Standby Time: 15 days
Another enhancement is a 3.2 MP camera with auto focus, image stabilization, flash and 2X digital zoom, which is capable of videos at 480 x 352 pixels in normal mode and 176 x 144 pixels in MMS mode.
It is more sleek and lighter than it’s predecessor, the very popular Blackberry Bold 9000. You can also compare it to other Blackberry smartphones.
So far, I like what I see but the deciding factor of course, will be the cost in India, and am keeping my fingers crossed on that front ! 😀
Update (January 30, 2010): And the Blackberry Bold 9700 is finally in India.. officially that is. It costs just a shade under Rs.32,000. Would I have bought this phone if it was launched a month earlier? Difficult to say, but my Nokia E72 is doing just fine, so Aal izz well 🙂
