BlackBerry Gets 'Bold' With New High-End 3G Smartphone

Recognizing that mobile email and messaging is its bread and butter, RIM's BlackBerry Bold integrates with BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) for security and IT administration within several email environments like IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novel GroupWise. The device can also work with BlackBerry Professional Software for SMBs; with BlackBerry Internet Service, which gives users access to 10 work or personal email accounts, including many popular ISP email accounts; and BlackBerry Unite software for SOHO and home users.

BlackBerry also gave the Bold a new display, which BlackBerry said is it's most "vivid and bold" yet. The device features a half-VGA (480 by 320 resolution) color LCD which is fused to the undersurface of the lens to improve definition and clarity when playing videos, surfing the Web and viewing documents, presentations and messages.

The enhanced display also helps the device mimic the desktop when it comes to viewing Web pages. A trackball can be used as a mouse making for easier navigation, which includes "Page View" or "Column View." Users can also zoom in on specific parts of a Web page and emulation settings let users pick whether they want to view sites in full desktop-style HTML and layout or in the mobile version. Attachments can also be downloaded from within the browser and streaming video is supported through real-time streaming protocol (RTSP).

Like BlackBerry first did with the Pearl two years ago, and the Curve a bit later, the Bold blends both business and personal needs with a set of rich multimedia applications. The Bold offers a two megapixel camera with video recording, a built-in flash and five times digital zoom. The Bold's enhanced media player can display pictures and slideshows, play movies in full screen mode and manage music collections. Additionally, audio can be heard through the handset's dual speakers in stereo sound or when using wired headphones or external speakers, and the media player gives the user an equalizer with 11 preset filters to suite which kind of music they're playing, with setting such as lounge, jazz or hip hop.

The BlackBerry Desktop Manger software also includes Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry and Roxio Photosuite 9 LE, tools that let users manage music and video and enhance pictures and create photo albums. The new BlackBerry Media Sync applications lets users integrate their Apple iTunes digital music with the Bold and support for High Speed USB 2.0 enables the transferring of files from the desktop to the Bold.

Additional features of the Bold include a new acoustic design that boosts the phone's audio and improves listening quality and clarity. It also comes with several of BlackBerry's premium phone features like Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD) and Bluetooth 2.0 with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kids and other Bluetooth peripherals. It also features dedicated send, end and mute keys; smart dialing; speed dialing; conference calling; call forwarding.; noise cancellation technology that offsets background noise; speaker phone; and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.