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BlackBerry Bold 9000 Smartphone, Black (AT&T)

Technical Details
* Global Blackberry messaging smartphone with quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G connectivity as well as Wi-Fi networking
* Compatible with AT&T Navigator GPS turn-by-turn directions, AT&T Mobile Music, and streaming video from Cellular Video service
* 2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth for handsfree devices; MicroSD expansion (to 32 GB); newly designed QWERTY keyboard
* Up to 4.5 hours of talk time, up to 324 hours (13.5 days) of standby time
* What’s in the Box: handset, battery, charger, USB cable, 3.5mm stereo headset, holster, quick start guide and user manual, CD with Blackberry Desktop software

Designed to give business professionals and power users unprecedented functionality and performance, the BlackBerry Bold is the fastest, most powerful Blackberry yet, with support for tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world as well as integrated GPS and Wi-Fi networking (802.11a/b/g). It features a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leather-like backplate, a sophisticated user interface, and a newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard.

Phone Features
The elegant BlackBerry Bold smartphone features a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome-finished frame and stylish, leatherette backplate with a newly designed full QWERTY keyboard for exceptionally fast and easy typing and stunning half-VGA (480 x 320 at 217 ppi) color display that’s fused to the undersurface of the lens, making images leap out with stunning definition and clarity. It also includes a trackball navigation system located on the top of the QWERTY keypad. The BlackBerry Bold also boasts a new acoustic design for enhanced phone listening quality and clarity and numerous premium phone features, including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD).

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s support for tri-band HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks and its next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor make short work of downloading email attachments, streaming video or rendering web pages. The BlackBerry Bold also includes 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory, as well as a microSD/SDHC memory card slot that is conveniently accessible from a side door.

The Blackberry Bold delivers the legendary BlackBerry email experience. With BlackBerry service plans from AT&T, you can receive emails instantaneously from up to 10 email accounts (personal and enterprise). With BlackBerry push technology, you don’t need to retrieve your email. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, allowing you to be discreetly notified as new email arrives. Support is also built-in for viewing email attachments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, and PDF formats).

If your company has a BlackBerry Enterprise Server installed, you can also take advantage of the power of wireless calendar synchronization. Your calendar events are exchanged wirelessly and automatically so that your desktop calendar and BlackBerry handheld calendar are synchronized. All your Outlook meeting requests, changes, and updates are instantaneously synchronized instantaneously with your desktop. Make meeting requests, invite new attendees and more, all on your Blackberry Bold. Users without BlackBerry Enterprise Server support can manually sync with their desktop calendars and contacts via Bluetooth or USB using the included BlackBerry Desktop Software.

You’ll enjoy enhanced Internet browsing on the Blackberry Bold. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in Page View or Column View or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow you to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP, real-time streaming protocol).

The included BlackBerry Desktop Manager software comes with Roxio Media Manager for BlackBerry, which includes new features that make it easier to organize multimedia content as well as manage music, videos and recorded Voice Notes between a computer and the smartphone. It also optimizes video files for smooth full-screen playback on the BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s large display with support for full-screen and widescreen formats.

Roxio Photosuite 9 LE is also included, allowing you to easily enhance pictures and create photo albums on your computer. In addition, the new BlackBerry Media Sync application allows you to sync your iTunes digital musical collections . The BlackBerry Bold also boasts a new acoustic design for enhanced phone listening quality and clarity and numerous premium phone features, including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD).

Other features include:

* Works with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which enables advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novel GroupWise environments, as well as BlackBerry Professional Software for small businesses
* 2-megapixel camera/camcorder with flash, 5x zoom, geo-tagging capabilities, white balance settings, and choice of three picture sizes
* Bluetooth 2.0, with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including car kits that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals
* Push Button Setup for Wi-Fi networking, making it faster to connect to protected wireless networks that require a sign-on process
* Video format support: DivX 4, DivX 5/6 partially supported, XviD partially supported, H.263, H.264, WMV3
* Audio format support: .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
* Polyphonic/MIDI ringtones
* Speakerphone
* 3.5mm stereo headset capable

Customer Review
I just upgraded from an Curve 8310 to the Bold. In fact, this is my 3rd BlackBerry, starting way back with the 8700. First thing to point out . . . the Bold is BIG. It’s actually much larger than the 8310. In fact, it’s really closer to the 8800-series in size. This isn’t really a bad thing though. It fits comfortable in hand. The back appears to me made of real leather. It adds some nice grip to the hand while looking very classy. The keyboard is also very easy to use. There was very little learning needed going from the Curve 8310 to the Bold.

What really makes the Bold “beautiful” is the HUGE screen. I thought the screen on my previous Curve was great. The screen on the Bold is twice the resolution (480×320 vs. 320×240). It is absolutely amazing. Not only is it stunning for movies and photos, it makes browsing the web and simply reading emails so much easier. The same auto-backlighting feature found on the Curve is also on the Bold. It senses the lighting conditions of the room and adjusts backlighting. I love this feature.

Much improved over the Curve is the multimedia software. Playing movies, viewing photos and listening to songs are very easy to do. The functionality rivals standalone media players. This application coupled with a big screen and a large MicroSD card, makes this a viable iPod Classic replacement. Like the 8310, the Bold also features a 3.5mm Stereo/Audio Jack built-in. This means no adapter is needed to use your own high quality headphones or earbuds.

Also like the Curve, it includes real GPS. This is awesome and in my opinion the best feature showing up in modern phones. The signal is acquired quickly and it is very accurate. Google Maps and BlackBerry Maps work perfectly with the built-in GPS. You can also pay a monthly fee for turn-by turn navigation via AT&T Navigator.

The biggest improvements for the Bold were actually listed in my Curve 8310’s review as “Cons”. BlackBerry added the much needed 3G, Wi-fi, Video recording capabilities and FINALLY the external memory is accessible without removing the battery; via a small door on the side. It’s like BlackBerry was listening to the customer’s needs, maybe they read my review.

They hit this one out of the park.