RIM recently announced two new entry-level BlackBerry devices, the Curve 9380 and the Bold 9790, to limited fanfare; they were, after all, just cheaper versions of the Torch 9850/60 and Bold 9900. Still, that’s just what some people are looking for, especially in places like Indonesia where the BlackBerry spirit is still strong, but device cost is a significant bottleneck.
After getting a quick tour of the new phones at RIM’s campus last week, they sent me home with the Curve 9380 to review. Having recently come off reviewing the new Torch, it didn’t feel like there was a lot new with this one, but there were a few small tweaks that give the Curve 9380 a distinctive spot in the BlackBerry lineup; whether that translates to any appeal in the smartphone market at large is another question altogether.
HARDWARE
The front face of the BlackBerry Curve 9380 consists mainly of the 3.2-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen, which is identical to the Torch 9800 launched in the summer of 2010. Unlike its predecessor, the Torch 9850 / 60, the navigation keys next to the optical trackpad are built right into the screen, and click down in a frighteningly Storm 2-esque fashion. Aside from that, the BlackBerry Curve 9380 follows very closely in the established style by other OS 7 handsets launched so far this year.
From a specifications perspective, the 9380 is about on par with the keyboard-clad Curve 9350 / 60 - 800 MHz processor, near-field communications support, augmented reality apps thanks to a magnetic compass, and the usual fare like HSPA, Bluetooth, NFC, and Wi-Fi b/g/n wireless connectivity.
DESIGN
Most of the lines of the BlackBerry Curve 9380 follow closely in step with the Torch 9850 / 60. The side convenience keys are in the new sliver style that I really like. It minimizes the footprint on the side of the phone, but are still sharp enough to be distinctive and easy to navigate in the pocket. The single lock key on the top takes just enough pressure to activate, which is important if you want to avoid accidentally unlocking your phone in your pocket.
I'm still not sure how I feel about having the headphone jack on the top. When you have the Curve in your pocket, it makes perfect sense, but if it's resting on a desk while you're listening to music, the phone will have a tendency to turn upside down on you, which can be inconvenient if you're regularly checking for e-mails. At the very least, the volume controls double for track navigation with long presses, so if you're using the Curve exclusively for music, the upside-down thing isn't a huge deal.
On the whole, I dig the style of the BlackBerry Curve 9380, namely because those front keys are flush with the main screen. The whole package is nicely streamlined and intelligently laid out.
BUILD QUALITY
Even among BlackBerry handsets, which tend to be pretty plasticky, I wasn't particularly happy with the build quality of the BlackBerry Curve 9380. The silver-coloured bezel is just creaky enough to cause concern, for one. It's not a huge worry now, but it's easy to imagine it getting even looser over time. The polished battery door quickly gathers nicks and scratches, losing its new-feel polish. Even the front screen was prone to a couple of minor scratches; nothing so bad as to impair display visibility, but I could see them piling up over time without additional protection. That battery door is also a pain to remove using the designated indentation on the left side. I generally tend to pry from above the convenience key on the other side.
CAMERA
Overall, I've seen much better performance from 5 megapixel cameras. The fact that it's extended depth of field rather than the usual autofocus means close-ups are pretty much a lost cause. This is something we've seen in the past with the BlackBerry Bold 9900, and as far as I'm concerned, isn't worth sacrificing for the sake of slimness or cost.
Besides that, I've found even long-range landscape shots produce a lot of noise. At the very least there's an LED flash on there for low-light situations, but I wouldn't classify the 5 megapixel camera on the BlackBerry Curve 9380 much higher than "functional". Here are a few samples. Video quality wasn't really worth sharing, since resolution is down around 640 x 480.
SOFTWARE
The BlackBerry Curve 9380 comes loaded with OS 7.0.0.482, which includes the usual additions, like voice recognition within universal search, support for 3D graphics, near-field communications (though that's dependent on carrier cooperation) and augmented reality apps. App World has been updated with a new user interface, and selection is decent, though the quality won't be anywhere near what you'll see in the Android Market or iPhone App Store. Though RIM is still dishing out free apps for the service outage until the end of December, BlackBerry apps haven't yet been updated with 9380 compatibility, so selection is a bit limited. Some of my favourites, like GetGlue, Foursquare, and Poynt work fine in any case. Most of the best apps are made by RIM, actually, including BlackBerry Travel, which automatically populates your calendar with travel itineraries as confirmations come in via e-mail. Another good one is BlackBerry Protect, which offers a helpful suite of security utilities, like tracking your phone's location by GPS, and remotely wiping your phone should it get into the wrong hands.
BlackBerry faithful will miss the physical keyboard when using the Curve 9380. The SureType layout works reasonably well in portrait orientation, but typing accuracy still isn't quite as smooth as I would need on a daily basis. Switching over to the classic QWERTY layout works well enough in landscape orientation, and even in portrait can sometimes be more accurate than SureType. I often had to backtrack to correct words, sometimes more than once. Android definitely has a lead with gesture-based keyboards like Swype.
The BlackBerry experience still revolves primarily around messaging, including e-mail, texts, social networking, and instant messaging. They're all fed through one central app, and easily accessible through a smart notification system.
In terms of overall performance, I found that the only time the 800 Mhz processor really chugged was when installing an application; at those times, you pretty much can't do anything with the Curve 9380, but for the rest of daily usage, I found the 9380 to be snappy and responsive.
MULTIMEDIA
The 3.2-inch 480 x 320 display is big enough and sharp enough to watch shows up to about a half-hour without going bleary-eyed, though you won't experience the same degree of luxury you might enjoy on a bigger, higher-end phone. The picture sharpness might not be quite up to snuff if you're accustomed to a higher-end device. I can't get several .MOV files to play, but it can handle 720p MP4 video files just fine.
As for music, there's not much new. You can store tunes locally on the microSD memory card, or stream through apps like Slacker or Rdio. There's full playlist support in the native media app, and the media control keys along the right side offer quick volume and track skipping. BBM Music is there if, for whatever reason, you want to shell out $5/month to listen to music picked by random fellow subscribers mixed in with 50 of your own picks. I always found RIM's Podcasts app pretty helpful for always keeping up-to-date entertainment on my phone.
Besides that, the 3D graphics support does enable a few games, though selection is still fairly limited. In this screenshot, you can see PBA Bowling 2 in action.
BROWSER
The BlackBerry OS 7 browser is based on WebKit, and has full tab and pinch-to-zoom support. There's no Flash, and with Adobe switching gears to supporting apps written in Flash rather than browser plug-ins, we're going to have to rely on RIM to keep the browser up-to-date when BBX rolls around. As for rendering performance, the browser on the Curve 9380 score an average of 17813 on BrowserMark; by comparison, the iPhone 3GS running OS 4.2.1 generally scores around 26000. The HTML5 test scored 260 + 3 out of 450 total points, and 100/100 on the Acid3 test (which primarily measures JavaScript performance) with a slight artifact in the top-right corner.
CALL QUALITY AND BATTERY LIFE
The BlackBerry Curve 9380 has the same 1230 mAh JH-1 battery as the Curve 9350 / 60, and since it has a comparable processor speed and screen resolution, it shouldn't be any surprise that it can barely get through a full day on a single charge too. Generally, the 9380 lasted until the early evening after a moderate day of usage. If you end up getting the 9380, be sure to have somewhere to charge it mid-day to stay connected. RIM advertises 5.8 hours of talk time over 3G, 15 days standby, 30 hours of continuous audio playback, and 5.5 hours of video.
Call quality was par for course, and I didn't experience any dropped calls on the Rogers network in Ottawa. The phone application consists of three tabs: the number pad, recent call log, and address book. There's a shortcut to launch into your voicemail, as well as the ability to append text notes to call log entries. Speakerphone quality is passable, though there's only one sound port on the rear, near the bottom; typically, I see better sound quality from multiple sound ports.
THE FINAL TAKE
While the BlackBerry Curve 9380 takes knocks on a few fronts, it does perform fairly well for its price. Right now, the only carrier that has gone public with its pricing for the 9380 is TELUS, and they're asking $50 on a three-year contract. It does follow very closely in the footsteps of the Torch 9850 / 60, and despite a processor downgraded to 800 MHz, killing autofocs on the camera, and reducing the screen quality, the 9380 still provides a familiar, responsive experience. The 9380 even has a bit of a leg-up on the Torch by including NFC.
The real problem here is that anything shy of a next-gen BBX handset from RIM won't deter consumers from migrating to iPhone and Android. Any BlackBerry smartphones released until then will only really appeal to those already steeped in the BlackBerry lifestyle, and those folks will most likely drift towards a traditional RIM device with a physical keyboard. Those willing to eschew it will at least want to have high-end features, and so lean towards the Torch 9850 / 60. This leaves a tiny cross-section of consumers who place a high value on messaging (but not so high as to make a physical keyboard a requirement), and are on a budget, but still want a respectable multimedia experience. If there wasn't enough confused targeting there, RIM's branding strategy now has more to do with specs rather than form factor, which may throw folks for a loop who may confuse this phone with a Torch or a Storm.
When you’re under fire you have to make bold moves, like launching five new handsets, improving the hardware specs and ushering in a new operating system. With BlackBerry facing challenges from all sides, are RIMs efforts enough to lure customers to their smartphones, and perhaps more importantly, hold on to those existing users?
Design
The design of the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 sees it pick up pieces from previous Bold handsets. It’s larger than the previous 9700 family returning more to the form of the original 9000. It’s broader in the hand and neatly bordered by a classy metal band. It measures 115 x 66 x 10.5mm; it’s only the thickness that really differs from the original, RIM shaving an impressive 4mm off previous handsets.
QWERTY devices tend to be thicker than touchscreen rivals and we’re not about to get into a fuss over mere millimetres, as the Bold 9900 feels right in the hand. The thickness and the balance present that BlackBerry keyboard naturally, so as you’d expect, it feels comfortable to type on with one hand or two. The 130g weight is average and nothing to complain about.
The metal band encircling the Bold 9900 also helps give it a premium feel as well as highlighting the various buttons and connections. It is certainly smarter than the previous Bold family which now look very plasticy by comparison. The screen lock button sits on the top, slightly recessed, so as not to be unlocked when you slip it into your pocket; the volume controls sit on the right-hand side, with a shortcut “convenience” key moving from the middle towards the bottom.
On the opposing side you’ll find the Micro-USB and 3.5mm headphone connections towards the top, both conveniently out of the way so you can charge the device, listen to music and still get to the keyboard with your left hand. The same can’t be said for the “convenience” key on the right-hand side. Set to launch the camera by default, we can’t count the number of times we’ve launched the camera whilst gripping the device. It’s awkwardly placed at best, and doubly frustrating as the camera sometimes seems frustratingly slow to launch.
Around the back, the leatherette finish is out and a carbonfibre effect is in. It’s neat and tidy and looks the part, even if the back cover is difficult to prise out of its case. Some might see that as a positive given how easily the back cover would come off the previous Bold and indeed the Torch.
NFC finds its way into the Bold 9900, but with no infrastructure in place to use NFC at the moment, it’s more of a case in futureproofing than anything else as far as we’re concerned.
Keyboard and screen
The Bold 9900 keyboard brings you the same layout and design as previous Bolds, with sculpted keys offering easy text entry and chrome bars dividing the rows of buttons. The keyboard is softer than previously although slightly larger thanks to the wider frame. The result is that it isn’t quite as positive an action as the last two Bolds, but text entry remains fluid and fast.
BlackBerrys are all about the keyboard if you are a fan of messaging or email then you’ll be well catered for with the new Bold, but there is a but. Our concern isn’t about the softness of the key action, but the fact that the whole thing doesn’t feel as solid as older models. For example, the chrome dividing bar on the 9700 is solid, it doesn’t move, whereas on the 9900 we managed to push it under the keys above with an errant thumb. In the short-term this might not be of concern, but if the keyboard loosens up over the life of the device, we’re not so sure.
Fortunately the arrangement of how the BB keyboard works remains one of our favourites: a long press gives you CAPS, so writing formal emails where caps are important is really easy. Alternative characters also sit on the keys, requiring a press of the “alt” button.
The normal arrangement of control keys sits across the middle offering the central optical, clickable, navigation control, flanked by the menu and back keys and finally the calling buttons on the ends. These are physical buttons, rather than touch controls which sometimes caught us out seeing as the Bold 9900 also has a touchscreen.
That adds a new dimension to BlackBerry use. Of course it isn’t completely new because we saw touch implemented on the Torch, but whereas the Torch sometimes felt like it was wasting space, the Bold feels more efficient. To put this in context, it’s the polar opposite of QWERTY Android devices, where the OS feels squashed and more difficult to navigate. The implementation of BB7 on the Bold 9900 is actually very useful. The flat face of the 9900 means that firing a thumb up from the keyboard to the screen feels natural, whereas on the Torch it felt like a bit of a stretch.
You won’t find yourself as dependent on menus and the optical navigation button to the same degree as you did in previous Bolds. If there is a spelling error, a simple finger press will bring up the correction, sending an email can now be at the press of the prominent top right-hand button, leafing through photos can now be done on the screen, as can some neat tricks like flicking through blog posts in the browser. Occasionally we found a button that simply refused to register a press (especially along the very bottom of the display) and required scrolling to and clicking in the old fashioned way, but generally speaking the combination works well.
The display also packs in a staggering resolution. With 640 x 480 pixels on the 2.8-inch display, you get a pixel density of 285ppi. This sort of resolution is really useful when it comes to handling fine text and webpages, as obviously, you don’t get the expansive real estate that you’d get on those large touchscreen rivals. The screen is vibrant with respectable viewing angles, with enough brightness to remain visible in bright sunlight.
More than skin deep?
Under the skin, BlackBerry is making something of a statement equipping the BlackBerry Bold 9900 with a 1.2GHz processor and 768MB of RAM. Playing the numbers game against Android doesn’t make any real basis for comparison, but when RIM has been regularly criticised for not making handsets “powerful enough” you can see why they’d be more vocal about the innards.
This joins 8GB of internal memory, as well as supporting microSD cards up to 32GB; our sample came with a 2GB card in the box. Application storage sits at 512MB, but this isn’t all user memory, as some is given over to existing system apps (all detailed in the Application Management in the Device Options). BB apps are small, so the remaining, small, space may look as though it is rapidly dwindling, but you’ll still get a respectable number of apps on the thing before it is a problem.
Much of device performance is governed by software optimisation, which leads us neatly into BB7. If you’re expecting a revolution then BlackBerry OS7 isn’t really it. In operation is feels very much like the Torch did, offering a slideable tray of apps on the screen, with the ability to scroll left or right to access favourites or downloads, or head into media.
Like previous versions of BB OS, assigning your most commonly used apps to the top row of the menu sits them conveniently across the bottom of the screen for easy access, although as you can slide-up the menu at any time on the screen, it’s less important than previously as getting to apps is overall much easier.
Of course there are some core control changes that are really useful, being able to access connections and settings by hitting the respective bar on the display, accessing messages from all the main sources on a notification bar or firing up universal search. Of course, universal search works when you start typing and is a great feature offering up local results as well as presenting the option to Google for results, for example.
You also get voice searching, demonstrating reasonable results, but not as slick as the integration on Android, in our opinion. Although it correctly identified most of what we said to it, having to press the done button at the end does take some of the shine off it.
Generally speaking, navigation of the user interface is slick and fast, but we did find that sometimes it would be unresponsive to our screen jabs or button presses. In particular we found that it would often pause when there was a large data event - indicated by the arrows in the top right-hand corner, or when installing an app from BlackBerry App World. Finger tracking sometimes slipped off, the scrolling on the screen not keeping pace with the tip of your finger as you move it across the screen and sometimes, as mentioned, we'd have to return to using the optical controller when a button refused to register presses.
We also found that the Bold (or we) got confused when the screen was locked directly from using the camera. Normally the screen comes to life quickly, but unlocking back into the camera often left us looking at a blank screen as the camera got going, so we would then press the button again, sending it back to sleep. This isn’t unique to the Bold and there are plenty of other devices that fail to always wake up quickly enough, but not always at the high-end of things. It’s within these little quirks that the BlackBerry operating system lacks some of the refinement that you’ll find elsewhere, but core functionality is strong.
Email, of course, is the service we get most excited about. Even though email is common, and good, across a number of smartphones, on BlackBerry it feels so much simpler for power emailers. Grouped emails and universal inboxes aren’t as unique as they once were, but we still love how fast the Bold handles email, even when it is barely registering a GPRS connection.
Setup and syncing is mostly straightforward, although for Google fans it isn’t quite as elegant as you’ll get from Android, with the BlackBerry failing to sync multiple calendars associated with one of our Google accounts. The universal inbox failed to incorporate one of our email accounts (despite being selected in the options), but otherwise, we like having Twitter, Facebook, BlackBerry service notifications and messages all pile into the same place.
Apps and media
But outside of email, calendar and contacts, we enter the realm of apps and things start to look a little more suspect. BlackBerry Maps refused to work on our device, as did the look-up option for addresses in the calendar. Google Maps is available, but on BlackBerry it lacks the gloss that it does on Android and isn’t offered up by BlackBerry App World, something that isn’t uncommon.
A Social Feeds app pulls various threads together including RSS, podcasts and your social network services and IM accounts to one place, although in reality, we often find it easier to go to the native apps. Twitter and Facebook come preinstalled and signing in will see those services throwing up notifications for your messages and of course you get BBM, along with the likes of Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk, but Skype remains ominously missing for us.
Skype isn’t alone in being absent. For BlackBerry users, although there are some great applications on offer, it’s those common names that leave you feeling shortchanged. When others are talking about the latest app, you’ll find it hasn’t appeared on BlackBerry. We couldn’t get to common apps like eBay or LinkedIn and we were told that Kindle for BlackBerry didn’t support our device. It’s a new handset, sure, so we wait and see how long it is before these apps appear, but you can't ignore the fact that most app developers are working on Android and iOS first and foremost.
On the media front, a QWERTY candybar is never going to rival a large screen device when it comes to watching video, but let’s not write the Bold 9900 off before we start. In fact we were impressed by how well it handled some of the MPEG4 test videos we fed it, with 720p camcorder footage playing smoothly. Format support isn’t vast, which we’re not surprised about, but the external speaker is surprisingly good.
When it comes to music playback, we like the placement of a central button between the volume controls that neatly works as play/pause, even when the screen is locked. But you don’t get the same sort of glorious lockscreen controls that some Android devices will offer, or easy access to media controls without returning to the music player app.
Camera
Also getting a spec boost is the camera around the back, boasting a new 5-megapixel sensor. But hold your horses. This isn’t an autofocus camera, it’s fixed focus, so lacks some of the skill demonstrated by many rivals. Close-ups, particularly, don’t come off well. Even through there is a “close-up” shooting mode, this didn’t appear to let it focus on close objects.
The camera results are reasonable, but below average for current high-end smartphones. Highlights are often blown out, reds and pinks seem over-saturated to the point that nothing looks quite natural and high contrast scenes demonstrate a lot of fringing. The LED flash suffers in the way that so many do, blowing out the subject and being of very limited range.
Video offers capture at 720p, so gets the HD stamp, but again, we’re dealing with a fixed focus model so you can’t get the drama of close-up video that you do elsewhere. The results are reasonable but rather than leading the way, it's simply trying to keep up.
Browser and final points
BlackBerrys had some catching up to do in the browser department and fortunately this is one area where things are much improved. Pages are fast to load, which is the main thing, and pinch zooming and double tap zoom are both in attendance to make things easier to read.
The browser supports multiple tabs and we often found we had eight or nine on the go without realising, which is an impressive feat. You can easily share pages with compatible apps, such as Twitter, and drop bookmarks into your home menu, giving you a neat icon. Occasionally we’d find that finger tracking would again drop off, but on the whole, browsing is now a pleasure. There is no Flash support, so no catchup TV direct from websites.
With the hardware load-out you might not be surprised to hear that the battery doesn’t last too long. We found ourselves needing to charge the device every night, even on days when we were mostly on a 2G connection with minimal use. This is slightly concerning, as step out into heavy 3G, Wi-Fi or any degree of multimedia use and you’ll find the battery doesn’t do too well. In this day and age that isn’t uncommon, but where BlackBerry once had something of an all-day battery trump card, you’ll now find things decidedly smartphone average.
As a phone, however, it is a pleasure to use for calling. Having real calling buttons makes it a breeze to accept and end calls. Universal Search comes into its own, offering up your contacts when you start typing. Callers come though loud and clear and we’ve been impressed with the quality of the speaker.
Verdict
The best BlackBerry Bold ever? Perhaps it is. The core features of BlackBerry are still compelling, the keyboard will let you skip over keys rattling out messages, with a rock of the thumb here and a glancing prod there, in ways that only BlackBerry users understand.
The addition of a touchscreen does make a difference, but the overall experience isn’t a huge evolution from BB6. Whilst BB7 is familiar, there isn’t much here that really drives things forward into the competitive arena. The camera results are behind the rivals, the app offering still has holes in it and sometimes the touch response slopes off. It isn’t a multimedia timewaster in the way that the latest phone from Samsung or HTC is, it’s core offering is communication, in which it mostly excels, but it’s in the extras where it doesn’t make huge progress.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is a device that will appeal greatly to die hard BlackBerry fans, returning the Bold to a premium look and a size that makes a little more sense than the 9700 models. Business users will find themselves with a more interactive device and a better browsing experience, but outside of keyboard and email experience, consumers may find they get a lot more smartphone for their money elsewhere.
The theme is pretty slick and comes with a built in screenshot utility with the ability to post to Facebook and Twitter.
The Official BlackBerry® Theme for Research In Motion participating in Communicasia2011.
Featuring :
8 user application order icons with fade-in/fade-out effects
Select any photo you like then set it as wallpaper
Built-in ShootnShare application to share your BlackBerry® screen to Twitter and Facebook. Go to http://shootnshare.me for more details
Foursquare launched its "Save to Foursquare" and "Follow on Foursquare" buttons Wednesday in an effort by the New York company to get users to integrate what they do on the Web with what they do in the real world.
The Save to Foursquare button is aimed at online publishers and can enable publications to relate stories and reviews to places listed in the Foursquare app.
"For example, from a user perspective, if the L.A. Times were to use this feature, and I'm on the L.A. Times website and I'm reading a review of a new sushi place at LA Live, then I can click the Save to Foursquare button from the review online and that sushi place will be added to my to-do list on Foursquare," said Jonathan Crowley, who oversees Foursquare's partnerships with media companies. "And then when I'm in L.A. near LA Live and I'm looking at my to-do list, I'll see that sushi place on my list and the L.A. Times review would show up when I am looking at that sushi place in the app.
"So I could go back and read that review if I wanted to remember why it's on my list in the first place. And all of this would take place with the publisher's logo and branding."
As of now the L.A. Times isn't using the Save to Foursquare button, but Crowley's hypothetical example went into practice Wednesday with launch partners such as Frommer's Travel, Eater.com, New York Magazine, Time Out NY and Time Out NY Kids, Time Out Boston, Time Out Chicago, AskMen.com and CBS.
CBS' use of the Save to Foursquare button is something that Crowley said he is particularly excited about because it's a move many people wouldn't expect, he said.
"We wanted to bridge the gap between what you're reading and watching online, and what you go out and do in the real world," Crowley said. "A lot of people don't look at CBS as a local brand, but if you think about it, there are all of these markets out there that have local CBS stations and they're producing a ton of locally focused content, so it actually makes a lot of sense.
"The fact is that the best content creators, the places that know cities the best, are publications like newspapers and magazines and local TV stations. And now we can connect the work all of these publications are doing with what we're doing on Foursquare very easily. It's something we've been working on for a while now."
The Follow on Foursquare button enables anyone with a website to allow Foursquare users to follow that person or business on Foursquare with a simple click, similar to Twitter's follow button, he said.
"The Follow button is even easier to put on a website," Crowley said. "With the Save to Foursquare button, a publisher has to structure the location data of what they're writing about in a certain way. With the Follow button, it's as easy as copying code from our website over to your website. Anyone can do it."
When a person follows someone or something on Foursquare, they'll see that person's or brand's tips when they check in at a location and they'll see lists of things to do by who they follow as well, he said.
"It's all the same as when you've followed a person or a brand on Foursquare before, but now you can follow someone you see on the Web without having to take your phone out of your pocket and go looking for them," Crowley said.
The company also launched a redesigned developer website Wednesday that should make it easier for third-party apps to build on what Foursquare has built and has coming up.
"I think a lot of people look at us as a 'check-in service,' but it's so much more than that," Crowley said. "It's about exploring your city, having a travel guide when you're in a new city, getting brand or friend recommendations wherever you go -- and all of this just adds to that.
"We've got a very long product road map, and we're focused on building more of these types of tools that make it easier for people to explore what's going on around them."
Research In Motion(RIM) has launched three new BlackBerry 7 OS smartphones in India - BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9380 and BlackBerry Curve 9350. The new BlackBerry Bold 9790 smartphone combines a touch display with a keyboard and a precise optical trackpad. It also runs BlackBerry 7 OS and is powered by a 1 GHz processor. It includes 8GB onboard memory, which can be expandable up to 32 GB through a microSD card. it costs Rs 27,490.
The BlackBerry Curve 9350 is the first CDMA-based BlackBerry 7 smartphone launched in India. Priced at Rs 20,990, it features a 5 megapixel camera with flash. It also has a microSD/SDHC slot that supports up to 32 GB memory cards for additional media storage.
The BlackBerry Curve 9380 is the first-ever BlackBerry Curve smartphone with an all-touch display. Priced at Rs 20,990, it features a 3.2-inch all-touch display. The BlackBerry Curve 9380 smartphone comes with pre-installed social networking applications such as BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), Facebook, Twitter, and Social Feeds. It also has a 5 megapixel camera with flash.
These phones are expected to be available nationally starting the week of December 1.
One in five BlackBerry phone users are considering dumping their handsets to switch to another supplier because of the ongoing internet service problems at RIM, according to a study.
According to a survey by shopping comparison website Kelkoo, covering over 1,000 BlackBerry users, 19 per cent are thinking about moving to another manufacturer.
Meanwhile, 42 percent will consider changing later and eight per cent said they have bought a new mobile phone already, the Daily Mail reports.
The survey also revealed that seven out of ten who were planning to get a BlackBerry in the future admitted they would need some reassurance from the manufacturer, as they have been put off by the recent problems.
Chris Simpson, chief marketing officer at Kelkoo, pointed out that 'this week has been incredibly difficult for BlackBerry users across the world'.
Simpson, however, said that BlackBerry offers a market-leading product with a unique service, which nearly a third of consumers admit they will not find with any other manufacturer.
"As such, it has a loyal following and this will stand it in good stead to retain customers," he said. (ANI)
