Quick Review - BlackBerry Bold 9900

Best QWERTY Touch & Type Phone (next best Nokia E6)

I bought this phone, in March 2012. I was using Nokia E6 and was a satisfied user of the same, however the need for BB messenger, email interface and office work, i needed to buy a BB. Since then began my search for a BB. This is one decision that i donot regret.

Pros -
1)OK battery life (especially when compared to any Windows phone or any Android device)-easily lasts through a day with medium-heavy usage (approx 3 hours on calls, 2 hours 3g internet usage, whatsapp-24x7, continuous emails from 2 accounts, etc)
2)Superb touch screen with qwerty keypad. Very responsive screen, great resolution, bright.
3)One of the brightest screens - easy legibility even in sunlight
4)High Resolution Screen - 640 x 480 pixel resolution (high pixel density-makes great text legibility)
5)EMail- By far the best client, nothing manages to come clos to BB's ability to deliver emails
6) Ability to set up upto 10 email accounts - unmatched
7)Great build quality
8)Decent 5 MP Camera which can record HD (720p) videos @ 30fps
9)OS update to 7.1: Performance increases several notches, much more fluid
10)Video recording is good and is very smooth but at 720p
Cons -
1)Apps: Not many apps for 9900 so customization is limited
2)Games: Very few games available so - not much entertainment value
3)Camera: Camera for still photos could have been better
4)No FM
5)No TV Out
6)Expensive

Go for this phone if you are a heavy texter/office-email receiver-sender/social network updater.Typical hierarchy BB 9900>Nokia E6>BB 9790>BB curve series


I dont knonw if we will see more physical QWERTY phones. They do seem like a dying proposition. I swear by a physical QWERTY and nothing can replace that.

Quick Review - Nokia E6

I bought this phone, right after it was launched (July 2011). This is one decision that i donot regret.

Pros -
1)Superb battery life (especially when compared to any Windows phone or any Android device or for that matter any Blackberry device)-easily lasts through a day with very heavy usage (approx 4 hours on calls, 2 hours 3g internet usage, whatsapp-24x7, continuous emails, etc) and would stretch for 2 days (48hours) on medium usage
2)Superb touch screen with qwerty keypad (No other touch & type phone comes even close, Black Berry 9900 is good, but then lacks FM and TV out, Blackberry 9790 is a poorly built handset which can set one back by 24,000 INR and still give you a 5 megapixel camera with no tv out and a plastic body)
3)One of the brightest screens - easy legibility even in sunlight
4)High Resolution Screen - 640 x 480 pixel resolution (higher pixel density than iphone4)
5)Mail for Exchange - default mail client is superb - easily syncs Microsoft Exchange server emails in corporate setup and setting up Gmail/Yahoo works like a charm
6) Ability to set up upto 10 email accounts - unmatched
7)Great build quality-all metal body
8)Decent 8 MP Camera which can record HD (720p) videos @ 25fps
9)Symbian Anna pre-loaded to be replaced by Nokia Belle (amazing UI upgrade, with promise of performance boost) by Feb 8th 2012 will make it even better

Cons -
1)Screen could have been bigger, probably on the lines of Black Berry 9900
2)Symbian Anna-current OS has a lot of glitches
3)Fewer apps because of high resolution display

Go for this phone if you are a heavy texter/office-email receiver-sender/social network updater. Superb value for money and will easily last a long time.

You can find the User guide here:

• Nokia E6-00 User Guide (3.36 MB)

Support downloads

• Nokia Suite (101 MB ) Nokia Suite is a free software that connects your Nokia phone and Windows PC, and helps you transfer content between the two. With Nokia Suite you can use your PC to get software updates for your phone, back up your data, get new street maps and synchronise your music, photos and contacts. Compatible with PC Windows 8, 7, Vista, or XP. The application is multilingual.
• BBC iPlayer licence plugin (12 KB ) Catch up on your favourite BBC programmes: download the BBC iPlayer Licence plugin.
• Microsoft® Apps user guide  (318.0 KB ) Microsoft® Apps brings business apps such as Lync and Office Mobile to your phone. Get the user guide in PDF format.
• iSync for Mac OS (249 KB ) Mac user? Download the iSync plugin to sync your calendar and contacts.

 I dont knonw if we will see a QWERTY from Nokia again. It does seem like a dying proposition. I swear by a physical QWERTY and nothing can replace that.

BBM for Android and iPhone – will it affect BB sales?

I wonder how soundly thought the strategy of launching BBM (Black Berry Messenger) on non BB phones is. Apart from the few remaining BB loyalists (like me) who swear by a type phone with a physical QWERTY keypad, most of the others have already moved on to either an android phone or an iPhone or a Windows phone or to anything but a Blackberry.

In today’s less than ideal world there are few of us who are still deciding on whether to move on from BB. For such people one sticky factor apart from the keyboard is BBM and the tons of groups and friend lists one has made. Isn’t launching BBM on other phone platforms equal to showing the path to walk on for most undecided BB users as well as few BB loyalists?

I understand that for BB ‘services’ such as BBM will be a big business driver. Also with the launch of numerous similar messaging platforms especially WhatsApp, WeChat, etc and their growing popularity does signify future challenge for the BBM’s. However, since such ‘services’ revenue is very small for BB;It ,may have chosen to ignore that. In this case BB has not ignored it. I can only speculate that it will lead to more people moving away from BB platform to others.

Lets see what happens!