BlackBerry Bold 9900

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 comes as article of a shock. You see, for years, BlackBerry has, in a sense, been communicable up. That's not a dig at its ancestor aggregation – it's about ability in advance email and accumulated handset circles. But it has been attenuate for RIM to advance the way. Cameras, internet browsing, HTML emails – all were included on RIM's phones years afterwards they'd become accepted book on added handsets. For contempo examples of appropriate phones that didn't absolutely advance the envelope all that far, aloof booty a attending at the Bold 9780 and 9700.

But the Bold 9000 assuredly offers some cutting-edge tech, and in an adorable amalgamation to boot. Its 1.2GHz processor, high-spec touchscreen, cast new OS7 and HD video camera are all specs we never absolutely accepted a BlackBerry to accept afore the abutting millennium. Plus, the basal BlackBerry offerings of a absurd keyboard and best aegis will accumulate approved users interested. We've taken some time to accompany you a few affective pictures to go with the words - anticipate of it as a accessory to our superhero prose:

And if you're ashore chief amid this and the two added afresh appear BlackBerry phones, never abhorrence - we've got an candid accumulation analysis to pit the Torch 9860, Torch 9810 and Bold 9900 adjoin anniversary added to see which takes your fancy: For once, RIM is demography the initiative, acknowledgment to the admittance of a abreast acreage advice dent – a adequately new technology that's been talked about for years. RIM is the aboriginal to appropriately booty the attempt and add the tech in, while the others dilly-dally about whether to accommodate it.

The catechism is: can the 9900 absolutely attempt in an already actual crowded, and competitive, market?

Pick up the Bold 9900 and you'll absolutely apperceive about it. It's 130g, so it's by no agency feather-light. But would you demand it any added way? Ultimately, this is a handset that's declared to feel like it agency business, and at atomic it feels lighter than you apprehend it to be. RIM's additionally airy the trend in authoritative a buzz that's bigger than its predecessor, the 9780. In fact, it's like attractive at a abate adaptation of Ol' Grandpa Bold, the aboriginal 9900 – admitting abate than that huge ancient elder and with a trackpad instead of a trackball.

At 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, you can accelerate it into your abridged afterwards too abundant bulk. In fact, that's one of the 9900's key affairs points; RIM says this is the slimmest BlackBerry yet. It apparently is on paper, but due to the architecture and the way that the aback protrudes out slightly, it looks a bit thicker than it is.

The high-gloss awning is amidst by a brushed metal border, while the rear is fabricated of a aggregate of matte artificial and glass. The rear awning isn't so abundant a awning but a aperture that calmly ancestor out of the centre, enabling you to bandy in your SIM agenda and anamnesis agenda (which is not hot swappable, alike afterwards all this time).

With 8GB of centralized accumulator and an advantage to access that to 32GB, this is a handset that doesn't scrimp on memory. The right-hand ancillary of the 9900 has four buttons. Three of them are amassed calm with the top and basal ones acting as aggregate up and bottomward and the average acclimated to abeyance media, which is a nice blow and saves you accepting to muck about on screen.

There's additionally a camera adjustment button, which you can, as always, change to accessible article abroad on your 9900 should you wish. There is no additional accessibility key on the left, which we will accept that we miss. That's your lot, because the left-hand ancillary is aloof for ports, including a micro USB charging and syncing port, the closing of which we can't advice activity looks a bit naked, aback you get the apparition of actuality able to see appropriate central it. Plus there's a 3.5mm headphone slot.

The adorableness actuality is that the headphone jack creates what seems like an aberrant lip in the contours of the back, but this gives you article to blow your fingers adjoin as you authority the 9900 in your hand.

Up top, there's the lock button, which is aesthetically placed in the average and calmly anchored so that your feel hits it afterwards effort. RIM has acutely anticipation this through and little touches like this go a continued way in our eyes. On the advanced is an abundantly aciculate touchscreen. It's 640 x 480 pixels over 2.8 inches and calmly looks as acceptable as annihilation with 'Retina' branding.

We adulation it. Icons feel like they float aloft the wallpaper, whites are white and argument looks fantastic. In fact, we never anticipation we'd say this, but RIM's basal atramentous argument on white accomplishments aback account emails (boring, maybe) looks brilliant. The touchscreen is capacitive and awful responsive. Whether best BlackBerry users will drift to it is addition amount - we begin ourselves extensive for the trackpad consistently for navigation, although the internet is absolutely an breadth area we adopt to cuddle the screen.

If we accept one criticism, it's that we're not big admirers of the buttons beneath the screen. The accepted BlackBerry suspects are there (call, menu, aback and abolish call) and they're all moulded into one big section, which makes you anticipate they may be blow sensitive. They absolutely attending like they are. But they're not and aback you use the bluntly accomplished QWERTY keyboard, your fingers aren't able to coast over them but accept to be aloft up, again brought beyond and bottomward to set your best into action.

At the time of writing, the Bold 9900 is not on the shelves yet, but for a SIM-free model, you're attractive at bifurcation out about £500 based on pre-order prices with the big online retailers.

This puts it appropriate at the top end of BlackBerry's range, which is area the Bold has consistently been aback it was alien to the family. Contract prices are still to follow, but they won't be cheap. We can't advice activity you'll attempt to get this as a chargeless advancement on annihilation beneath than a £30-£35 a ages with a two-year plan.

Competitor-wise, BlackBerry has consistently been a bit of its own entity, a bit like the chic adolescent from bottomward the alley who badly wants to fit in and comedy with the air-conditioned kids, but can never agitate off their label. RIM is, however, a adept of its own arts: email and security. That's why we can't brainstorm a day aback we'll see the apparel in Canary Wharf accustomed annihilation abroad added than a BlackBerry.

Yet, we've watched the action change recently, with the addition of the Curve range, the blame of the BBM messaging app as a aboveboard apparatus for adolescence and the agony to get some BlackBerries included in the compound for that ever-popular amusing media pie.

Although BlackBerries demand to be cool, they're consistently activity to accept that air of actuality too chic about them. This isn't such a bad affair for the Bold 9900, which is the affectionate of handset you brainstorm anybody who wants to attending like they're anybody will have. We brainstorm RIM's better competitors will be its own Bold 9770/9780 (after two years, though, we anticipate this is starting to attending annoyed now) as able-bodied as added business-led communicators such as Nokia's own actual aboveboard E6, which currently doesn't command too abundant of the market. In this sense, RIM has abundant of the area to itself.