Research In Motion (RIM) today unveiled two new BlackBerry Bold smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930. The company also announced enhancements to its new operating system.
Both smartphones integrate a BlackBerry keyboards with high resolution touch screens. The smartphones are built on a new platform powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones feature the premium materials and finishes that characterize the BlackBerry Bold line. Both models have a lustrous exterior with a brushed stainless steel frame and a high-gloss glass-weave backplate. They are also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet, at only 10.5mm.
The smartphones are built on a new platform featuring a 1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics touch screen, and support for high speed 4G/HSPA+ wide area wireless networks.
The Liquid Graphics touch screen, a key new feature powered by BlackBerry 7, delivers smooth performance for responsive touch-based navigation, web browsing, pictures, video and graphics intensive games. It offersup to 60 frames-per-second performance with instant UI action/response. In addition, the smartphones feature displays with a 287 dpi for crisp visuals.
The new platform also provides support for 4G networks; the 9900 supports HSPA+ connectivity, and the 9930 supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA+ global roaming on GSM/UMTS networks.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones also include built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications). Through NFC, users will be able to, for example, pair the BlackBerry Bold to an accessory or read information such as a web link from smart tags by simply tapping their BlackBerry Bold to an NFC tag (eg. Smart Poster).
The smartphones also feature a built-in compass (magnetometer) to support location-based services and augmented reality. APIs will allow third party developers to take advantage of the new functionality within their applications. The new smartphones will also include Wikitude, which overlays contextual information on what the user sees through the smartphone's camera viewfinder.
Both smartphones support up to 720p HD video recording and playback. Users can share their videos directly from the smartphone or sync videos, as well as music and photos, to their computer using Media Sync in the BlackBerry Desktop Software.
The BlackBerry 7 OS provides improved browsing, voice-activated searches, the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as well as additional personal and productivity apps out of the box.
The BlackBerry Browser has been enhanced in BlackBerry 7. In addition to the general performance gains of Liquid Graphics, which helps deliver faster rendering and panning and zooming, the BlackBerry 7 browser includes a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler to improve the load time speed of web pages. The new browser also includes support for additional HTML5 elements, such as HTML5 Video.
Building upon the Universal Search feature introduced in BlackBerry 6, BlackBerry 7 expands the capability to include voice-activated search. This new capability makes it easier to search for content on the smartphone or web.
BlackBerry 7 also integrates BlackBerry Balance, which separates personal content from corporate content on the smartphone, giving users the freedom to use the handset for personal email, Facebook, Twitter, multimedia, games and other apps while satisfying the need for corporate data to be secure and manageable. BlackBerry Balance works in conjunction with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.3, which provides a number of IT policy controls such as wiping only corporate data from the handset or blocking work related content and apps from being copied or forwarded to personal contacts.
With BlackBerry 7 on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, users will also get the full version of Docs To Go with all "premium" features enabled out-of-the-box so that users can easily work with Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone. Docs To Go also includes a native PDF viewer.
Availability The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones are expected to be available from carriers around the world beginning this summer.
BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 Specifications
- 115 x 66 x 10.5 mm, approximately 130 g
- 2.8" touch screen display
? VGA (640x480), 287 dpi resolution
- QWERTY keyboard, optical trackpad
- 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM
- 8 GB on-board memory, plus microSD slot supporting up to 32 GB cards
- NFC technology
- 5.0 MP camera, supports 720p HD video recording
- Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), Digital Compass (Magnetometer), Proximity Sensor
- Built-in GPS / aGPS
- Dual-Band Wi-Fi - 802.11 b/g/n at 2.4 GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5 GHz
- Bluetooth 2.1+EDR support
- Wireless Network support:
9900: Tri-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
9930: Dual-Band CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A, Dual-Band HSPA+, Quad-Band GSM/EDGE
- 1230 mAh removable, rechargeable battery
- BlackBerry 7 OS