Blackberry Gemini - When you’re a company like Research in Motion (RIM) with one cult device called the Blackberry, it takes a lot of imagination to create a BlackBerry diverse product line. Apart from uninspiring experiments with different form factors like a clamshell (Flip) and touchscreen-only (Storm), the company has largely stuck to its bread and butter full-keyboard smartphones.
It has segmented this extremely successful line of devices according to features and price-points into models like the Tour (9630), the Bold (9000) and the Curve (which itself has offshoots like the Javelin and the Gemini). Though, they all had something or the other missing. With the new Bold 9700, nicknamed the ‘Bold 2’ by crackberries (blackberry addicts), RIM seems to have plugged the holes. ET only had the demo-unit for a day, so treat this as a quick first impression rather than a full-blown review.
The 9700 is more like the Tour with the optical trackpad from the Gemini (Curve 8520) and the leather rear from the Bold 9000 thrown in. The exact dimensions and weight suggest that this is indeed the smallest and lightest blackberry ever, but the margin doesn’t make any significant difference. People seemed to either love or hate the faux-leather rear on its predecessor so the 9700 has tried to come half-way with a large leathery panel on the plastic back which slides out to reveal the battery.
Oh! and that’s the other thing inherited from the older Bold — the larger thinner battery than the one powering the Tour and other models. Since we’ve only had the device for a day its tough to back up RIMs claims of a whopping 6 hours of talk time and 21 hours of standby life, but in spite of not having charged the device for more than 24 hours of greater than normal usage, the power meter was still at about 50%, which is fairly impressive. For the first time on a blackberry we see two small, shiny battery contact points on the outside, placed at the bottom of the phone.
One can only suspect that a flurry of “charging docks” are about to hit the market. The one spec where the original Bold scored over the Tour was the 1 GB of internal memory but the 9700 has decided to copy the latter and provide only 256 MB. All the other features of the Tour that were better than the Bold i.e. a high-res 480x360 screen, 3.2 Megapixel camera with flash, soft buttons on the top to mute and lock keyboard etc are included in the new 9700. With WiFi, 3G, GPS and stereo bluetooth, this smartphone doesn’t scrounge on what can now be termed ‘basics’ for smartphones launching in 2010.
The keypad is the same as the one on the Bold and Tour, with all keys touching unlike the individually spaced key layout on the Javelin (8900). The numbers and symbols are all in white unlike the red-white combination that most newer models sport. The optical pad is more dependable than a trackball for long-term wear and tear but still isn’t as accurate.
It has segmented this extremely successful line of devices according to features and price-points into models like the Tour (9630), the Bold (9000) and the Curve (which itself has offshoots like the Javelin and the Gemini). Though, they all had something or the other missing. With the new Bold 9700, nicknamed the ‘Bold 2’ by crackberries (blackberry addicts), RIM seems to have plugged the holes. ET only had the demo-unit for a day, so treat this as a quick first impression rather than a full-blown review.
The 9700 is more like the Tour with the optical trackpad from the Gemini (Curve 8520) and the leather rear from the Bold 9000 thrown in. The exact dimensions and weight suggest that this is indeed the smallest and lightest blackberry ever, but the margin doesn’t make any significant difference. People seemed to either love or hate the faux-leather rear on its predecessor so the 9700 has tried to come half-way with a large leathery panel on the plastic back which slides out to reveal the battery.
Oh! and that’s the other thing inherited from the older Bold — the larger thinner battery than the one powering the Tour and other models. Since we’ve only had the device for a day its tough to back up RIMs claims of a whopping 6 hours of talk time and 21 hours of standby life, but in spite of not having charged the device for more than 24 hours of greater than normal usage, the power meter was still at about 50%, which is fairly impressive. For the first time on a blackberry we see two small, shiny battery contact points on the outside, placed at the bottom of the phone.
One can only suspect that a flurry of “charging docks” are about to hit the market. The one spec where the original Bold scored over the Tour was the 1 GB of internal memory but the 9700 has decided to copy the latter and provide only 256 MB. All the other features of the Tour that were better than the Bold i.e. a high-res 480x360 screen, 3.2 Megapixel camera with flash, soft buttons on the top to mute and lock keyboard etc are included in the new 9700. With WiFi, 3G, GPS and stereo bluetooth, this smartphone doesn’t scrounge on what can now be termed ‘basics’ for smartphones launching in 2010.
The keypad is the same as the one on the Bold and Tour, with all keys touching unlike the individually spaced key layout on the Javelin (8900). The numbers and symbols are all in white unlike the red-white combination that most newer models sport. The optical pad is more dependable than a trackball for long-term wear and tear but still isn’t as accurate.
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