02:33 BlackBerry Bold 9700 Phone (T-Mobile) | |
| Audio format support: .3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro / WMA 10, MIDI, AMR-NB, Professional AAC/AAC+/eAAC+ BlackBerry Bold 9700 Phone (T-Mobile)  More Pictures BlackBerry Bold 9700 Phone (T-Mobile) Product By BlackBerry (13 customers reviews) Lowest Price : $49.99 Available From 4 Sellers  BuyNow Read More Technical Details
Product DescriptionPowerful and refined, the BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone for T-Mobile includes built-in support for both 3G connectivity and voice calls over Wi-Fi networks (802.11b/g). Enabled for T-Mobile's expanding high-speed 3G network, the Bold 9700 offers fast data delivery and an enhanced Web-browsing experience that lets you connect quickly to social networking sites such as Facebook. And, of course, you'll enjoy all the communication and connectivity features you've come to expect from a BlackBerry phone--including email served up by the BlackBerry Internet Service and a full menu of messaging options (SMS, MMS, and IM).
The built-in GPS supports navigation and location-based services via the included BlackBerry Maps application. A hot-swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot provides additional storage for multimedia files and archiving applications, with a 2 GB memory card included and support for optional 32 GB cards. Other features include a 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity for hands-free devices and stereo music streaming, The BlackBerry Bold 9700 offers easy access to BlackBerry App World, the official app store for BlackBerry smartphones, enabling you to browse and download fun and functional mobile applications to their phone. Many applications are readily available directly on the smartphone, such as Slacker Radio for easy access to free music, TeleNav GPS Navigator for turn-by-turn directions (trial version), and visual voicemail for easier access and response to voicemails. Staying ConnectedWith BlackBerry's push email technology, your email will find you without having to initiate a connection. BlackBerry devices are designed to remain on and continuously connected to the wireless network, notifying you as new email arrives. In addition to the text, you can also receive and view attachments in a wide range of popular file formats, including Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, and Adobe PDF.Browse the web with the integrated, full-featured browser, which quickly and efficiently displays HTML pages as well as enables you to set up RSS feeds to stay connected to up-to-the-minute news and blog posts. And keep up with your contacts using a variety of instant message (IM) networks, including the integrated Blackberry Messenger as well as downloadable clients for Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and Lotus Sametime. For corporate users, this BlackBerry device delivers all the enterprise email and messaging capabilities you've come to expect. It's supported on the BlackBerry Internet Service, giving you access to up to 8 work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts), as well as BlackBerry Enterprise Server, enabling advanced security and IT administration within IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise environments.
Key Features
Vital Statistics What's in the Box T-Mobile Services
Activities that work best on a 3G network: Learn More BlackBerry MapsAlways know where you are and how to get where you need to be with BlackBerry® smartphones featuring BlackBerry Maps and GPS (Global Positioning System) capabilities. Enter an address and receive directions to businesses, restaurants and other locations. Type or paste the information, or launch a map by clicking on a pre-existing address in your address book to view routes and step-by-step directions.
Similar Products>Customer Reviews"Amazing." 2010-01-10By Sam (NJ) I have gone though tons of smart phones iphone however i have never before had a blackberry. This is by far the best phone I have ever owned. There is nothing that this phone can not do. I highly recommend this phone. "DON'T BUY THIS PHONE!!" 2010-01-10 By Joy If you've been looking for a phone that is quick, efficient & smart, please don't purchase this phone. I had sooooooooooo many problems with this phone you'll never understand. Whoo where do I start well...T-Mobile was slow extremely slow with porting my number over from Verizon. I had a hard time reaching their Blackberry PDA support and I would call them at least four times a day because of the problems with this phone. No one at T-Mobile could understand why the phone was not working, because it's the newest Blackberry?!? Their excuse was the reason the phone wasn't working is because I brought it from a 3rd party (Amazon.com). Now, I just left T-Mobile for Verizon because I liked the new Droid and heard the service quality was great, and it was, but, wow was Verizon expensive. So I came back to crappy T-Mobile before Christmas. WORST MISTAKE EVER!!!!! The Blackberry 9700/T-Mobile added fuel to my raging fire, because the phone was much slower than my Blackberry pearl (which is my current phone now)and nothing compared to my Droid. So what did I do over the holidays I tried to stick it out and learn about the crappy 9700, but enough was enough when it started getting stuck and shutting itself off when it would run Pandora or Slacker radio it had to go back! There are some good features about this phone it looks good, the camera take great pictures and the screen resolution is excellent. But, the phone still sucked so I sent it back. Please yourself a favor and consider a better phone. No one should have to go through what I've been through, not over a phone. "Amazon dropped the ball" 2009-12-31 By A. Saba (SF Bay Area) Ordered the T-mobile Bold 9700 early December 2009 for my wife, after waiting for its arrival over a 2 weeks periods (yes I got messages in track my orders that it will be delayed a bit) suddenly I get a notice from Amazon saying that t-mobile no longer offers it. this mind you after going through all the process the the hoops of ordering a phone with a two years plan, and giving the Social Security Number and the driver's license number..the whole works, and receiving an approval that everything is A-OK. No explanation given. After waiting for 3 weeks, and after checking the credit (my wife's credit score is a stellar 820). What I did not like is the lack of explanation and the wasted credit check that will eventually lower the credit score, as well as all the time spent online to get the phone, and the missed Xmas gift to my wife. She did better, she got me a 2010 MBZ E 350!! "3G and UMA - at last!" 2009-12-14 By Menno Aartsen (Fredericksburg, VA) I can't say the BlackBerry Bold 9700 is pretty - it looks to me like a cheapie, bits of chrome and leather on a plastic casing, with a "keyboard" whose keys can only be operated by a kid. Blackberry used to make more fashionable phones. But then, as they say in the world of motor vehicles, we get under the hood. This thing (in the version that T-Mobile sells) has: WiFi (a.k.a. wireless networking), 3G, GPS (free) and: UMA! This is too cool. I am going to assume you're well familiar with the jargon by now, except perhaps for UMA. UMA, or Unlicensed Mobile Access, is a technology that lets you use a wireless Ethernet (WiFi, in common parlance) network for voice calls, using an otherwise standard GSM cellphone. It's been around for a while, and I've used the service for several years, but what excited me so much is that the Blackberry is the first phone T-Mobile offers that has both 3G and UMA. The terms I am using - 3G, EDGE, GPRS, UMA, all belong in the European GSM technical cellular standard, the same system that is used by T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless, in this country, a system that is in use in over 90% of the world. Verizon and Sprint are using an American developed technology called CDMA, which is, to all intents and purposes, dead outside the USA. American wireline companies, back when, had no option but to use this technology when cellular telephony was introduced, for very valid legal and regulatory reasons, but Verizon, Sprint and Nextel did not switch to GSM when they could, while other North American carriers did, and so their CDMA phones are unusable on anybody else's networks (with exception of a few specially designed hybrid handsets, which are effectively two cellphones in one, using two different carriers). A GSM phone you can buy anywhere, and use anywhere, provided it is a modern quadband phone, and it is "unlocked" (or "no-line", as it is called in parts of Asia) - all GSM phones can be. But back to Blackberry's new Bold 9700, which I just began using. There is a lot wrong with it - the keys are too small, the display is too small, Blackberry has been trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole. I understand they want to get as close to a "regular" cellular phone form factor as they can, while retaining Blackberry's PDA features, but they have gone too far, IMO. It is functional and usable, but a pain. The old Blackberry 6230 I got in 2004 is the smallest form factor that is comfortable to use as a PDA. But there is a lot right with the Bold 9700, much more so than there is wrong. For one thing, I live somewhere with little cell service, so UMA, for me, is the ideal solution - when I get home my UMA phones automagically switch to my wireless network, and then I receive and make my calls using that. Additionally, calls made over WiFi do not count toward your airtime minutes, all calls within the United States are effectively completely free of charge. I can't tell you how wonderful this is - T-Mobile (the only carrier in the United States that offers UMA) charges a flat rate across my account to put UMA on all lines - and "Hotspot service" is available at most MacDonalds and Starbucks outlets in the US, too. The only problem was that the choice of handsets was limited, and no handset was available that offered 3G as well as UMA. They do exist - an LG phone available in Europe has UMA, but that is enabled only when you buy the phone from Orange in the UK or France. Enter the new Blackberry. It has 3G and UMA, and more besides, like WiFi and GPS, something I have gotten used to as I have been using the Nokia 6110 Navigator 3G phone for this purpose since 2007. GPS shouldn't be in cars, it should be right in your hand, and go where you go. We stopped buying carphones, too, nobody in their right mind would have a phone locked to their vehicle, right? As I had not seen the magic "3G" indicator on the screen of one of my cellphones in the US, I drove out towards Fredericksburg after receiving and setting up the Blackberry 9700 I just bought. Much to my surprise, I got a good 3G signal on T-Mobile's network much closer to home than I expected - at the local Giant store, which sits in a nearby shopping center built only two years ago. That is actually on the edge of the semi-rural area I live in, where cellular service is spotty at best. And it is quite a bit farther from Fredericksburg than I had expected. What is important about 3G? As many teenagers and students already know, you can have reasonable speed internet, voice and your primary life databases all in one device. There really is no longer a need (depending on where you live) to have anything "wired" any more. Especially a device like the Blackberry, coupled with a technologically savvy phone company like T-Mobile, gives you everything. The device itself has 3G internet as well as WiFi internet, and it can, in T-Mobile's version, be used as a digital modem for your laptop or desktop computer - something called "tethering". Having a separate data card for your laptop is completely obsolete - using Google Voice, you can even have a secondary phone ring when the primary does, so you don't have to break your data connection when a call comes in. The cost of the second line is only $10 per month, good if you do a lot of talking as well as a lot of internetting at the same time. Having said that, with your laptop connected to the internet using a 3G connection on a 3G phone, you would be able to use Skype for voice communications, and need not bother with the phone in that respect. Now, I gotta talk to you about GPS. You know the GPS units we've been getting for the car - standalone GPS, maps loaded on the device, etc. And then there is the GPS mobile phone companies are trying to sell us, which actually isn't GPS at all, but just a clever application that uses the GPS chip that has to, by law, built into a cellphone in the US, these days. Its sole purpose is to let the emergency services know where you are when you make a 911 call. Unlike "true" GPS, this method relies on the phone using the chip to figure out your location, then downloading local maps, provided yours is a wireless broadband phone - 3G or EV-DO. That's fraught with problems - if you lose your network connection your GPS is dead, I've just experienced that with the LG phone I was trying out, whose GPS application spend most of its time not working, when it cannot get a data connection in the rural area that I live in. When I leave the house, where it uses my WiFi connection, it dies as soon as I am halfway down my driveway. So: if you want a phone with GPS, you're best off getting one that can function as a standalone GPS unit. Like the Nokia 6110 Navigator I picked up in the Philippines in 2007 (they weren't sold in the US), which has a complete GPS unit, with Route 66 navigation software, and preloaded maps, those that are not included with the phone you can buy and download from Route 66. The Nokia (its successor is the Nokia 5800, which Nokia does sell in the US, but the 5800, too, uses instant download mapping) does the "on the fly" GPS as well, where you can access free maps from Nokia itself. Nokia does let you download maps to your PC using the Ovi Map downloader, but once you have them on your handset you have to buy a subscription if you want to use navigation with them. I will be trying out RIM's own application, Blackberry Maps, which comes with the 9700, and which, from a quick peek, uses the on-the-fly download principle, but has a cache you can set the size of. I am hoping that cache will retain maps after they have been downloaded, obviating the need for 3G where there is none. At least this application comes with the phone for free, and can use WiFi as well as 3G and EDGE. With T-Mobile's Hotspot service, you could stop in at a Starbucks or McDonalds, I suppose, and download local maps using their free WiFi. Something I had gotten used to with my Nokia, using an external Bluetooth GPS antenna, the 9700 can do too. Using a GPS antenna built into the handset in a car, where the metal prevents the GPS antenna from functioning properly, is a headache - the external antenna you can park on the dash, against the windshield, its rechargeable battery will easily last a day or so, and the phone does not have to power its built in antenna. I am using Nokia's LD-3W antenna, which set me back $100, a couple of years ago. Holux M-1000 32 Channel Wireless Bluetooth GPS Receiver is a cheaper version, that works in the same fashion, providing a Bluetooth serial port. For the moment, that is really all I can tell you, not having used this unit extensively. I have moved all of my email addresses to the Blackberry, although final storage of my email happens on one of my laptops, but it is very convenient to have the mobile alert me to all emails, and being able to weed out the spam directly from the phone. I've tried to get rid of all of the links and applications I don't need, loaded a very few apps that are central to my life: Tivo, Maps, Google Voice, Google Maps (just because I like seeing a picture of my house from satellite ;), synchronization is now set to go to Yahoo rather than Outlook (which means you can sync your life even when you're nowhere near your laptop or PC) - Yahoo and Blackberry both use Intellisync to synchronize PDA data, if you want to know why it is Yahoo and not Microsoft's Live attempt at gathering even more marketing data from you. I am genuinely not interested in running a million apps on my PDA. Its primary function is that of a phone (Blackberry's Bluetooth audio implementation is a cut above the rest, by the way), I run applications on my travel laptop, a tiny 10.5" Acer. Having GPS, calendar, address book and a secure document available is part of what I must have, even the Tivo app I do not need, I can log into my Tivo from my laptop using the Blackberry as a data modem. This is not a religion for me, it is a tool... "Great communication device,pretty good pocket computer" 2009-12-10 By J. Golton (California, USA) NOTE: This review is long and detailed, especially relevant for heavy users of Google services. This is my second Blackberry, obtained from T-mobile at an upgrade discount (soon to be possible through AMZN). My first Blackberry was the T-mobile Curve offering (my review on the 8320 may prove helpful to provide context for this review and for first time smart phone buyers). Last time I purchased a phone, I was just looking for a really high quality phone, and the 8320 certainly delivered. However, over time I gradually used more and more smart phone features until by 2009 I was totally hooked. While the 8320 was great as a phone, its limited memory and sluggish processor made it painful to use for certain apps - and impossible to use for more than a handful of apps. So this time around my goal was to get a smart phone that made good sense for my current desired usage. Here were my requirements: Keep costs down Great phone (sound quality, speakerphone, quick dialing, coverage, vibrate options, international use, etc.) Alternative reception if needed (WiFi UMA or femtocell) Great e-mail (must handle Gmail well) Sync contacts/calendar with Google and otherwise works seamlessly well with Google Works seamlessly with other cloud apps I use heavily (Evernote, Dropbox, etc.) Media player with 3.5mm jack Camera of high enough quality to use in conjunction with Evernote OCR Easy to use (configuration, speed of device, shortcuts, etc.) Popular model with many accessories available Long battery life Enough memory so I don't have to manage it Feels good in hand Able to charge by putting in a cradle Tethering possible (Bluetooth preferred) Optional but nice: Great browser Maps Turn by Turn navigation (free preferred) The 9700 with T-mobile strongly delivers on most of my requirements, and surpasses the 8320 in almost every respect by a wide margin. One by one: Costs: Was able to keep my grandfathered T-mobile Blackberry contract for 40/month for voice (1000 anytime, unlimited nights/weekends) and 20/month for unlimited data (but no text/SMS). Our family also has the hotspot home service for an additional 10/month to provide an unlimited domestic calling home line. And a 12% AAA discount off the bill - so this is far less expensive than we could get for these services than from any other carrier. On the other hand, for users who require few voice minutes, heavy data, no tethering, and no home phone, iPhone with AT&T could be only slightly higher in cost. Phone: Just as good as 8320 which was also great. The speakerphone and internal phone is of higher quality but lower volume - so may be more difficult to hear in very noisy conditions, though ear buds or headsets can be used in such circumstances. The alternative UMA reception works just as well on 9700 as it did on the 8320. The quality of the speakerphone is so good that I often use it for music if I'm not in reach of my earphones - while of course not as good as what you get over a pair of high quality headset, it is the best speaker quality I've heard from a cell phone - and I thought the 8320 was good. E-mail, Google apps: Built in Email function is great but is not geared for IMAP Gmail so I downloaded the Google Mobile App and then the individual components Gmail, Sync, and Maps. Gmail and Maps are outstanding, Sync is adequate. The search by voice feature of Google Mobile App is amazingly useful in so many ways I could write a couple pages just about this one feature (watch what happens when you do voice searches for "Phillies" or "Black Widow" or "3+11" . . .). By using Gmail I give up push E-mail (it checks every 20 minutes or if I force it to with "refresh") but is otherwise better - including the ability to search g-mail very quickly. None of this is any different from the 8320 - except that everything is much quicker - and I can use Maps without having to reboot the phone to get memory back. The Google Reader icon merely invokes the Blackberry browser with Google Reader RSS - and it is so tiny that it is unusable. I did figure out that I could use Google Reader reasonably well with the BOLT browser (which I had to download and then set to 3x Large font rendering). I also use Google Voice to replace T-mobile's voice mail and it works great, though you have to wait a few minutes for voice mails and their transcriptions to show up on your phone. Of course, all of these things work way better on Android and the iPhone, but with the exception of Google Reader, they are plenty good enough on the Blackberry. Other Cloud Apps: Unfortunately, Blackberry is harder to develop for than the iPhone (and probably Android too), partly because Blackberry has so many models (too many, IMHO). The result is that Evernote for the iPhone is fantastic while it is passable on the 9700 and downright primitive on the 8320. The screen is bigger and the browser is better and faster on the 9700 (OS 5) than it was on 8320 (OS 4.5), and this accounts for why I'm actually beginning to use Evernote do search within the app and it brings up the notes with that term in the browser - you have to wait 5-10 seconds but it works. On the 8320 this was too slow to be workable. Dropbox doesn't even have a client yet for Blackberry. Roboform has a primitive Blackberry client that doesn't sync wirelessly - I have to manually copy over my passcards every once in a while. Blackberry is a major platform so I am assuming these apps get better over time, but they will always trail the iPhone. Media Player - the media player functions (mp3, pictures, video, voice notes, etc.) works just as well as it did with the 8320 - there's probably been some changes but I didn't notice them. However, the Pandora app runs much better on the 9700 than the 8320 due likely to some combination of 3G coverage and a faster processor. On the 8320, the application paused often in weak coverage areas and had a tendency to stop in the middle of a song and skip to the next on occasion. Camera quality - I am a huge fan of Evernote but the 8320 camera was not able to take pictures of regular size text that could be recognized as text by Evernote's OCR. The 9700 camera specs are better and this proved out with Evernote in my initial tests. I found that with bright light and a distance of at least 11 inches away, I could take pictures of restaurant menus and Evernote was able to index most words in the picture. So I will have access to the menus of all of our favorite restaurants through Evernote once I take pictures of them all. This could also be done with business cards, wine bottles, white boards . . . Ease of Use - This is where Blackberry's fall flat. It took me many many hours of fiddling to master the use of the 8320. While most of this knowledge transferred over to the 9700, it still took many hours to set up the phone as I downloaded apps, set preferences, etc. The iPhone is obviously much better in this regard, and for a heavy Google services user like myself, so is Android, from everything I've read. The menus of preferences were moderately better laid out than the 8320, which helped some. But here are some of the issues: The Apps store experience is frustrating (i.e. Quickpull is an app that worked for 8320 and appeared on the 9700 app store so I installed it but it froze up my system - why does this appear at all if it hasn't been updated yet for the 9700?). Installing apps is slow and requiring rebooting. Some apps are NOT in the app store (Google mobile app, Bolt, etc.). The profiles system for setting alert preferences is powerful, and a bit easier to use than the 8320, but still complicated. The initial layout of icons on the phone screen was so cumbersome that I spent quite a while rearranging them so I could more easily find what I was looking for. On the bright side, there are many handy shortcuts available on Blackberries. I especially like having each letter assignable to a speed dial, so I use the first letter of last names for home phone speed dials, and the first letter of first names for cell phone speed dials. As you learn the shortcuts, the phone becomes very fast to use, far faster than a computer for some things. Popularity - Blackberries in general are among the most popular smart phone brands and 9700s in particular appear to be a big hit. Within months there will be a flood of accessories but the phone is so new that there's not too much yet. Many apps have not yet been updated for the 9700 or the OS 5.0.0.330 which powers the phone. However, it is harder to write Blackberry apps, so I am expecting iPhone to always have better and more up-to-date apps, and probably Android as well as that platform matures. Battery/Memory - Battery life is amazingly good - I have been unable to use more than 30% of the battery in one day despite a lot of fiddling, syncs in the background, Pandora use, etc. There is enough memory for apps that I don't have to worry about it any more. This is a vast improvement over the 8320, which was a pocket computer in theory but in actual practice memory limited to less than a dozen apps, and required constant fiddling to manage memory if you used it like that. However, as application developers start increasing the size of apps, it's easy for me to imagine 256MB of memory getting to be a problem a year or two from now . . . Phone in Hand - The 9700 is the perfect size for my larger-than-average adult male hand. The 8320 was very slippery and I kept dropping it until I bought a Seido protective cover. It was already thick and the cover made it thicker, so that I didn't like holding it for long phone calls. The 9700 is only thinner by a few mm, yet it is much less fatiguing to hold, and it is not slippery so I will probably not use a protective covering. There are a few very minor things I like less than the 8320, though: The right convenience key is so low on the phone that I have to contort my thumb to reach it. This is especially problematic when using the autofocus feature of the camera to focus on a specific distance - which uses that key. The battery cover and micro SD cards are both a pain to take off. Both require using two thumbs to push away from your body with a lot of pressure. The manual does not explain this - took lots of trial/error and online googling to figure this out. Cradle - I bought the OEM charging dock. I dock the phone each night and while charging it goes into bedside mode, which is a customizable alarm clock (which gives you options to turn off every kind of alerting if you want, including phone rings). Assuming you buy the dock, you won't need an alarm clock any more. Tethering - It's a bit cumbersome to set up but I had done it on the 8320 before so knew how. It works - and it is much faster than the 8320, likely mostly due to 3G. I did not do speed tests but some who have claim to be getting 3G speeds (which are 10x-20x faster than the EDGE tethering that happened on the 8320). I don't plan to use this feature much - only while traveling and no WiFi is near. I am hoping people don't heavily use this feature because if they do, T-mobile will be forced to stop allowing it or maybe charge for it. But having this as a backup internet connection (especially travelling) is a huge plus for me. Browser - The 9700 Blackberry Browser is significantly better than the 8320 browser, partly due to more screen real estate (in pixels) and the faster processor. Disabling images makes it even faster. I didn't try to analyze what all the changes are, | |
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