More trusty than bold

With a new OS and slight tweaks in the interface, the Blackberry Bold 9780 is hoping to build on the strengths of the much-loved Bold 9700. And it delivers, pretty much. Just don't expect a path-breaking new model

Ever since the Blackberry Bold 9780 was launched, the burning question on the loyal Blackberry Bold 9700 consumer's mind has been: is it worth upgrading to, or do I go for the altogether different Blackberry Torch?
It's a fair question, given that apart from the biggie -- the bump in the operating system (the 9780 runs OS 6), and a few hardware and interface tweaks, the two don't look that different. Add that Bold 9700 users will soon have access to the OS 6 too, and there's little to choose between the two handsets. So, what's new about the 9780?

The 9780 is a beefier version of the previous one.u00a0 Pic/Datta
Kumbhar

Display and buildu00a0u00a0
The 9780 features a bright, glossy, 2.44 inch display that's guaranteed to have you grinning from ear to ear. Pictures look gorgeous, and text is crisp on a background that's almost shining with quality. The matte chassis at the back is a new addition that also does wonders to sex up this phone just that little bit. And for all the scratch-phobes out there, it saves you from the heartbreak of noting every little mark and dent on a glossy-finish back. The only problem? The smoothness of the display has you reaching out to touch the screen and tap the icons -- only to realise that this is NOT a touchscreen phone. Bummer. That, and the colour-bleed that we experienced when we pushed the volume control on the side were the two problems we had with the display.

Interface
This is the most obvious change in the 9780 from the 9700. Icons are now grouped under five separate tabs -- All, frequent, favourites, media and downloads -- and you have to scroll sideways to get to them. Neatness-freaks might love the idea of organising everything into such tight packets, but to us, in practice, it just seemed like an unnecessary extra step was added to what should be a simple process, especially when it's the click of a button and not the swipe of a finger that does it. Connections, however, are easy to manage under the new interface -- a click of the top row where the time is displayed, slides out a connection and profile manager. Nice.

Social networking and browsing
This is one of our favourite features on the 9780. You no longer need to open separate browser windows and then zoom into minuscule bits of text on a mobile phone. The 9780 supports tabbed browsing, which makes opening web pages so much more fun and easy. Social feeds, a new feature added into this phone, aggregates all of your social networking apps -- Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, MSN Messenger and the ilk -- into one whole thread of information. That means you can simultaneously post as well as check updates to all of your accounts.

Camera and video
Having never used the 9700, we can't comment on the difference in camera quality, but we can tell you that this 5 megapixel one performs admirably for a phone camera. Images are clear, especially the ones shot in daylight, and flash works well enough under low-light conditions to illuminate the subject. But there's only so much a phone camera can do -- so the use of flash tends to wash out colours and contrast, and even produces a bit of digital noise every now and then.

Battery and call quality
Impressive. Calls are loud and clear, even in the noisiest of situations. But the real winner is the battery. Two days of incessant calling, Tweeting, browsing, music-listening and what-not later, the battery was still not dead. Given that this has not been the case with some of RIM's earlier handsets, we were more than happy. If there's one thing a data-heavy smartphone needs, it's an iron-clad battery, and that this certainly is.
In conclusion, the 9780 is a great phone to have. It's got most of the basics right -- keeping the best of the 9700 and integrating it with the bump in speed that OS 6.0 gives you. Our main gripe, though, is that just like every other Blackberry phone, you can't even access a simple Wi-Fi connection unless you sign up for Blackberry services -- and that's a potential dealbreaker, especially when you're paying a princely sum of Rs 27,990 for a phone that should give you unhindered Internet services. If you can deal with that and are looking for a juicier version of your trusty 9700, go for it.