If you asked me what 2011’s sexiest device was, the Blackberry Bold 9900 would be high on my list. On the other hand, the 9900 isn’t even on most people’s radars because the media has been busy beating RIM to death. The 9900 has a very solid brushed stainless steel frame, an awesome carbon fiber battery cover and the best keyboard ever. I really like the 9900, so I was pretty excited when I found out that RIM was adding the Bold 9790 to the mix.
It’s about the same width as 9700/9780 and as thin as the 9900.
Design-wise it’s sort of an evolution of the 9700’s design language. The sides are rounded with chrome around the edges.
I’m a little disappointed that the leather covered back is gone.
The keyboard is the same width as the 9700/9780’s. The 9790’s keys are more raised plus the keys on the side are more curved than the rest.
I didn’t like the 9790’s keyboard at first because it’s a little mushy feeling - it doesn’t make any sound unlike other Blackberry keyboards. However, after using it for a while I get it; it’s a keyboard that you can use in bed without waking your partner up. Once I got that, I actually warmed up to the 9790’s keyboard. It’s fast, intuitive and worthy of being on a Blackberry. Still, I prefer the 9900’s keyboard over the 9790 - I’ll just buy my wife a pair of earplugs.
The menu keys are all physically separate. While I prefer the look of the 9900’s ‘conjoined menu buttons, having them all separate is more functional.
The screen measures 2.45” with a resolution of 480x360. While the 9900’s 2.8”, 640x480 screen looks better on paper the 9790’s display has better viewing angles. It works well outdoors in direct sunlight.
The hold button is on top of the 9790. I use the 9790 a lot with one hand and found it difficult to press with my index finger.
3.5mm headphone jack
volume/mute buttons and camera button
Unlike the 9700/9780 the 9790 has no charging stand connectors on the sides.
The back cover is plastic with a nice rubberized paint job on it. You'll find the same paint job on the back of 9860 (although the 9860’s cover is metal). It slides on so it could get loose if you open it a few times. I prefer the 9900’s battery cover which snaps on. The NFC antenna is built into the back cover, that’s why there are metal contacts on it.
While the 9790 isn’t a poorly made or cheap feeling phone, (in fact it just feels like the 9700/9780), the materials and finishes lack the sense of occasion you get when you pick up a Bold 9900.
Unlike the 9900 the 9790’s camera has auto-focus. It can capture 5mp images and has an LED flash. Blackberries aren’t usually known for their cameras but the 9790’s is actually pretty good. It focuses quickly and decent image quality. It’s the best Blackberry camera that I’ve tried.
I was annoyed that the video recorder only records 640x480 video. That said, the video capture quality is also pretty good.
The 9790 runs Blackberry OS 7.0. It’s actually very similar to OS 6.0 but the browser is a bit faster with more features, the OS itself looks more sleek and there is NFC support.
I’ve already tested a couple of Blackberry OS 7.0 devices so I won’t be covering it too much. I will say that the Blackberry OS is fantastic for messaging. The entire OS is designed around it. The addition of a touch screen to the 9790 is a must-have feature, but sometimes I found that the screen was too small and resorted to using the trackpad.
The 2.45” screen feels a little cramped at times, particularly when you’re browsing the web. While I like using the trackpad if I’m messaging, I prefer to touch the screen when I’m surfing. Still, the touchscreen is a good thing. I tend to use both the trackpad and the touchscreen to interact with the menus.
The addition of NFC is a very nice extra. I think 2012 will be the year of NFC. I wish RIM had included NFC on all their 2011 phones - It would have made them a more attractive choice for companies who are working on NFC payment solutions.
I tested the 9790 browser speed using SunSpider. SunSpider is a benchmark which runs within a browser. This allows us to compare browser performance across various platforms.
While the 9900/9860/9810 all have a 1.2Ghz Qualcomm processor, the 9790 makes do with a 1Ghz from Marvell. So you’d expect the 9790 to be about 17% slower right? According to SunSpider the Bold 9790 scores 5299.4 while the 9900 scores 2681.6.. You read that right, the 9790’s SunSpider score is twice as slow as the 9900’s.
In practice, the Bold 9790 isn’t actually 50% slower than the 9900 but there is a difference. I really felt the lack of speed when I had to resize webpages - it can take a few seconds to redraw.
SunSpider Scores (lower is better)
Samsung Galaxy Nexus 1990.5
LG Optimus LTE 2361.2
Blackberry Bold 9900 2681.6
Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray 3169.4
Apple iPhone 4 3549.9
Blackberry Bold 9790 5299.4
Blackberry Bold 9700 10557.9
So while their clock speeds are close, the Marvell processor is much less efficient from a performance perspective. It actually appears to be a higher clocked version of the processor in the 9000/9700/9780. Anyways, the Bold’s processor is a nice reminder that Mhz and Ghz only tell part of the story - the architecture and design play a much bigger part. RIM really needs to not use this processor in any more of their Bold phones.
Aside from a small amount of hiss, incoming sound quality is good. Outgoing sound quality is slightly harsh sounding but it also quite good.
There is 8GB of storage built-in of which 6GB is available. Both write and read speeds are decent. I copied a 400MB video file to and from the 9790 and observed speeds of 10.6MB/s and 14 5MB/s.
I tested the 9790’s RF head-to-head with a 9900 on TELUS. In areas with weak network signal I found that the 9900 was a slightly better performer than the 9790.
To test the battery life I created a 7hr long 720x480 mp4 video file. I charged the battery, turned off all wireless functions (WiFi, NFC, 3G, BT), set the brightness to maximum and played the video until the 9790 turned off.
The 9790 lasted 303 mins in my test compared with 245 with the Curve 9360 and a whopping 367 mins with the Bold 9900. Given that the 9790 has a slower processor, smaller display and a the same 1230mAh battery as the 9900 I was shocked that it didn’t do better.
Battery life in mins (higher is better)
Blackberry Bold 9900 367
Blackberry Bold 9790 303
Blackberry Curve 9360 245
Samsung Galaxy Nexus 222
LG Optimus LTE 204
While the 9900 supports HSPA+ at 14.4mbps the 9790 only supports 7.2mbps HSPA.
On paper the 9790 is a substantial upgrade to the 9700/9780/9800. Among other things you’ll get a faster device, touch screen and NFC. The thing is, unless you absolutely must have an autofocus camera, a smaller device or a display with a better viewing angle there’s no reason to get the 9790 when you can get the 9900. The 9900 is faster, has a better keyboard, it feels much more expensive, it scores better in my battery benchmark, has superior RF and it’s just easier to use.
Pros:
screen has good viewing angle
small size
NFC
camera is good for a Blackberry
Cons:
Slower than the 9900
battery is not as good as the 9900
Interestingly:
Buy this if you’re a Blackberry addict but have a partner who hates the noise of you typing in bed
Wirelessly posted (WhiteBerry Bold 9780: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.706 Mobile Safari/534.8+)
Wait, no charging connectors for a pod on the 9790?? What the hell RIM! It's bad enough that they've done away with this on their lower end devices, but this is unacceptable on a Bold.
Nice review though howard. I've never heard of SunSpider Scores, so I'll have to do some reading on that.
While I have no idea whether RIM sells a charging stand for the 9790 I should point out that the USB connector connector is now on the bottom of the phone. So maybe the charging connectors are no longer needed.
While I have no idea whether RIM sells a charging stand for the 9790 I should point out that the USB connector connector is now on the bottom of the phone. So maybe the charging connectors are no longer needed.
They actually created a new type of charging stand to complement the BlackBerry Bold 9790.
The BlackBerry Sync Pod has a USB connector at the base that goes into the BB Bold 9790. Here's the URL at the BlackBerry Canada store - http://ca.shopblackberry.com/Product.../ACC-43419-101. It costs $51.99 plus taxes.
It's similar to the charging stand that HP used to provide with their HP iPaq 6900 series PDA phones...for free.
Some BB users expressed concern online that this type of charging stand may cause more wear and tear on the BB Bold 9790 USB port....I guess time will tell. I had the HP IPaq 6900 series for several years and as long as you insert the phone carefully into the charging stand the port will be okay...
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Great review!
Originally Posted by howard
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