BlackBerry Bold 9780 review: Business as usual

It’s no surprise that the BlackBerry Bold 9780 is the next logical evolutionary step, rather than a complete makeover that will propel it into the same league as the iPhone and Android. RIM has a loyal core of customers whose bond with the brand goes beyond the obvious business benefits. And devices like the Bold 9780 are certainly part of that bond.

From a geek’s perspective, a new generation of gadgets should emerge to a new generation of users. Radical, rebellious, with no sense of history and no respect for authorities. In the world of business, every new generation of gadgets has to make generations of users feel at home.

BlackBerry Bold 9780 press photos

There’s no moral dilemma for BlackBerry in this. They know trying to introduce new features and UI tweaks with each new generation involves substantial risk for some of the changes to backfire. But they haven’t given up on the Torch and the Storm, have they? Though it’s obviously much easier to stick to a tested recipe and only add stuff that’s been proved to work.

Key features:

• Enhanced email and data security via BlackBerry services
• 2.44" 65K-color TFT landscape display with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels
• Hardware four-row full QWERTY keyboard
• Quad-band GSM support and tri-band 3G with HSDPA
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• GPS receiver and BlackBerry maps preloaded
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera, LED flash
• 624 MHz CPU, 512 MB RAM
• BlackBerry OS v6
• Touch-sensitive trackpad navigation
• Hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• DivX and XviD video support
• Decent web browser
• Office document editor
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Smart dialing
• Compact body and solid build quality

Main disadvantages:

• BlackBerry Internet Service account is a must to enjoy all phone features
• Outdated and unintuitive camera interface
• No FM radio
• No video-call camera
• No built-in accelerometer

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 upgrades the Bold 9700 by a 5 megapixel shooter and the new 6th version of the BlackBerry OS. It doesn’t sound much and when you consider that the 9700 was already updated to BlackBerrry OS 6 there is even less to choose between the two phones.

BlackBerry Bold 9780 all over

So, will the new Bold 9780 reveal some nice surprises that are invisible to a casual scan of the spec sheet or will it be a mere footnote to the original Bold 9700? We hope to find out when we are done with the review. We start with the unboxing right after the break.

Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 preview: First look

Introduction

Well, you’ve met the family, now here is one of the new kids on the block. Midrange Froyo deserts for all it is, and the Samsung Galaxy Ace leads the gang. In an attempt to bring smartphone sales even higher, Samsung is turning attention to providing a whole series of budget smartphones for the masses. And they’re not based on the Bada OS, they use Android instead.

Samsung S5830 Galaxy Ace official photos

LG has had quite a success with its Optimus One and Samsung is all in on the game too with no less than five different models. The Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 is the more powerful and it’s the one we are taking for a spin today.

The specs sheet is pretty much similar to the most Androids in its class – no AMOLED screen or high-end camera – just the typical HVGA display, decent connectivity and a hopefully, a satisfying snapper.

Samsung S5830 Galaxy Ace at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
• Dimensions: 112.4 x 59.9 x 11.5 mm, 113 g
• Display: 3.5" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, 320 x 480 pixels
• CPU: Qualcomm QCT MSM7227-1 Turbo 800 MHz processor
• Memory: 158MB storage, microSD card slot
• OS: Android OS, v2.2 Froyo
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with face detection; QVGA video recording
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio
• Misc: TouchWiz 3.0 UI, built-in accelerometer, multi-touch input, proximity sensor, Swype text input

The Ace’s Android OS is skinned with the latest Samsung’s TouchWiz UI. You shouldn’t expect bonus apps beside the standard Android ones, since it’s a mid-range smartphone.

Samsung S5830 Galaxy Ace live shots

But when you’re buying cheap, you know you’ll have to make compromises – jump to the next page to see if there’s anything lacking in the hardware department.

Samsung Galaxy 551 review: Value line

Introduction

The Samsung Galaxy 551 is something that should have happened a long time ago. This is not to say that the form factor was out of favor with Samsung. But it took a slew of CDMA messengers to finally see a QWERTY side-slider to land in Europe.

Android debuted on a full QWERTY phone, but messengers were never meant to be the dominant species. The Galaxy 551 is pragmatic enough to accept the fact and live with it. Samsung itself knows better than expect the market to embrace more QWERTY messengers the skill and size of the Motorola Milestone or the HTC Desire Z.

Samsung Galaxy 551 official photos

The Galaxy 551 does not look forward to making a big splash, It’s part of a broader effort of giving the Galaxy lineup some depth in the midrange. With Froyo and all-round connectivity the Samsung Galaxy 551 makes perfect sense in the segment of affordable smart messengers.

Key features

• Slide-out full QWERTY keyboard
• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA support
• 3.2" 16M-color TFT capacitive touchscreen of WQVGA (240 x 400 pixel) resolution
• Great QWERTY keyboard
• Android OS v2.2 with TouchWiz launcher
• 667MHz processor
• 3.15 MP autofocus camera, QVGA video recording at 15fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity
• 160 MB internal storage, microSD slot
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Smart dialing
• Access to Android Market and Samsung Apps repository

Main disadvantages

• Glossy plastic is a smudge magnet and scratch-prone
• No dedicated camera key
• No Adobe Flash support
• No live wallpaper support
• No secondary video-call camera
• No DivX/XviD video support out of the box
• No document viewer

The Galaxy 551 does well to stay out of the way of the heavyweight Droid messengers. But some of the omissions on its spec sheet are surprising. Given the QWERTY keyboard, a document editor would’ve made sense – but the phone actually lacks a document viewer to begin with. Even Samsung’s traditionally solid codec support has been hit by cost-cutting. The bottom line obviously is that Froyo, Wi-Fi and a QWERTY keyboard is more than enough for the money you spend on the Galaxy 551.

Samsung Galaxy 551 at ours

But the Samsung Galaxy 551 comes with a clear purpose – to boost the messaging capabilities in the Android mid-range. It’s an affordable smartphone facing lax competition – sounds like the stuff that makes the sales meter tick.