Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola. Sure, each phone has its loyalists, a user community that fiercely defends its own and makes for rather interesting f lame-wars on Internet forums and everyday conversations. Few phones though, command the kind of addiction that the Crackberries do. And with a phone as widely anticipated as the Bold — the BlackBerry that ‘Bold’ly goes where no ’berry’s gone before — have the QWERTY-loving e-mail-checking addicts got their fix?

Images convey what no amount of words can say, and the same is true for the Bold. Simply put, this is one slick phone — the slickest BlackBerry yet — and that’s saying a lot given the huge improvements Research in Motion (RIM) as shown since the Pearl and the Curve. Curvy, almost iPhone-eque in its outer bezel, the Bold is very comfortable to hold in your hand, and that’s even more so due to the soft textured ‘leatherette’ material that adorns the rear panel. Classy, and practical.

Ask any BlackBerry user, and the first thing they’ll be interested in is the keyboard — a ’berry literally lives and dies by its keyboard. I’ll spare you the suspense. The Bold’s keyboard is excellent, soft and spongy without being squishy, though honestly, I still prefer the Curve’s keyboard. There’s something I like about the Curve’s keyboard that I can’t quite put a finger on (quite literally!).

Yet, the real reason that the Bold was named so wasn’t the design changes — switch it on, and you’ll know what I mean. The screen is just brilliant, with rich and vivid colours, and sharper than anything I have seen. Granted, the 2.6-in LCD panel doesn’t compare size-wise to full touchscreen phones, but what the Bold does with the screen is something else. You get a half-VGA (480 x 320) resolution display over the 320 x 240 pixels that most touchscreens manage — on a smaller panel! Think of how tightly packed the pixels must be, and you’ll start understanding how sharp the Bold’s display is.

As a result, RIM has played around with the interface a fair bit, with larger icons and jazzier menus. The new platform introduces a new visual style named ‘Precision’, much like the glossy visual themes present in Windows Vista and Mac OS X. Six icons now line along the bottom of the screen, dock-style, rather than along the left edge of the display.

The application icons take a little getting used to, it’s a pity the default images used aren’t that intuitive at first glance. One level down though, the menus are still very much Blackberry. Let’s get this out of the way — if you fundamentally dislike BlackBerrys, you’re not going to love the Bold. As polished as RIM may have made the Bold, it is still got a heavy dose of BlackBerry DNA, with all its corporate trappings, underneath the slick exterior. At least they’ve prettied it up!

That said, the Bold features some nice improvements — there’s HTML support in its e-mail client, you get the powerful Documents-to-Go office suite, which allows you to read Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Microsoft Office formats.

Plus instant messengers for almost any network you’d care for. The new screen means that multimedia is nothing short of awesome, and the better-than-average speakers help immensely. All this zips on the 624 MHz processor, and the Bold is a joy to use — smooth videos, quick camera response, almost no application lag.

The Bold is still going to be the top dog for corporate e-mail access, and is still the most secure device to use for your corporate environment. The iPhone’s made some baby steps in the enterprise direction, and while it leaves the Bold in the dust on the applications and multimedia front, you won’t find people forsaking their ’berries for an iPhone. It’s very pricey, but then again, have ’berries ever come cheap?

Quick Specs:

• Network support: GSM: 1900/1800/900/850 MHz, EDGE/HSDPA networks, Wi-Fi: 802.11a/b/g
• Display: 480 x 320 pixel colour display, transmissive TFT backlit LCD, supports over 65,000 colours
• Memory: 1GB On-board + 128 MB Flash, support for microSD card
• Input: Trackball, backlit QWERTY
(Keyboard)
• E-mail integration: Works with BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, Novell GroupWise, existing
enterprise/personal e-mail account
• Media support: Video format support (DivX 4, DivX 5/6 partially supported, XviD partially supported, H.263, H.264, WMV3), audio format support (.3gp, MP3, WMA9 (.wma/.asf), WMA9 Pro/WMA 10, etc
• GPS: Built-in GPS with support for location based
applications and services including geotagging; comes with BlackBerry Maps
• Camera: 2 megapixel camera
• Battery life (standby/talk): Upto 13.5 days/ 4.5 hours
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 66 x 114 x 15 mm
• Weight: 136gm
• Rating: 8/10
• Price: Rs 34,990 available through Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance
• URL: http://in.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrybold/

Simply smart

Keep it Simple, Stupid. The age-old advertising mantra seems to be behind the design of the Flip Mino, an ultra-slim camcorder that just gets the job done, no extra frills thank you. At 4- x 2- x 0.6-in, it packs in 2GB of internal storage to hold an hour of footage, a 1.5-in anti-glare screen, touch-sensitive buttons and a TV output to boot.
Once you’re done recording, the flip-out USB arm plugs directly into your computer, and lets you upload directly to most popular video sharing sites. What’s more, it can also be customised with one of many patterns available online, or even your favourite picture!

URL: http://www.theflip.com/
Price: $180

Take note

The spotlight turns to notebooks. With Steve Jobs’ customary flourish, Apple released their latest line of notebooks, and there’s a lot to look forward to — MacBook Air-inspired aluminium styling, a multi-touch glass trackpad (no mouse button, the whole trackpad is a button), and a mere 0.95-in thick (for the MacBook Pro).
It’s inside where the action hots up, with a one-two punch of two separate graphics cards — one for regular use, and another for the heavy duty stuff. Watch this space for a scorching review when they hit Indian shores.

URL: http://www.apple.com/
Price: $1,999 onwards