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Old 11-18-2009, 09:34 AM   #1
ruechel
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Thumbs up TMO BOLD 9700: Post your first IMPRESSIONS!

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Hello early adopters,

I wanted to create a thread where new owners post first remarks/opinions/criticisms/pros/cons/comparisons of this new model. Maybe you can comment about:

overall make/craftsmanship
keyboard
trackpad
3G coverage
battery life
camera
screen
reception
phone sound quality

etc., etc.
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Old 11-18-2009, 10:16 AM   #2
jid
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Love it. Had a 9000 that used to drop calls all the time. UMA rules!

overall make/craftsmanship - Feels a touch cheap, but that is partially b/c it is smaller and lighter.

keyboard - Initially, i notices that the keys felt smaller. But they don't. I've got big fingers and have no trouble with the keys.

trackpad - Immediately, i made it slightly less sensitive (made it a 60 instead of a 70, i think). that helped me a lot.

3G coverage - Took a long road trip yesterday. Had 3G most of the way. Pleasantly surprised so far.

battery life - better than the bold SO FAR. But jury is still out... too early to tell.

camera - haven't tested yet

screen - like it so far!

reception - superior to my old phones!

phone sound quality - superior to old phones.

Definitely the best bberry yet!
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Old 11-18-2009, 10:46 AM   #3
rifleman
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I love this BlackBerry out of all the previous ones I've used. I thought the 8900 was supreme, but this tops it out.

overall make/craftsmanship - Excellent! I love the design!

keyboard - Took a couple of days to get used to but I really prefer this over the 8900 because of the spacing

trackpad - This is a leap forward. ALL devices should have this. Very accurate

3G coverage - Jury is still out on TMO 3G

battery life - Yesterday I used it for over 12 hours and I have ALL connecitons ON. I still have 3/4 battery life. You be the judge.

camera - Same as 8900

screen - Excellent!

reception - So far the coverage has been fine with the 3G. I have noticed less dropped calls

phone sound quality - So far it has been stellar! I even used it with the BT on my helmet and everything sounds great
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Old 11-18-2009, 10:54 AM   #4
NJBlackBerry
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overall make/craftsmanship - very solid. No flex and no give to the keyboard. Very happy with it. Someone commented that the battery cover is too tight!

keyboard - more like the 9000 than the 8900. I like the 8900 better, and I am getting used to he 9700 keyboard.

trackpad - plain and simple - LOVE IT

3G coverage - T-Mobile - better than expected. Call handoff between UMA and 3G is questionable, as expected. UMA to 2G was iffy. So far I am pleasantly surprised.

battery life - not as good as expected; about the same as the 8900. I am a pretty active user.

camera - haven't used; can't comment,

screen - same as 8900. And I liked the 8900.

reception - It does drop from 3G to EDGE frequently. WiFi stack is very good.

phone sound quality - fine
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Old 11-18-2009, 11:24 AM   #5
Bone_Daddy
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Thumbs up

Love it from the moment I turned it on.

Love the design and sleekness. Just a hair heavy.

Keyboard I'm getting use to as I was a 4-year Pearl user.

Love the track pad. Sensitive but accurate and you get use to it fairly fast.

3G coverage is pretty darn fast. I also like the WiFi use!

Battery life is amazing compared to my Pearl - last for such a long time. I'm highly impressed.

Haven't used the camera yet and I've yet to use the video recording feature on it as well. This weekend will provide some time to do so.

Screen is fantastic! And SO bright! Wonderful display.

Reception has been good thus far. Switches easily from 3G to EDGE when necessary or to WiFi for that matter.

Sound quality is crisp. Music/Videos played sound great too. Haven't tried the head phones yet.

Love the fact that I can set it up for anything. Having a hard time assigning a ringtone for my Alarm.

GPS works like a charm. Web is still mobile web - I'm so so on the issue.

The processor is fast. Response time on apps is very good.
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Old 11-18-2009, 11:27 AM   #6
avelasqu
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I agree with rifleman. I thought the 8900 was the shizzy. But now this is the phone I will own for a WHILE. And thats alot coming from someone who needs to change their phones more than their underwear.

Anywhoo.

Love the UMA, of course.
Love the trackpad and the responsiveness.

Its a little slippery, but nothing a silicon case cant fix.

LOVE the 9700!
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Old 11-18-2009, 11:57 AM   #7
yababy
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I'm an original curve user and never saw anything to upgrade to until now. Overall, I love it.

The make and build is excellent. I love the chrome edge around the front. And for me, I like the weight, not too light.

Keypad and optical pad. No problem. The keypad is a little different feel from curve. I just stopped trying to feel for the bump and just started pressing down right in the middle of the key and no problems. However, using two fingers to enter numbers, it gets tricky doing ALT and 7 since they are right next to each other. Another thing, they could have made the Shift keys wider. the space beside it is just wasted.

The battery is definitely like at least 50% bigger than the curve so I hope it lasts longer.

Haven't tried all the Apps but my favorite so far are the visual voicemail and the Slacker Radio. For T-mobile you have to call them to activate visual voice mail. It's free but it's not automatic. You get to see all your voice mails like a call list; you can select any one on the list to listen to immediately, no need to call in to voice mail and navigate forward trying to find it. Slacker Internet Radio sounds so good I have now started looking for my first stereo bluetooth headphones. Because it's so good, I will probably never use the MP3 player. The free service (you get some commercials) is perfectly acceptable to me, no need to upgrade and pay $4 a month. I hope to get Google Calendar and BB calendar working and synchronized.

Call quality seems fine. Oh, and using the BB Slacker Radio plugged into the Aux input on my car, I have so far enjoyed music driving around with no drops.

I would be interested in comments about the menu navigation and OS. It seems like a great improvement over what I had in the curve in terms of speed and organization.
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Old 11-18-2009, 02:58 PM   #8
jjr4884
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ordered on monday, delivered today...

looking forward to playing around with it tonight
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Old 11-18-2009, 05:52 PM   #9
tir
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Default overall, i love it

i love the device. only shortcoming is the small keyboard, but you will get used to it.
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Old 11-18-2009, 06:02 PM   #10
pvdilf40
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Love it so far. The UI is fast!! I'm not used to that being on a shoe horned 8320.
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Old 11-18-2009, 06:14 PM   #11
MrKyoo
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Battery door - couldn't open it to save my life.
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Old 11-18-2009, 07:13 PM   #12
DaCurryman
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrKyoo View Post
Battery door - couldn't open it to save my life.
Yeah, I had to put my nails between the door and the camera to pull down a bit, then when there was enough space, I was able to get enough leverage to take it off. Trying to slide it when it's completely closed is a bit tough, but I kind of like it that way.
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Old 11-18-2009, 08:03 PM   #13
DHermit
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Anyone know why these are selling for $600+ on ebay and $450 at the tmobile store? Are the stores out of them or something? I mean, the ones on eBay are unlocked, which anyone could do in a few seconds, right? Personally, I'm on tmobile, so I don't want an unlocked one, but I can't find any.
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Old 11-18-2009, 08:11 PM   #14
ssj2
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Overall, I have to say I'm highly impressed with the BlackBerry 9700. I (much like all of us had) have been waiting for a 3G Blackberry to come out ever since I had my Pearl 8100 and I now finally have a really solid, 3G device. I was really in love with the 8900 as well, but the 9700 is one hell of a device.
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Old 11-18-2009, 09:14 PM   #15
Calislangin
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The 9000 was good, the 8900 was better...the 9700 is the best. I've the 9700 for more than 2 weeks and I have had very few problems with it. Any issues I have are OS driven, and I'm sure RIM is working out the kinks as I speak.

Overall Make/Craftsmanship: Decent. I feel like the BB hasn't been study since the 7200.

Keyboard: I have big fingers, so I appreciate this keyboard way more than the 8900.

Trackpad: 2010 material. Trackball + dirt is so 2009.

3G Coverage: So far, so good. Much better than AT&T.

Battery Life: Excellent

Camera: 3.2 MP, steady cam. All good.

Screen: I can see everything. Perfect.

Reception: Great. Not a dropped call yet.

Phone Sound Quality: Excellent. Better than anything that I've had in the past.
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Old 11-18-2009, 10:35 PM   #16
HaTaX
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Coming from my 8900 most recently so I'll compare the pros that I see over the previous model.

3G addition is really nice, fast when not on wifi finally and as an added bonus, you can use your data connection while you're on the phone! Probably not a huge deal for most people, but now I can be on a conference call and have emails I'm working on sent out.

Battery life is much welcomed over the 8900, I had a cheap eBay battery in my 8900 after the first week of use. The knock off had 1600mah and would make it till about 8pm before I was in the red. Haven't had the 9700 come even close to that yet, and I'm using it just as much as before if not more as I've been setting things up.

Trackpad..... Enough said, hated when the trackball would go on the fritz and not move in a particular direction... Very responsive and is a perfect evolution for navigation on the BB.

CPU feels like it's much more then an extra 100mhz. (It is almost 20% faster then the 8900's clock speed, so maybe the feeling is relevant) Moving between apps, loading pages, everything feels very snappy and I rarely see the spinning clock.

Case construction is a few notches above the 8900 as well. Feels very solid in your hands, the battery cover doesn't feel like a flimsy plastic piece clinging for life on the back anymore, all good things.

Overall I'm very happy with it and I'm sure this phone will meet my needs for quite a while!

As an aside, anyone got this thing tethered with Windows 7 over bluetooth yet? Wanted to test to see if I could tether and maintain a data connection while on a voice call, but in initial testing windows gets hung up at the registering your computer on the network phase. I'll do some more testing and such as I prefer that method over using desktop manager, but if anyone has gotten that to work or has any tips I'd appreciate hearing them!
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Old 11-19-2009, 07:12 PM   #17
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Coming from an an 83XX I'm kind of not liking the keyboard on the 9700. Maybe it will take some getting used to but I cannot type as fast as I did on my Curve and I'm hitting more wrong keys than I did before. The keys are so tight against each other it's difficult to feel them properly under my thumbs (especially might right thumb). It also teakes more effort to press them down and I'm sometimes getting double characters when I hit them.
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Old 11-20-2009, 02:48 AM   #18
leicashot
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overall make/craftsmanship - standard blackberry, like 8900 except back is rock solid, although plastic. My 9000 battery cover would lose it's catch after some time and needed to be replaced. The 8900 design was better but loose, and the 9700 although a bit cheap feeling is tight as can be.

keyboard - fine for it's size but I do miss the perfect 9000 keyboard.

trackpad - ok, but not convinced it's better than a working trackball. But looks like it will be more reliable over time.

3G coverage - poor with TMO

battery life- excellent, best I've had since my old Nokia 6310

camera - good, but a bit below the Iphone 3gs, especially in low light, and video is a bit jerky.

screen - same as 8900, so small and sharp, would prefer the lower rez 9000 screen as you really can't tell much difference.

reception - pretty good, standard blackberry, possibly less dropped calls (no UMA)

phone sound quality - typical of blackberry, speaker is great and people can hear me well when using it, probably better than other BB's I've had.

Overall, I do prefer the usability of the 9000, but the 9700 is a rock solid device for BB and hard to fault at what it does, cause it does EVERYTHING really really well.

As for TMO, I'm considering changing to the AT&T version for the better 3G and 3G coverage and in building reception strength....any thoughts on this?

Last edited by leicashot; 11-20-2009 at 02:50 AM..
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Old 11-20-2009, 07:50 AM   #19
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overall make/craftsmanship: Pretty sturdy. Battery door is a little annoying.. It might be good that it's tighter right now...but that could also the groves to wear abnormally fast and before you know it its more loose then a cheerleader on prom night.

keyboard: I actually love this keyboard. Coming from 8320 then 8900...I actually prefer the 9700. Never got to type on a 9000.

trackpad: This by far trumps the trackball. Havent had any problems with it yet. Can be a little to sensitve at times(even after adjusting it down) but I believe still getting used it it.

3G coverage: I live in Northern Minnesota.... I dream of 3G.

battery life Seems pretty stable. Haven't gotten to test the battery 100%

camera Same as my 8900

screen: ditto (i wish they could prevent them from getting so oily from touching them)

reception: Some people are saying better reception...I think there's more too this. In areas where there is good reception I seem to have more bars...I don't know know if it actually is getting better reception. I drive 50 miles to and from work everyday - most of the time spent talking on my phone - so I know exactly where I cut out every single time and where the reception gets spotty in my neck of the woods... And it actually dropped a call 1/4" before my 8900 used to . We'll see if it does better today.

phone sound quality: So far pretty good. My 8900 was seeming to distort - and that's probably the number one thing I hate about cellphones is their crappy speakers. I have noticed the speaker phone while playing youtube vidoes seems pretty crappy and not clear - could just be youtube... Havent gotten to test it with an Mp3 yet.

Overall : very happy with the upgrade. Do like the fact that they put the micro USB where it belongs.. though when its dark and im half asleep...I keep trying to plug it in to the right of the keyboard. glad they moved it...should make texting while driving when the phone is charging a LOT safer haha. ;)
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Old 11-20-2009, 12:08 PM   #20
ifonline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrKyoo View Post
Battery door - couldn't open it to save my life.
If you haven't discovered this yet, put the phone in one hand face down with the bottom of the phone pointed away from you. Then, with both thumbs (one on either edge of the battery door), push away from you. The door should slide right off.

You don't need to use a fingernail or other object to "wedge" open the door, and trying to open the door any other way (versus having the phone face down with the bottom pointed away from you) results in nothing more than frustration.
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Last edited by ifonline; 11-20-2009 at 12:09 PM..
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