The BlackBerry Bold is a variant of smartphone manufactured by Research In Motion (RIM). The family includes the 9000, the 9700, the 9650 and 9780, and the 9900/9930 series. In general, The Blackberry Bold family is well-known for its efficiency, piano-like QWERTY keyboard and more premium keyboard than the Curve series. Unfortunately, the Bold series is more expensive and a bit bulky. However, it is still worth to buy due to better specifications and greater performance.

To getting familiar with Bold Family, let’s take a look at the first generation of Blackberry Bold family that is the 9000 model. Released in 2008 and known for its elegant design (rounded corners and leather-textured back), high resolution screen (320 x 480 pixel), and included HSDPA, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and amazingly enhanced software for opening and editing Microsoft Office documents. This device carrying trackball navigation that makes easier to navigate around your phone and featuring the 2.0 MP camera with flash. The cons of this smartphone are its large size and its weak built-in web browser.

The second model of the Blackberry Bold family is the 9700 model that was released in 2009. This device features a smoother design with an optical trackpad, a 3.5 mm headset jack, and a superior display. The 9700 also boasts a faster 624 MHz processor, 3.2 MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash, a GPS receiver, Bluetooth, and updates to BlackBerry OS 5. Ironically, the user will be a bit disappointing with its poor browsing experience and the degradation of speakerphone quality at high volumes.

The BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a smartphone manufactured by Research In Motion released in 2010. Changes have been made from the previous series include 512MB of onboard memory, built-in Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth v.2.1. It boasts a 528 MHz processor and features 3.2 MP camera. Sadly, the Bold 9650 has the inconvenient charging port placement (the right side of the keyboard). It causes typing is impossible while the device are being charged. Moreover, this device has clunky web browser, tired looks, and jumpy optical trackpad.

The Bold 9780 released worldwide in November 2010. This smartphone considered as the placement of the 9700 model. It uses a 624 MHz processor and 528 MB of RAM to run BlackBerry OS 6.0. It support for 3G network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, stunning 5 MP camera and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot. It is also enhanced with a redesigned home screen and a more advanced web browser. Unluckily, its hardware is not much different from the previous Bold 9700 series.

The recent BlackBerry Bold series is the 9900/9930 which is also known as Bold Touch. Released in August 2011 and it is the first of Bold family that provides a touch screen. It is been added a 2.8-inch, 640x480-pixel touch screen, included a 1.2GHz processor, and equipped with BlackBerry OS 7. However, the call quality of this smartphone is somewhat imperfect. It is also very costly if it is compared with other similar smartphone.

Introduced on November 15, 2011, the BlackBerry Bold 9790 follows the ergonomic of its predecessor, the Bold 9780, with an upgraded 1 GHz processor. The camera does auto focus (as compared to fixed focus of its predecessors), but can only produce VGA resolution videos. [IS]