Online Phone Shop

Long the domain of the serious business user, BlackBerry seems to be positioning itself to make in impact on the casual smartphone fan.  The BlackBerry Bold 9700 offers a slimmer design and first-rate media features, which will have the consumer market buzzing. 

Pros

Like previous BlackBerry mobile phones, the Bold 9700 shines in mobile email applications and has a fantastic battery life.  The handset is slim yet solid and feels comfortable in hand.  The original Bold rollerball has been replaced with a brilliantly responsive optical trackpad.

The keyboard is a pleasure to navigate, with solid and evenly spaced keys.  Users will never miss a trendy touchscreen.
Aside from mobile communications, the Bold 9700 also functions admirably as a music and media player.  The display screen is crisp and detailed, perfect for high resolution video playback.  They music player interface is comprehensive, audio quality is good, and the 3.5mm headphone jack is a nice touch.

The camera has an autofocus system and produces decent quality images, making this a passable alternative to a digital camera in a pinch.

Cons

New BlackBerry users will need some time to learn the confusing text-based menus.

The enter key doubles as the send key in SMS messaging mode and is positioned very near the delete button, which could lead to some embarrassing slip-ups for careless texters.

Conclusion

With the Bold 9700, BlackBerry takes a strong step into the broader consumer market.  Balancing work and play with ease, it holds up well against the latest mobile phones from competitors.