Messaging

The Bold holds all the usual text messaging features, including the ability to send words, videos, and pictures. The phone also supports short messaging service and text messages that include emoticons.

RIM BlackBerry Bold (9000)

Your Price: $39.99 with service

With the power of an Internet connection via a mobile connection or Wi-Fi, users can also use BlackBerry-specific features, such as sending emails from BlackBerry email account and sending an instant message on BlackBerry Messenger.

As for email, the Bold will alert users when an email has been pushed to the phone. Most of the Bold's email features resemble email on other BlackBerrys, except Bold users can view attachments and photos in emails.

Non-BlackBerry-specific instant messaging services and email accounts are also available through the Web browser.

Using an eight-digit BlackBerry PIN number specific to each Bold unit, users can bypass using email and send an instant BlackBerry Messenger message to another BlackBerry user.

BlackBerry Instant Messenger allows users to not just send messages but alert BlackBerry-toting friends when they're away, available, or busy, make a sound on the Bold when a friend comes on-line, and send mass messages -- just like real-time chat. Users can even let friends know what song they're playing at that moment on their Bold.

That's a lot of options to send and receive a lot of messages, which can be great for business on the go but a handful for the novice smartphone user.

Some users complain the Bold's Internet homepage is too-simplistic and other smartphones have browsers that are easier to navigate.

But with its own instant messenger and email, the Bold brings users into a BlackBerry-centric world. While this set-up may appeal to some BlackBerry die-hards, people hooked on a personal email account or non-BlackBerry instant messaging system might want to choose a phone that offers direct routes to these accounts.

While multimedia messages come in looking great, another gripe is that each messaging system is rather bland looking, with a lot of white space and little color, which is disappointing for a screen that can support more complex image themes.

If you're willing to pay the charges for round-the-clock Internet-based services and have a lot of messaging to do throughout the day and night, the Bold is great choice with speedy service. For those who value simplicity over speed or service variety, the Bold may be too much to take on.

Entertainment

Aside from the usual ability to download songs and ringtones through AT&T Music and AT&T Mall (which provides access to other applications and themes as well), the Bold comes packed with five games (BrickBreaker, Word Mole, Texas Hold ‘Em King 2, Sudoku and Klondike), and a media center for self-taken or purchased videos, tones, pictures, music and voice notes.

Although self-recorded videos don't have the best clarity on the Bold, uploaded video clips come through with vivid color and crystal clear picture. The sound quality is great too, for videos and for songs, making the Bold a great portable substitute for a DVD player or digital song library built from new downloads or from syncing with a laptop song library.

Unfortunately, turning the Bold into a one-stop media shop takes more memory than the phone has to offer, so the purchase of a memory card is nearly impossible to avoid.

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