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Review: BlackBerry 9650 Bold

Form Basics Extras Wrap-Up Comments 59

Music Camera Photos/Video Browse/Customize Extras

Browser

The 9650 has RIM's standard HTML browser. The browser uses the same user interface that is on other BlackBerrys. If you press the BlackBerry key and choose the "Go To" option, you can then perform a Google, Yahoo, Live Search Wikipedia or Dictionary search from the browser. This is also where bookmarks and browser history are stored and can be accessed.

Browsing speeds were consistently good with Sprint. I never experienced any drastic hang-ups, and speed tests consistently scored 1.4Mbps for downloads.

Something to keep in the back of your mind: RIM is working on a WebKit-based browser. WebKit is the same browser tech used by Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform. The new browser is supposed to become available with OS 6.0 later this summer. Hopefully the browser can be downloaded and installed by all (or most) of the existing BlackBerrys, although RIM hasn't confirmed that.

Customize

The 9650 can be customized about as much as any of its BlackBerry predecessors. It lets you re-arrange the main menu as you see fit. You can hide applications, stuff them in folders, or move them anywhere on the screen. You can set pictures as wallpapers, music as ringtones, and customize when the phone goes on/off, turns the radios on/off and so on.

You can add words to the dictionary at will, you can tell the dictionary which word to pick more often when you type a key combination that could be two or more words, and make adjustments to how the spell check app functions.

Both application keys on the left and right side of the 9650 can be customized as short cuts to your favorite or most-used applications or settings menu.

The options menu lets you alter the phone as you would expect most phones for personalization. You can change the fonts, the size of the text, whether or not text is bold and more. This alters the view of your inbox and the majority of the text-only menus you interact with on the 9650 a great deal.

Because BlackBerrys typically target business users, there are literally hundreds of ways to configure the phone, set limits, and so on. Most of these will be completely unused by normal people.

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BlackBerry Bold 9650

2.4" display 480 x 360 pixels
1,400 mAh battery
Memory Card Slot, Hardware Text Keyboard, Headphone Jack (3.5mm)

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