Review: BlackBerry 9670 Style
My big complaint is how the camera is positioned. It is on the back of the phone, on the bottom half. It is almost impossible to hold the Style without accidentally covering the camera. You have to scoot your hand down the Style a bit so that the camera remains exposed. On any slab-style phone, this wouldn't be bothersome, but the Style is a flip phone. Positioning your hand so far down the phone leaves it feeling top heavy and is uncomfortable. My hand was sore after using the camera for a while.
Leaving the side convenience key set to launch the camera is the best and fastest way to get at it. It launches in perhaps a second or so. The Style has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash.
The physical button can be used to focus and take pictures, as can the trackpad. Some basic options can be controlled from the viewfinder without calling up a separate menu. The flash can be turned off, on or set to auto. The geo-tagging can be turned on or of. And the shooting mode can be changed, which includes a wide list of options (auto, face detection, portrait, sports, landscape, party, close-up, snow, beach, night, and text). The BlackBerry key can be used to get at several other settings, such as resolution, where pictures are stored, etc.
When you want to take a picture, the Style responds pretty quickly. It shoots and saves pictures in 1- 2 seconds, which is about the best you can expect from a phone.
The video camera's controls are pretty much identical.
Gallery
One thing I like about the Style's camera is that it puts a thumbnail of the most recent shot in the corner of the viewfinder. This means you can see the picture you last shot. Click on it, and it opens the gallery application.
Pictures can be viewed as a list, or in a grid. From the main gallery view, pictures can be selected, moved, shared, edited, and all that you expect.
Once you open a picture, you can sail through the entire gallery by swiping in either direction on the trackpad. Editing features are limited to rotating. Pictures can be shared via email, MMS, Bluetooth, Twitter, GoogleTalk or Facebook.