Thursday 30 June 2011

The Blackberry 9900

First off, I have owned RIM products since it was a massive blue brick with a clicky wheel that broke ALL-THE-FUCKIN-TIME....  I have owned Curves and Tours and Storms(fml), Torches and Bolds... They were all (minus the Storms and the blue bricks) half decent devices.  My current full time device is a Bold 9780, and the HTC Sensation 4G (another bad-ass motherfucker that I'll write up next).


I recently got my hands on a 9900 for an hour or so.  I had to do a few things before I was allowed some supervised alone time with the device though... I had to give up my 9780, my Playbook, my camera, and agree to a TSA style pat down.  RIM doesn't fuck around anymore when it comes to not wanting anything else leaked for a pre-release device (I think they have their hands full with the people that have the thing and are showing it off like a new set of tits).  Once the reluctant RIM employee handed me the device, I was faced with a crossroads..... A decision... Do I throw my coffee at the guy and run?  Or do I behave and simply do a run thru... Option A had it's advantages and disadvantages (Fired, Jail etc)... While option B seemed pretty pussy-ish but more likely to result in a certain level of trust with RIM and any other pre-release hardware they might wave infront of me.  B it was.  I put my man card down and was ready to rock.


First of all... this thing has a feel to it that I have been dying for.  It doesn't have the light, plastic-rubber faux leather Chrysler Cordoba feel... It's more like a solid, smooth, refined Porche feel.  The aluminum bezel combined with the smooth carbon fiber back back and glass screen make it feel like a 'flagship' phone should.  My 9780 is great, don't get me wrong.. but it's far from a flagship device.  If anything, out of the current RIM lineup, I'd say the Torch (gasp!) has more of a flagship look and feel.  The Bold needed this update.


Getting into the OS was like visiting familiar territory.  Having come from using os 4.X back in the day up to os 6.X now... They made it an easy transition.  Similar Icons, Menus, and feel to the system.  The difference is the thing was fast as all hell.  I'd swipe, it'd respond.  I'd open something, it's actually open.  I never saw that fucking clock that burned into my Torch screen ONCE.  There was a slight lag when I was swiping thru the pictures, but I was swiping as fast as I could.  I wasn't here to pussyfoot around this thing, I wanted to see what it did.  I opened the browser, messaging, pictures, camera, setup, and anything else I could in an attempt to bog down the OS.  It took it like a champ for the most part, with only a few slightly sluggish responses when I was hopping back and forth from app to app (I use the term sluggish loosely... It was still pretty fast, but when the thing opens up apps before my finger is off the screen in a normal situation, and now it took... oh a second or so.. it counts as 'sluggish').  Anyhoo... a solid OS from what I experienced.

Browsing was a treat.  Fuck OS 6.  Fuck it and the horse it rode in on.... Especially it's browser.  This one actually worked.  Pinch zoom worked like it should, fast and accurate.  Flick scroll actually scrolled when flicked and didn't sit there like a red-headed step child waiting for the bus (I'm looking at YOU Torch).  Tabbed browsing didn't bog down the OS or the browser, and the combo touch screen/trackpad combo made clicking links a breeze.  It worked, and it's still in god damn beta.


Picture quality seemed pretty standard, solid performance and shutter speeds, low light shots or back lit shots still sucked ass like they do with any phone (or camera if you really suck at taking pics), and the video camera did what it should.  I should note - auto focus while taking a video seems less retarded than it does on my 9780.  My 9780 video autofocus loves to focus on carpets and grass while I'm trying to film something other than... well carpet or grass.  The 9900 seemed to realize that taking vids of carpets was indeed not the intention, and focused well on whatever you were putting in the center of the shot.  I can't comment on the HD video on a TV as the RIM guy wouldn't let me try it.  Same goes with pics on a computer... I can't comment on their blowupability (new word!), but from zooming in on the phone, they seemed pretty decent.


The only thing I could connect it to via Bluetooth was my 700 series Blackberry headset.  It paired like any other phone does - Quickly and without any fuss.  Bridge was installed, but the RIM gatekeeper held onto my Playbook with iron fists, and as such I couldn't bridge it.


In my haste to go through as much as I could, I failed you readers... I didn't even look at the OS release numbers.  I am sworn by an NDA to not disclose the Carrier, but fuck it... it was on Telus HSPA+(Canada).  I did a lot more, but those are the highlights, and I'm just too damn lazy to write anymore.  Sound off if you want to know anymore.  I MIGHT be able to get my hands on it again, and if I bribe and beg.. MIGHT be able to actually take some pics, but I'd have to do some pretty low things to get a video, so I doubt that\s happening. 


ASG

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