The BlackBerry® Niagara™ 9360 = The Extra Bold™ x The Beautiful.

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"BlackBerry 9630 Review: Part 1
Posted by The Boy Genius on Mar 24, 2009 1:23 pm


We’ve been playing with it non-stop all weekend. We’ve tastelessly shown it off with a dash of hood on video. But the review is now finally ready. We decided to split this into two parts, one now and one right before launch. That way no one will see things that aren’t final and vice-versa. It will also be a nice way to keep track of what’s changed/been modified. We’ll also do something new here… if you have any questions, drop them in the comments and we’ll edit the post and answer them in the Q&A section of the review!


Hardware:

You can literally think of the BlackBerry 9630 as a BlackBerry Storm with a QWERTY keyboard. It’s that exact. From the cell radios (quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, single band UMTS/HSDPA, 1X/EVDO) to even the layout of the keys on the side, it’s almost identical. It definitely follows RIM’s styling cues from the Curve 8900 and obviously the Storm as well. This will be tough for people contemplating switching to Verizon because it offers 90% of what every BlackBerry user has dreamed and it’s on the nation’s best network.

You know where we’re going here, don’t you? Wi-Fi. Verizon told us they really looked forward to releasing BlackBerry devices with Wi-Fi, blah, blah, blah. Cutting it short, as you all know, the 9630 doesn’t have Wi-Fi. There were rumors of pre-release devices floating around with Wi-Fi, and that obviously clears up any “technical” limitations (seriously, do you honestly think “we can’t fit it on the circuit board” is an excuse anymore?. This blunder is on Verizon’s shoulders, RIM, we excuse you this time.

Listen, we’re not going to really dive into it as our thoughts on this are pretty well documented, but, is it so difficult to stop being little bitches and just let people jam out with their Wi-Fi? We really don’t understand the difficulty, not one bit, and we’d love it if someone could fill us in and make things clearer. It’s just crap all around and it’s really frustrating that the perfect phone on the perfect network has a glaring hole in it.

Sorry, friends. No Wi-Fi on this one.


Phone:

Voice calling is an important part of any phone (duh), and it’s a combination of hardware and software. As far as the hardware portion goes, this is probably the best phone we’ve ever used. Yeah, seriously. The speakerphone is absolutely off the ringer. It is just insane how loud and clear it is. We’re not talking about phone performance like holding onto calls, and all that, just connecting the call and having a conversation. And in that area, both the ear speaker and speakerphone excel beyond almost any other phone, ever. Add in Verizon’s network and you’ve got one bad ass piece of machinery.

This is a tried and true BlackBerry — you know by now — everything is logically arranged and organized as far as the phone goes.


Battery:

The BlackBerry 9630 uses the same battery as the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Storm; a 1400mAh cell. Since we’re not running this on Verizon at the moment and the software isn’t final (read: not close), take these results pretty lightly, ok?
4 hours of talk time
3 hours of video playback
8 hours of music playback
18 hours of light email, messenger, SMS, browsing.


Screen:

The screen on the 9630 looks great. It really looks like a plasma display with a glass lens over it. Colors are rich, sharp, and images are crisp. One thing we don’t like is the bezel around the screen. The Bold and 8900 LCD basically goes right up against the outer case of the handsets, yet with the 9630, there’s a black bezel around the LCD. We would have loved for the screen to be a tiny bit bigger because as it is, the Bold is still reigning champion of BlackBerry screens, if only for size alone.

In terms of resolution, you’re looking at the same res at the 8900 and Storm, 480×360.


Keyboard:

As you’ll read below, the keyboard is also a mash-up of the Bold and the Curve 8900 as is the size of the phone. It’s just right. We have to give credit where credit is due, and RIM still knows how to bang out some of the most perfected and usable keyboards on the planet. The keys are a smaller version of the Bold’s with a bit more click like the 8900. Since the Bold is as wide as a boat, the keyboard could afford to be laid out extra roomy. On the 9630, however, things are smaller obviously. This isn’t a problem for the keyboard for the most part, but one annoying thing is keys on the edge. What we mean is that the curved shape of the key is flush with the actual outer case of the device, and if you don’t hit the key precisely on the right spot, you’ll end up typing on the chrome bezel.

One other huge negative is the placement of the back button. We’re not sure why it’s so close together (well, we are) but we wish there was another way of working that out. On countless occasions we’ve hit the back button while pressing in the trackball."

Read The Full Story Here: Boygeniusreport.Com

CHRIS LIVE AKA SHAKER SAYS: I think that I am truly beginning to hate Verizon. I know, I know, "hate" is a very strong word, however, my acrimony towards this asshole of a company is not unwarranted people.

No, I don't "hate" Verizon because of their current FiOS campaign that now has all kinds of uninvited schucksters and solicitors knocking @ my door with a relentlessness only rivaled by that of the most fervent Jehovah's Witnesses.

No, my "beef" with Verizon (more accurately Verizon Wireless) is borne from the fact I once had Verizon cellphone service and that after dropping them like 3rd period French specifically because they never had the cool new phones they have now, out of nowhere, catapulted to the fuckin' front of the line for BlackBerry® brand's last 2 releases. What the fuck!?

I mean, 1st came the highly anticipated and oft delayed BlackBerry® Bold™ and, now, they're about to drop the brand new BlackBerry® Niagara™ 9630! Really? Now, all of a sudden, AT&T is playing 2nd fiddle to these dipshits?

The BlackBerry® Niagara™ 9630 appears to have all of the punch of the BlackBerry® Bold™ model, but has a more streamlined silhouette making it noticeably more compact. Word online is that this bad boy should be dropping this May 2009, but, don't hold your breath yall. LOL. Technology is moving soooooooooooooooo fast! Message To AT&T: Don't drop the track ball on this!