In the past few weeks, BlackBerry has been in the spotlight for not so good reasons, with talks of mergers and takeovers taking precedence. Amid these tough times it today launched a new device called the BlackBerry 9720. With this phone, the Canadian company seems to have gone back in time to its glory days when it was known for its QWERTY keypads and budget phones. We got to spend some time with the device and here are our first impressions.
As mentioned above, the BlackBerry 9720 looks like a device from a year or two back, having taken cues from the Bold and Curve series of smartphones. There are generous amounts of plastic in use, most likely to keep the price down, but as a result the device feels very light in your hands. The serrated back cover ensures good grip too.
On the top you will find the audio jack and unlock key, the volume rocker and play/pause buttons on the right, a micro-USB button and a dedicated BBM key on the left and the speaker grille at the bottom. You won’t find the premium-ness that has come to be associated with recent BB10 devices, but for its price point (Rs 15,990), the phone doesn’t exactly feel very cheap either.
Moving to the keyboard, we found typing quite comfortable as the keys are placed with ample amount of space in between. The phone offers both touch and type experience, sporting a 2.8-inch (480×360 pixels) display. For a traditional BlackBerry device, the display does a decent job at best, but after using large screen devices, this display felt a bit too small.
Powering the device is an 806MHz Tavor MG1 processor supplemented with 512MB of RAM that offers decent levels of performance. Swiping across screens and opening and closing apps were smooth enough. The device includes a 1,450mAh battery which the company claims will survive through up to 7 hours of talk time and 18 days of standby time, though we would wait till our review to pass any judgments on either of them.
In terms of its photo-clicking abilities, there is a 5-megapixel EDOF (Extended Depth of Field) rear camera included with add-ons like image stabilization and 4X digital zoom. The camera also includes a ‘Snap and Share’ feature that lets one share a clicked photo to any of the social sites or BBM.
To the software front then, which is frankly the 9720’s talking point. Though on paper it runs on a dated BB7.1 OS, it has been modified with aspects carried over from BB10. For example the device can be unlocked by swiping up on the screen, and the unlock screen also features a shortcut key to the camera. A unique feature included on the device is the ‘Multicast’, which is essentially an app that lets you broadcast a message over Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn from a single window. The FM Radio too gets a sharing option, letting you share what you are listening to over BBM. The messenger app also features BBM voice, which essentially lets you make voice calls over 3G or Wi-Fi.
To conclude then, the 9720 brings back the traditional BlackBerry experience at a much pocket-friendly price. Though some would be happy to see a new sub-Rs 20,000 BlackBerry smartphone, what remains to be seen is if the larger section can be convinced to opt for a device running on an older OS, when BlackBerry itself is focusing most of its efforts and marketing on BB10. Stay tuned as we put the device though its paces in our extensive review.
No comments:
Post a Comment