Smartphone review: BlackBerry Bold 9790

Poor old RIM has been in the wars the last couple of years as it has battled to stay afloat in the increasingly competitive smartphone arena. 

It tried to take its BlackBerry range from king of the corporate smartphone market into the consumer realm, but while it was failing to do so against an increasingly dominant Android platform it forgot to watch its back as Apple stole in behind it and took the lead in the enterprise sector it had ruled for so long. 

So what now for the iconic Curve and Bold ranges?

Indicators point to the BlackBerry brand going back to its roots, content in its business beginnings and concentrating on tightening the ship and holding its still impressive corporate smartphone position. And the good news is, it hasn’t lost any of its quality in that area. While Apple may now be number one, this is more at the expense of the Symbian and Windows platforms than any real fall in BlackBerry share. I for one hope it’s not too late, because the BlackBerry Bold 9790 is a lovely phone.

I’ve been a BlackBerry fan for a few years now and the 9790 is my favourite so far. Slick, slim and light like a Curve but almost as powerful as the larger Bold 9900 it does everything well that a BlackBerry should: messaging, security, organisation – meat and drink for it. It will run reliably at full speed all day and be the personal assistant you need.

The only real obvious nod towards RIM’s attempts to chip away at the consumer market is the touchscreen and BlackBerry App World. To be honest I rarely use either (not deliberately anyway), but its progress of a sort I guess – it just wasn’t fast or far enough to make an impression.

That having thousands of apps to download isn’t enough to compete is a measure of quite how ridiculously far we’ve gone down this road. I don’t think its physically possible to reliably sort through millions of apps and finds the best one, but that’s what we do now. Progress, or choice for the sake of choice? Not for me this time – I’m happy with the small range I have here.

And I guess that’s where BlackBerry is right now: still holding onto its old fans, hoping that when it lets go it won’t fall flat on its face but manage to stay on its feet. I for one will stick by it as long as it makes handsets as smart and reliable as the Bold 9790 and if you’re looking for reliability, security and quite simply a phone that works beautifully, take a look at our BlackBerry Bold 9790 review.