Although this new design doesn’t stray too far from a tested favourite, it has done well to iron out imperfections, making small but noticeable changes.

The new Blackberry Bold screen is the first of a few dramatic changes.  Sharp, Vibrant, Vivid, take your pick out of any of these suitable adjectives, as it is all of the above.

Not only is the new display larger, but it also operates in a higher resolution making downloaded movies or music videos leap off the screen.  The keypad has also undergone a revamp.  The send, end and call buttons have increased in diameter, and the keys are more touch sensitive requiring less of a heavy finger to trigger a response.

As for exciting features, it is generally a case of same as you were.  All the favourites still remain, with the addition of a few enhancements that make life a lot simpler when using the phone.  Wifi, MP3 player, Div X movies, Microsoft Office to go and a GPS system, incorporating Blackberry maps, all come as standard.  Although on the face of it, the Blackberry Bold doesn’t seem to have advanced massively from the 8800, the adjustment to existing features is hugely noticeable.

The first of these is within the e-mail application.  Originally what triggered the obsession with the brand to begin with, it always seemed to frustrate at how problematic sending and receiving mail could be.  The Blackberry Bold eliminates this issue, reforming the system so it is replicable to that of a high-powered PC or Mac.  Images are always in-line and do not distort the text, fonts have been slimmed to increase content and the larger screen facilitates a larger portion of viewing.  Also, attachments that were previously nightmarish to open, have now been addressed and open cleanly in Word to go or Excel.

As with any hyped new release, the customer is going to want to be left with a few outstanding reasons to make this their new phone.  Well, although the Blackberry Bold might not have had the face-lift that Apple have given their new toy, the changes that have been made are intelligent and massively reduce complications.  Unlike Apple, this is a market that Blackberry are seasoned professionals in, and the end result is remarkable.  The web browser is more efficient, still not comparable with that of the iphone, but it has certainly moved away from the dark days of wind up wifi.  However the biggest advantage of the Blackberry Bold, has to be the extraordinarily cheap offers that come with it.  The introduction of the iphone has seen contracts slashed to as little as £30 per month on any of the major 4 networks, with a free handset included as standard.  The memory of the new handset is also much improved, with the ability to store countless videos and music, eradicating any message storage issues that were present with the storm and curve.

This is not to say however that the Blackberry Bold is completely without fault.  As with any highly technical new media invention, when using excessively a few limitations and drawbacks begin to emerge.  The first of these will probably occur when you first take a long journey devoid of any electrical ports to charge the phone, as you will invariably run out of battery.  Although the size of the battery has increased and the talk-time claims have been extended, it still falls short in this department.  The only other technical disappointment is the quality of the built-in camera.  At only 2 mega-pixels, it is never going to suffice as a primary picture taker, and the quality of the photos reflect this.  Although falling victim to age-old problems of scratch resistance and power, this is a phone devoid of any major restrictions.

Chic, efficient and cheap, the Blackberry Bold is certainly an adequate match for Apple’s alternative.  Whether it enjoys the remarkable success of the iphone is yet to be seen, but it is certainly equipped to do so.