BlackBerry Bold 9700

"The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is like a classically tailored suit: elegant, predictable, practical, and easy to slip into but not visibly innovative," says Sascha Segan at PCMag.com. While experts agree the Bold 9700 doesn't break new ground, its solid features and reliable performance -- along with combined Wi-Fi and fast 3G network capabilities missing on other BlackBerrys -- put it at the top of the BlackBerry heap. "The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is one of the phones that gets nearly everything right and has minimal quirks or other problems," says Eric M. Zeman at PhoneScoop.com. But Katherine Boehret of The Wall Street Journal thinks the similar yet cheaper BlackBerry Tour 9630 (*Est. $100 with contract) and BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Free with contract) are also worth a look. 

In most critics' eyes, the Bold 9700 melds the best of the Tour and the brick-sized Bold 9000 (Free with new contract) into a "slim and refined package," says Ginny Mies of PC World. The smaller size means less real estate for the keyboard and display, but both still excel. The keys have a "nice springy feedback," says CNET's Bonnie Cha, and even though the display has shrunk to 2.4-inches, the pumped up 480-by-360-pixel resolution is stunning, with Philip Berne at InfoSyncWorld.com saying it "might be the best screen we've seen on a mobile device." Other perks that woo critics include BlackBerry's fastest 624 MHz processor, the new optical trackpad, Bluetooth and GPS. BlackBerry's unrivaled messaging and productivity also remain in full force, but weak Microsoft Exchange connectivity, along with wimpy apps and a lack of integrated social networking, are sticking points. 

Like all BlackBerrys, the Bold sags under a dated user interface and web browser. Berne sums up sentiments about the new 5.0 software, saying it needs "a serious overhaul," while all critics agree that the web browser falls far behind the iPhone 3GS (*Est. $200 with contract), the Palm Pre (*Est. $100 with new contract) and Android devices, such as the Motorola Droid (*Est. $120 with new contract). However, Segan says the Bold is one of the best-sounding BlackBerrys, and experts are impressed with the beefed-up 3.2-megapixel camera. Reception and call quality rate well, but some testers report drops when moving calls from Wi-Fi to 3G. (T-Mobile subscribers can make unlimited calls over Wi-Fi for an extra monthly fee of $10.) Battery life is rated at five and a half hours of talk time; it lasted for six and a half hours in tests at InfoSyncWorld.com, and five hours at MobileTechReview.com.