BlackBerry Bold 9650 Details

After a long wait from customers, US Cellular stated today that the BlackBerry Bold 9650 will finally join the lineup on August 18th, 2010.

US Cellular blackberry bold 9650

The opening price for the Bold will be $230 after a 2 year contract, but they have also said there will be a $70 mail in rebate that would bring the price down to $160. Not bad for a first-day price, and it will probably drop again soon after the release date.

“When you combine the BlackBerry Bold with our industry-first programs such as Overage Protection and Battery Swap, our customers can have a powerful smartphone with a unique wireless experience,” said Edward Perez, US Cellular’s vice president of sales and marketing.

There aren’t really any differences between this version of the Bold 9650 and the models you will find at the other carriers. That doesn’t mean it’s lacking in any of the new technology though. Features include a full QWERTY keybaord, 2.4 inch high visibility screen, optical trackpad, 3 megapixel camera, MicroSD card compatible, GPS, Wi-Fi, and it will have BlackBerry 5 running as the operating system. That operating system will probably be upgraded to BlackBerry 6 in the near future. It’s unclear at this point how close that is to a street release but it’s important to note that this will be BlackBerry 6 compatible when it’s ready.

This phone is a big improvement over the current US Cellular BlackBerry lineup that includes the Curve 8530 and the Pearl Flip 8230. If you were waiting for a better option, or an alternative to the Android phones this will be a great choice.

Blackberry Curve 8530

Blackberry is one of the cornerstones of the smartphone market, and the Curve 8530 is one of their newest models.  It touts many top end features fairly new to the US Cellular lineup.  In this article we will go over the positives and negatives of this particular model and hopefully give you a better idea if this is the phone for you.

Blackberry Curve 8530

The Good - The Curve offers GPS as well as 3G where available.  Also included is wi-fi and bluetooth which means connectivity is no issue with this phone no matter what you’re planning to do.  The screen is brighter than previous models and many owners report that the web access and browser have been much improved.

The Bad -The downside of all the features is that it eats the battery.  Most people feel like battery life is the biggest issue but it’s not the only negative here.  While the screen is brighter, the resolution and clarity is lacking.  Build quality and the trackball have also been noted by owners as less than stellar.

Overall - It’s a solid choice for a do-it-all phone and currently it’s the best Blackberry that US Cellular offers.  Their are better Blackberry models on the market so hopefully they will bring those in soon but until then you may want to look at the Android enabled phones that are becoming more and more popular.  Some people can’t live without a Blackberry and if that’s you, this will at least get you through until more models are added to the lineup.

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