26 February 2010
	GIMME Berry is the new black By Kate Thompson

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is Research in Motion's latest and greatest offering to the smart phone market. The 9700 is the top product in the range and boasts a sleeker, more compact design, an optical trackpad (rather than the traditional BlackBerry ball tracking) and 3G connectivity. The phone has a large and bright screen, though the entire phone has been sized down somewhat from earlier Bold models. It fits nicely into a palm or pocket. Setup is smooth, due to the preloaded set-up wizards (programs), but if you're not technically confident, you may require a hand with some aspects. You can set up multiple e-mail addresses to deliver to the device with minimum fuss, and the phone has Facebook and Twitter applications available to download. This model offers both 3G and 2G connectivity, but unless you're doing a lot of browsing online, 2G is recommended (to reduce drain on battery life). The browser is somewhat slow and rendering of sites needs improvement, but you can download Opera to the phone as an alternative browser. The battery life is also improved. This reviewer got almost three days' use out of a single charge. The menu structure is intuitive, and did not pose a challenge to a new user, though the SMS composition (using a full Qwerty keyboard) does take some mental adjustment. The 9700 offers a practical mix for business and pleasure, and quickly proved itself indispensable.