The new BlackBerry Style 9670 simply delivers. This smartphone is small, powerful, slick, and feature laden.
It combines the power and productivity of a BlackBerry Bold with the recently-released BlackBerry OS 6.0 in a clamshell design that manages to be stylish despite sporting a form factor that's largely fallen out of fashion.
The Style is currently available exclusively in the U.S. from Sprint for $100 with a two-year contract.
DESIGN & BUILD
Six years ago the RAZR was on the cutting edge of design (no pun intended), and since then there hasn't been a single clamshell on the market I'd want... until now.
When it's closed, the Style is about 2/3 the size of a Storm or iPhone and just a little thicker.
The device feels solid and secure in the hand and I wouldn't think twice about dropping it. The phone fits and feels well in my palm but I found myself wishing a few times that it was thinner.
It is adorned with a smooth plastic back, black polished finish accented with a pewter bezel. This generally looks good, but one major annoyance I found throughout my test period was that the Style attracts and retains finger prints in the worst way. The high gloss finish means the smudges are extra noticeable as well.
Because of its slick finish and convenient form factor it slides effortlessly in and out of my pocket.
Screen
There is a large 2-inch external color display complete with the status information you want in a hurry -- message counter, battery life, signal strength, clock, and even previews of messages via the side convenience keys.
Cracking open the device continues to reveal a treasure trove of delights. The internal 2.7-inch QVGA display looks nicer than its specs would lead you to believe. Screen contrast, brightness, and clarity were all better than I was expecting.
This smartphone opens at an angle and is weighted towards the base. As such, I found myself able to flip it open on a desk and comfortably read from it.
This relative angle between the screen and the base causes problems when taking pictures, though, as straight-on camera shots have to be taken while angling the phone towards yourself.
Keyboard & Trackpad
The Style opts for the same fast-typing keyboard found on the Tour and other models rather than the chicklet-style board found on the iconic Curve. This design has proven easy to use and accurate on several models from RIM's 9000 family.
The optical trackpad just above the keyboard is a necessity because like many BlackBerrys, the main display isn't a touchscreen. It's responsive though it occasionally required a little more pressure than I prefer, even after changing the settings.
Other Buttons and Controls
On the bottom part of the clamshell are your standard Call, Menu, Back, and Disconnect/Power buttons. There is an oddly large amount of dead space between the keyboard and the four function buttons that should have been put to better use.
The Style offers contact charging points on the bottom part of its bezel, which fit in specially-designed cradles.
PERFORMANCE
The BlackBerry Style comes loaded with RIM's latest and greatest operating system, BlackBerry OS 6.0. This includes a beefier browser compared to older models, a revamped user interface, and the ability to type and auto-search through the entire device.
Part of the new UI is a multi-pane homescreen, which allow you to organize your software into different pages that slide up from the bottom of the display. I found this useful, though I ended up using the automatically-generated "Frequent" list almost exclusively.
OS 6.0 includes the latest versions of the communication, social networking, and entertainment software you're used to from a BlackBerry, as well as the DataViz Documents To Go suite of Office apps.
The Style's performance is among the best of recent offerings from RIM. It is generally snappy, and although OS 6.0 has a learning curve, once I got used to it I found a lot of features that I liked.
I did find some lag when quickly switching screens, switching from typing to scrolling and switching apps. It's a livable amount of lag but, but any lag is bad lag.
Call Quality
Call quality is excellent with the Style, both from a carrier and device standpoint.
Where this device did lose some points is with its speakerphone. BlackBerrys have long had impeccable speakerphones -- a reputation to which the Style falls somewhat short. The outputting speaker on the Style is too easily covered resulting in muffled sound.
The Style doesn't disappoint in its connectivity options. It has Wi-Fi (b/g), Bluetooth with streaming profiles, and the Sprint's 3G CDMA Network (EV-DO). Of course GPS and Blackberry maps are standard.
Communication
BlackBerry Messenger is a critical part of any BlackBerry, and BBM 6.0 comes standard on the Style.
Email functionality remains unchanged, but is still one of the most robust mobile clients I've used. It incorporates many advanced desktop client features such as marking messages as important, flags, adding attachments from messages in an intuitive way. Email functionality with push synchronization is available for everyone, not just business users with BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
Like other OS 6.0 devices the Style also offers visual voicemail which puts traditional voicemail systems to shame.
Another new feature of the new operating system is a consolidated Social Feed.
Productivity
The Style offers the standard DataViz Documents To Go as a mobile Office suite. This allows you to view but not edit files. You can enable additional functionality by paying to upgrade to the premium edition, but this is probably unnecessary in most cases.
There is also an RSS aggregator which offers a quick way to see what’s new on your favorite sites.
BlackBerry OS 6.0 features a new WebKit browser complete with tabs that makes accessing websites on the Style... bearable.
Entertainment
RIM is making a conscious effort to incorporate more entertainment features into its devices. Mostly this charge revolves around becoming more media centric. This effort is manifested through Bluetooth that enables wireless stereo streaming to capable players (e.g. newer care entertainment systems), a media home screen to easily navigate through your pictures, videos, music and more.
When the Pandora radio app (not standard, but a free) is installed, every menu screen has a shortcut to it. This shows just how seriously RIM is taking entertainment.
App World, BlackBerry's equivalent of the Apple's App Store, comes standard on the device, in addition to the games Brick Breaker and Word Mole, both of which offer minor slight UI updates.
Camera
The Style has a 5.0 Megapixel auto-focusing camera with flash and video. This type of camera has become pretty standard-issue for RIM, which is good news. For a long time RIM was falling behind the crowd with its sub-par cameras, though now I fear simply equipping their devices with 5 megapixel won't keep them competitive for much longer.
I already mentioned my only problem with the Style's camera. As it is positioned behind the keyboard, and the clamshell can't be opened a complete 180 degrees, taking pictures requires you to cock screen toward yourself awkwardly.
The camera does offer several pre-configured picture taking modes such as snow, sunlight, indoor etc. The different settings do make a difference but won’t negate the need for a pocket point-and-shoot digital camera.
Battery Life
The BlackBerry Style's battery life is fairly decent -- in my testing, it would last more than one day on a single charge with moderate use.
Like all new BlackBerrys, the Style charges via a micro-USB port.
CONCLUSION
The BlackBerry Style 9670 is an impressive little device. It proved useful, reliable, and even has -- dare I say it -- style.
The clamshell form factor grew on me very quickly, especially given the usefulness of the external screen.
RIM proves with the this smartphone that it still can deliver an innovative new device rather than just a refresh of a proven model. Seasoned pros and BlackBerry newbies alike will both find a lot to like about the Style.
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