BlackBerry Bold 9650 (Verizon Wireless)

Verizon now offers several excellent Android smartphones, but enterprise customers may want a level of security and global roaming they can't get from the carrier's Android lineup. The BlackBerry Bold 9650 delivers. Like its brother on Sprint's network, the Bold 9650 on Verizon isn't exciting. But even if it feels like last year's smartphone, all of the Bold 9650's parts work with precision, and it's a pleasure to use for business.

Design and Call Quality
The Bold 9650 measures 4.4 by 2.4 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.8 ounces. It's made of a pleasing combination of matte and glossy plastics. The small 2.4-inch screen sports 480-by-360-pixel resolution, but still displays just 65K colors. The QWERTY keyboard is one of the best on the market. It features perfectly sculpted keys, a sensible arrangement, and just the right amount of resistance while typing. The sensitive trackpad was easy to use in testing. It should last for the life of the device, unlike the trouble-prone trackball of years past.

The Bold 9650 is a dual-band EV-DO Rev A (850/1900 MHz), quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), and single-band HSDPA (2100 MHz) device. That makes it a true world phone that hits high-speed data networks both here and overseas, including Europe and China. This is a big deal for globe-trotting executives. The 9650 connects calls over CDMA in the U.S., and on foreign GSM networks. The phone also includes 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, as well as the same 528MHz processor found in last year's Tour 9630.

Call quality was excellent overall, with a warm, full tone in the earpiece. Reception was solid, and transmissions were clear in both directions. Calls also sounded fine through an Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, ) Bluetooth headset, and voice dialing worked fine over Bluetooth without training. The speakerphone was loud and powerful. Battery life was solid at 6 hours and 41 minutes of talk time.

Messaging and Apps
There's nothing tremendously new about BlackBerry OS 5. In fact, the screen, icon arrangement, and bundled apps recall the original BlackBerry Bold 9000 from two years ago. RIM has promised a BlackBerry 6 upgrade for the Bold which would add many new features, but they haven't committed to a firm date, and we don't like recommending products based on vaporware.

The Bold delivers push e-mail for up to 11 accounts, including from Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. You can't sync Exchange contacts or calendar without a BlackBerry Enterprise Server setup, though. Verizon throws in IM clients for Google Talk, AIM, MSN, and Yahoo, and there's always BlackBerry Messenger.

Like all recent BlackBerrys, the Bold 9650 can view and edit Microsoft Office documents with its included DataViz Documents To Go suite. The included Web browser was still slow and error prone, though it's not as bad as before. We prefer the alternative Opera Mini and BOLT browsers. For GPS, VZ Navigator delivers voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions for $9.99 per month. BlackBerry Maps and Google Maps both do the same thing without voice prompts for free. Verizon V CAST with Rhapsody offers streaming video and music options.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
BlackBerrys are pretty solid media devices, and the Bold 9650 is no exception. The microSD card slot underneath the battery cover works with 32GB cards; my 16GB SanDisk card worked fine. The battery cover is easy to remove, and the slot is the newer, spring-loaded kind that should hold up over the long haul. Music tracks sounded punchy and clear over Motorola S9-HD ($149.99, ) Bluetooth headphones. The player was easy to use and displayed large album art graphics. The new BlackBerry Desktop 6 works with PCs and Macs, and does a surprisingly good job of syncing your media, including iTunes playlists. Verizon's Rhapsody software syncs subscription music with PCs, for Rhapsody subscribers. Standalone videos looked sharp, bright, and colorful, though the small screen may put some viewers off.

The 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera includes an LED flash. Test photos were sharp, with natural lighting and color balance. One quirk: in one particularly bright room, all test photos came out tinted pink. Outdoor pictures looked sharp, and the LED flash was one of the brightest I've tested. Recorded 480-by-352-pixel videos looked dim but smooth at 24 frames per second; fortunately, you can kick the LED flash on as a light for video recording if necessary.

All told, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 is a solid value, even if it's not groundbreaking in any way. It's the perennial safe smartphone purchase for business travelers, especially when combined with Verizon's solid voice and data network. Owners of existing BlackBerry Curve phones will want to jump up for the much better screen, but owners of Tour 9630 phones can hold off on upgrading until their trackballs break or until they see BlackBerry OS 6 appear here.

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