BlackBerry Bold challenges the iPhone

Let battle commence. Round two of the summer's smartphone war is joined this Saturday when the first Blackberry Bolds go on sale in the UK. Times Online has got hold of one of the eagerly-awaited handsets from makers Research in Motion to bring you one of the first hands-on reviews.

Business users have always been the core BlackBerry customers, but most recent converts have been consumers. RIM wants to attract more of them with the Bold, while keeping the core corporate market happy.

But the competition is fierce. The launch of Apple's 3G iPhone, designed to link up more easily with corporate e-mail systems, set a new standard for the smartphones and eroded some of BlackBerry's business advantages. The iPhone is undoubtedly the design force in the land at the moment - and it seems very likely that Apple will easily beat its target of selling ten million units in 2008.

The Bold is the new flagship smartphone for BlackBerry. But is it an iPhone killer?

Looks

The Bold is handsome. It is bigger than the Curve, chunkier and wider. In fact it weighs 136g, enough to feel heavy in your shirt pocket. But it still feels comfortable in the palm and during thumb-typing.

The clean black finish of the front screen and keyboard is bounded by a chrome metal rim. It feels and looks like a serious piece of kit - unlike some of the more recent BlackBerry models, which have been a bit plasticky. The design excellence of the iPhone has clearly put the RIM guys back on their game. The styling of the Bold is a big winner.

Camera

The Bold's camera with built-in flash is only two megapixels, but for most corporate users that is perfectly adequate. You can also take video and there is a 3x zoom. With its new consumer-friendly focus, the Bold allows you to upload your pictures to Facebook at the push of a button. Using the in-built GPS and BlackBerry maps, you can also Geotag your pictures. Additional software will turn your handset into a turn-by-turn GPS sat-nav device.

Speed and connectivity

The Bold comes loaded with all the connectivity you could want. This is the first quad-band BlackBerry with 3G and HSDPA, which means that wherever you are in the world you will be able to connect to a mobile network and receive e-mail and browse the web. The powerful processor enabled me to browse and play music tracks quite comfortably.