Product reviewsBlackBerry Bold 9900 - 8GB - Black (Unlocked) Smartphone

Still useful and working after all these years.

The Bold 9900 was really great when first released. It was designed to get things done, push email, decent keyboard, great battery life, a camera, expandable storage..

Blackberry OS has its issues but the OS is simple and does the basics. I am not a fan of OS 10, it seems overly complex and i really miss a back button. the Bold had OS 7 which is simpler. This phone is not for social media addicts, forget instagram, facebook etc, this is a phone for email, text and phone calls.

Android and IOS are not very secure they leak your data all over the internet. Blackberry's are much better at this and they don't track your every move.

So even now, i still use the Bold. The battery lasts for nearly three days, its small and easy to carry, handles text and phone calls very well and has options for note taking, todo lists etc. If you need a secure basic device for call and text it is still great.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: lister7966

Reliable but poor battery life

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: musicmagpie

Good phone, Good battery. GREAT keyboard. Needs to be faster & better cam

The Bold 9900 has an EXCELLENT keyboard, extremely easy to type out an email response or even a semi long email to a business contact or friend. Good for fast response to text messages etc.

The downside to this device is it's lack of features and its cost. The camera is rather poor quality for a 5mp phone camera, when compared with other 5mp cameras which have far superior image quality, far better and more intelligent flash, touch to focus, etc. I use the camera quite a lot and find myself taking a separate camera with me now as I am very unhappy with the built in image quality. This is one thing I never had to do when I was using high end Samsung phones.

Now that said, I did get this phone predominantly for the keyboard, and it has been amazing. Even someone middle aged with large thumbs can learn to type extremely fast and accurate on this full qwerty keyboard, and thus far I've not found a touch screen keyboard that could keep up, even with their fancy auto correction features.

All in all, a great phone! A little on the expensive side in comparison to phones with similar specs, and it could do with a bit faster processing, but I'm sure future models will fix this.Read full review...

New Blackberry and OS 7 well worth the upgrade cost

RIM have evolved the Blackberry to a great new pinnacle with the Bold 9900. It is by far the best Blackberry so far. I moved to this model from the Torch 9800 after finding that having to use the slider to constantly access the keyboard becoming a bit of a pain, the touchscreen keyboard not being sufficient.

The implementation of the new OS 7 is very good and strikes the right balance between use of a touch screen and a keyboard. Finally a browser that is useable and easy to use to navigate around a web page. Still though not as good as an Iphone browser but much improvement on previous iterations from RIM. Also much faster. The use and retention of the arrow pointer and trackpad is essential, well implemented and still in my opinion is the best of all smartphones.

As expected all the usual options and layout for a Blackberry device. No fault or deficit on that front. The keyboard I must say is much better than on previous versions, with nice wide keys and good travel in the keys allowing for swift typing bordering on touch typing. This is still the great and positive differentiator from the rival Iphone - use of a physical keyboard is not better as yet by any onscreen versions on other smartphones such as Iphone / Samsung / HTC or other RIM models either.

The build quality is precise, elegant and refined. The case is a nice weight for holding and thumb typing. I would advise getting a case to protect the nice stainless steel edge of the phone though.

The camera is a good improvement to 5MP but unfortunately lacks autofocus, which is a big deficit in this premium end of market phone. The HD recording at 720p is also a good addition.

Finally, the only reason for a lower than 5/5 rating is the bug bear of the battery life. It really was awful when I got it. The phone barely made it through the workday (8 hours) before needing a charge. Good thing is at least the charger has been shrunk to a small USB version not much larger than a UK plug socket with accompanying USB to MicroUSB lead.
Thankfully after some reading on online forums and visiting RIM's website. I managed to upgrade the OS to the latest version. This made a positive change on the battery life. It is now getting through most of the day without a charge under reasonable use - couple hours of talk/IM use, 3G switched on and browsing (light) and bluetooth headset linked use.

So, was it worth the upgrade cost - yes ! Very much so, and I think I have a smartphone now that is a good competitor to the other smartphones on the market finally. The battery life issue could be a killer issue, but it is solvable as above, or by just getting a second battery which is relatively cheap.Read full review...

A great addition to the range and finally worth the wait for many reasons..

One week in to my new 9900 it a great improvement on the old bold and worth the wait. Typing is a pure breeze and viewing emails and browsing is so much better.

It just has alot more offerings now - better apps would be good, more speed would always be an ask but thats down to so may variables, i.e. Networks, area, etc. The battery life maybe a little shorter than the old bold but once I've charged it a few more times this will improve as well.

In short, its larger only size wise but well deisgned and weighted, git nicely in your hands and quick processing and easy of keyboard typing - who needs an iPhone, god knows,what more can I say.Read full review...

Not worth £200.00 on EBay and here is why...

This Blackberry Bold 9900 isn't worth the big price point RIM retail for. Let me explain why; first of all the so called '1.2ghz processor', I upgraded from a Torch 9800 purely for the fact that I thought this Bold would be faster less lagey and wouldn't see the 'tick box' merely as much when it freezes, however I was proved wrong, within a week it was showing signs of being show and I hardly even use many Apps on there just Facebook,Twitter & BBM. Not to mention I am a heavy user, and I take the Bold off charge at 7am I keep it in my pocket but take it out a maximum of 4-5 times quickly to reply to a msg or check the time, by around 3:00pm my battery is orange and on the journey home it even drains and I have to put it on charge as soon as I get home! I have upgraded my software bundle to 2406 as os 7.1 isn't available in the UK yet but yet still, horrible battery life! And the camera, well is appauling! It has NO auto-focus, and can't even change effects e.g. Black and white etc. So much for 'RIM's flagship model', I am SOO glad I paid £200.00 for this on EBay and not £549.99 in Carphone Warehouse. Users if you can find it for the £200 price point and REALLY need a Blackberry then buy it, anymore then £200 and your getting ripped off and you might as well just buy a Bold 9860 or 9700 or 9780 cos they are better and much more reliable! I'm going to wait and see what RIM come out with in late 2012 with Blackberry10 and if your a serious Blackberry user, I suggest you do too! The only positives are; it looks damn sexy! The carbon fibre back attracts eyes when using it in public! Its very thing and light n feels great in the hand! The little icons have much improved and so has the screen and pixel dentity however I do see checkerboarding when I'm browsing the web and not on Wi-Fi. The keyboard is fantastic too! And the glowing trackpad jus adds a little sexy touch! And that's it, all the positives really come from the aesthetics and looks of the phone rather than what's inside, I think RIM knew that what they put inside was rubbish so made up for it by making this phone look damn sexy! As for me, I'm using an iPhone 4s in white now which is A LOT better, performance wise and apps wise and battery wise! However I may upgrade to Blackberry10 when it does evenually come out! Hope this review helped guys as I've had an awful experience using this unreliable waste of money! Thanks :)Read full review...

Fantastic phone, packed with features, easy to use & very well made

Fantastic phone, packed with features, easy to use & very well made. Only downside (as with most smartphones) is the appalling battery life - best I have had is 2 days when it was hardly used, 24 hours is fairly typical.
Everything about this phone is quality - it feels really rugged & solid (perhaps a little bit heavy), it feels good in your hand, the touch screen is 1st class (but you don't have to use it which is also a bonus to me, the keyboard is well spaced and bigger than a lot of other BB's & QWERTY phones. The processor power is incredible & apps all work as they should. I will be keeping this phone a while - there is nothing betterRead full review...

handy easy to use mobile phone

This product is a very good value for money mobile phone and it is also very easy to use. its compact size and build quality is really good battery life is also good. I am happy with this purchase. I am surprised that this model is now discontinued as I feel that it is one of the best Blackberry models produced.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: new | Sold by: digitalgadgetuk

Physical keyboard lovers: don't look more. This got everything.

I don't know about you guys but I am one of the physical qwerty keybaord fan. This is the best choice if you are stil one of them. The build quality of of this phone is exellent which made me buy it. The stainless steel frame that surrounds the phone does bring it's executive blackberry look and professionalism. The physical keyboard is said to be the best found in the blackberry series. The keys are very soft and you can type easily. The battery seems to be a problem (not for me) but you can find a 2500mah battery and replace with the short lived 1250mah which is inside. Screen looks more detailed with higher pixel density. At the end of the day you might feel happy using this phone because of its simplicity.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: limetropic

Good product - easy to read, text and call.

I love blackberrys and this is a touch screen easy use phone with a great camera, good keyboard and screen and good battery life.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: refurbished | Sold by: manortel

Smart phone...

In great condition with a raft of functions - more than I can ever use. It will have a long battery life now, I've just bought a new one (for less than £3) as the one that came with my phone was a bit tired. Great keyboard, perfect for text. There's a manual online you can download - have a look: phonearena BlackBerry-Bold-9900Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: connectedmobiles