RIM held the official Australian launch of BlackBerry Bold today. Considering that we’ve seen it all before, there wasn’t too much to come out of the event, except that it will officially be launched on Telstra, Vodafone and Optus, starting mid-August. 3 is apparently also testing the device, although whether they’ll release it is still yet to be seen.
As far as pricing goes, the networks are all still pretty quiet on what they’ll be charging – the exception is Optus, who today announced the phone will cost $10 per month on a 24-month contract when partnered with their $79 BlackBerry plan.They’ve even set up a web page dedicated for users keen enough to pre-register their interest.
After having a brief hands-on with the device, the biggest thing I can say about it is that the screen is gorgeous. And I mean stunning. Watching video on this thing is (as) breathtaking (as you can get for a phone), albeit a little squinty. The screen’s 480×320 resolution is extremely solid for a mobile phone – the clip of Speed Racer I watched was crystal clear (if only a little boring).
The new software is also pretty fine – it may not get quite as high a score on the “wife-test” as the iPhone (that’s the test where I get my lovely, technophobic wife to play with gadgets, btw), but it’s certainly not difficult to find your way around.
It’s an interesting time at the moment. Both Nokia and BlackBerry today made the comment that they’re stoked with Apple for releasing the iPhone, as the buzz surrounding their phone helps grow the smartphone market overall. It’ll be interesting to watch how this attitude progresses over the coming months…