Gentlemen, Start Your Thumbs: Blackberry Bolds

The iPhone gets all the headlines, but Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry device is still how the vast majority of business smartphone warriors roll. RIM announced yesterday their next generation smartphone; they call it the BlackBerry Bold.

The most striking feature of the Bold is its display. It runs at the same 320x480 resolution as the iPhone, but since the display is smaller, the screen seems even sharper. The user interface design takes advantage of this, replacing RIM’s traditional cartoonish icons with spare white images against a jet black background. Between the screen, an improved media player, and built-in stereo speakers (or a jack that accepts any standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone plug), it’s the first BlackBerry that I’d really want to use to watch video. There’s also a 2 megapixel camera. As has always been the case with BlackBerrys used with corporate servers, any of these features can be disabled by policy.

It's a 3G phone, and AT&T is the only carrier likely to be able to handle it by this summer when it's expected out. Expect to pay $300 to $400 for one. And don't forget to set aside a little extra dough to pay a chiropractor to work on you thumbs.