Research in Motion (better known as just RIM), the premium handset maker from Canada, has rolled out the new BlackBerry Style flip handset in India. The Style will be a CDMA smartphone and will be available for Tata and Reliance networks. News is that analysts believe that the Style is best flip smartphone available in the market.
This is BlackBerry's second attempt in making a flip form factor phone, the first being BlackBerry Pearl.
The phone looks chubby but surprisingly it feels pretty light in the hand. While an all-plastic body is glossy in the front, it is slightly textured at the rear bestowing a classy look on the handset. The front of the Style sports a 2-inch display. Flip it open to find a 2.7 inch, 360 x 400 pixel TFT LCD screen and a full BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard. . The sound quality is awesome, both via the earpiece and the speaker. In fact the sound is very crisp and clear and no distortion was experienced.
The phone houses the BlackBerry 6 OS though runs on a not-so-impressive 624 MHz processor. Without the touch, the experience of using the OS may change. It relies in the optical trackpad, which is calibrated to be a bit slippery. The Style offers an enhanced multimedia experience when compared to some other BlackBerry phones. It's awkwardly placed 5 Megapixel camera (chances are that you'll be ending up putting your thumb on it while trying to click pictures) certainly had a scope for improvement. The video quality is at best average.
The phone's strength is messaging. It integrates several email accounts, IMs, BBMs, Facebook and Twitter direct messages into a single inbox. However, it does offer the option to view your messages in individual mailboxes. Web browsing is not even close to the browsing on Android on Apple phones. Web pages look insanely tiny on that 2.7 inch screen and require a lot of scrolling and zooming on the user's part.
Overall it would be a good possession if you want a BlackBerry but hate tapping. What's more, you need not lock the keypad every now and then, just close the flap. The only problem is that it's a little expensive keeping in the mind the features it offers.
Price: It is now selling in India for Rs 23,000
Fits comfortably in the hand, lightweight, messaging-friendly, external display
Camera placement, poor video recording, not a huge range of apps and themes available (at least as of now), the two screens should have been biggerTHB Rating: 3.5/5
Quick Specs
624 MHz CPU
512 MB onboard Memory, expandable up to 32 GB with MicroSD (8GB included).
5MP Camera with autofocus, supporting VGA video recording and led flash
Video formats: H.263, MPEG4 Simple Profile 3, H.264, WMV
External display: 2 inch, 240×320 pixel
1150 mAhr rated battery (Talk time up to 4.5 hours, Stand-by up to 10.5 days)
Wifi (b/g/n)
Bluetooth® v2.1 +EDR with followind profiles:
Mono/stereo headset
Handsfree
Phone book access profile (PBAP)
Serial port profile
Stereo audio (A2DP/AVCRP)
800/1900 MHz CDMA/EVDO, 3G - Rev. A networks, up to 3.1 Mbps
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