cheap BlackBerry Bold 9000

List Price:				$499.99
Price:				$199.99 (when purchased with new service plan)
You Save:				$300.00 (60%)

Availability: Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Requirement: This phone can only be used with a compatible service plan.

After recieving my new Bold yesterday, I've put in quite a bit of time trying out the features. So far, it is easily the best phone I have experienced. This is my first Blackberry, and I switched from my previous Blackjack II wm 6.0 mostly because my work only supports blackberry enterprise service for email. I'd been told to get a blackberry two months ago, but waited for the bold because I didn't want to downgrade my personal features. With that in mind, I consider myself to bridge the gap between a business user and a personal entertainment user.

Of course the first thing to say is that the screen in gorgeous. The demo videos nicely show off the tightly packed pixels. But what I didn't know going into the purchase is how many little surprises were in store:
1) The media manager is straightforward and solid. I just popped in my previous 8gb microSD and it found all my .wma files without prompting. I can find the artist or song title I want by typing in the first few letters. Only negative is it hasn't yet located the album art put on the card by wmp.
2) The screen responds to ambient light by becoming brighter when it's bright, and dimmer with backlit keyboad in low light.
3) When you plug it in for charging, it automatically switches to a clock display mode, where you can also easily set the alarm, which is perfect for how I use my phone as my main alarm. You can also set it from here to bedside mode, which permantly displays the clock super dim, and turns off annoying notification leds.
4) Paired with my BT stereo headphones instantly. Found my home wifi network and logged on much easier than Vista.
5) Voice dialing works surprisingly well.
6) Very loud speaker for music playback with surprising quality.
7) Web browser still not as nice as iphone's, but nicer than pocket ie on windows mobile.
8) The new blackberry versions of gmail and google maps rock (I downloaded them). Maps provides fast and accurate gps location, and even includes streetview! Yahoo Go (my other main ap) however, does not yet support the Bold.
9) Users new to 3G will be surprised by how fast the battery can drain when using that connection. But the battery actually holds out on par with other 3G phones.

So, in reference to my subject showdown, I'm sure many reviews tell you that BB is for the business user and iphone for the entertainment buff. But my big beef with the iphone is the dumfounding decision they made to not support stereo bluetooth headsets, which in my opinion puts the Bold on top as a media device. What good is being able to flick through albums when your finger keeps getting caught on headphone wires? No doubt the iphone's browser is better, but the bold's is passable for a phone, and when you trade it for BB's renowned email service, I am incredibly pleased with my purchase.