SpecEagle
SpecEagle review · BlackBerry

BlackBerry Bold 9000 review: The premium 2008 QWERTY that defined the BlackBerry business phone.

SpecEagle Editorial·Aug 2008·$500
Overall
42/100
Class rank
#1 of 1
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
Look elsewhere
The verdict, up front

The corporate QWERTY benchmark.

The BlackBerry Bold 9000 was the definitive business smartphone of its moment — an unrivalled physical keyboard, secure push email and BBM, in a premium leatherette body. It was the status symbol of the corporate world right before the touchscreen era swept it away.

01Display

48/100

48/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2008.

TypeTFT LCD
Size2.6 inches
Resolution480 × 320 px

02Camera

40/100

40/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2008.

Main2 MP, LED flash
VideoYes

03Performance

44/100

44/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2008.

ChipsetMarvell PXA930 624 MHz
RAM128 MB
Storage1 GB · microSD

04Battery

66/100

66/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2008.

Capacity1,500 mAh (removable)
Standby~310 hours

05Build

70/100

70/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2008.

06Value

56/100

56/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2008.

What works
  • Best-in-class physical QWERTY keyboard.
  • BlackBerry push email and BBM.
  • Premium leatherette build.
  • Two-day battery + microSD.
What doesn't
  • Tiny non-touch screen.
  • BlackBerry OS was dated for media.
  • 2 MP camera.
  • Browser was poor.

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 1-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .