BlackBerry Style 9670 Steel Grey (Sprint)

This BlackBerry Flip phone has its own style.

Who should get this phone? Business users who want all the functionality of the BlackBerry OS in a flip-phone format.

What cell phone compares to this model? The BlackBerry Style sports many of the same features as the BlackBerry Torch only in a flip phone format.

Why should I get this phone? You want all the rich messaging BlackBerry features in a compact, flip phone design.

In a nutshell: The BlackBerry Style is RIM’s second foray into the flip phone market and while the BlackBerry Style does a lot of things right, it still suffers from a few growing pains. The smartphone runs BlackBerry’s latest OS 6.0 and as such has slick user interface. Unfortunately, since the Style lacks a touchscreen many of the enhancements that improved the web surfing experience are a bit lost on this cell phone.

Spacious external display offers tons of notifications.

Overall, the BlackBerry Style is an attractive flip phone with a spacious external display that helps keep you informed of any new messaging activities without having to flip open the phone. For example, when you receive an e-mail or text message on the Style, you can view the message on the external screen. This way you only need to flip open the phone if you need to do reply to the message. Additionally, the external display will alert you of missed calls, messages, and Facebook updates via notifications. Flip open the cell phone to reveal a spacious multi-line display and full tactile QWERTY keyboard. While it’s important to have that full QWERTY keyboard, we did find it a bit cramped. It’s similar in size to the keyboard found on the BlackBerry Curve, unfortunately there are no spaces between the keys on the BlackBerry Style; this resulted in quite a few mistypes. There is a trackpad and four keys for navigation: send, menu, back and end/power.

We found the internal display bright and easy to read, but wished that it was a touchscreen since that would greatly improve the web experience. As noted, the BlackBerry Style runs OS 6.0 and as such has access to the greatly improved web surfing experience, but since it lacks a touchscreen many of the highlights of the new web browser such as pinch and zoom aren’t available. Web surfing aside, we definitely like the way the cell phone feels in the hand. It’s not too heavy and fits easily in a pant pocket or small purse. The gray metallic that surrounds the cell phone gives it a more sophisticated look. We also appreciate the keys on the side of the phone are similar to those found on existing BlackBerrys. There are volume keys and a one-touch key that launches the camera on one side, and a 3.5mm headset jack, an uncovered microUSB port, and microSD card slot on the other.

Testing the BlackBerry Torch 

• Making calls: During calls we occasionally had a hard time hearing callers clearly, although they reported they had no problem hearing us clearly.  

• Volume Adjustment: You can use the side buttons to adjust the volume, but we rarely needed to use them.  
• Speakerphone: Call quality is clear when using this feature. We didn’t cut each other off when speaking simultaneously.

• Operating System: The smartphone comes loaded with BlackBerry OS 6.0 and supports multitasking and multiple screens with the ability to organize apps just about any way you want. Overall, the user interface is fairly straightforward and icon friendly. Additionally, the new OS isn’t a huge departure from those found on previous models, it’s just much easier to use.

• E-Mail: We were able to easily set-up and access both corporate e-mail and web-based e-mail accounts such as Yahoo!, AOL, and Gmail. You can have up to 10 e-mail accounts on the phone.  

The Flip sports BlackBerry

• Web Navigation: Although, the BlackBerry OS 6 really shines in this department, the experience is a little lack luster on the BlackBerry Style. We could scroll around a website and even press the trackpad to zoom in and out, but we couldn’t really pinch and zoom. The BlackBerry Style does a good job handling bookmarks. When surfing the web there’s a bookmark icon in the top right hand corner, press that and the existing website gets pushed down the screen to reveal screenshots of all the bookmarked sites. We should also note that web pages didn’t load as quickly as we would prefer. That said, the experience is better than the web experience found on BlackBerrys running an earlier version of the OS.

• Social Media: In addition to including mobile versions of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, the new BlackBerry OS includes an application called Social Feeds. It’s an easy to use application that aggregates updates from all your social media accounts and RSS feeds.

• Camera features: The BlackBerry Style sports a 5-megapixel camera with a flash on the back of the cell phone. It lacks a tiny mirror for framing self-portraits. The camera placement takes a little time to get accustomed to framing pictures.

Picture taken at the camera

• Shutter speed: The BlackBerry Style shutter is a bit slow and not not ideal for capturing action shots.
• Picture Quality: We found colors to be true and details sharp.  
• Photo Settings: You can control the flash, select a scene mode (party, close-up, snow, beach, night, and text), choose single shot or continuous, and add geo tags.
• Video features: You can record video with this cell phone. Quality was acceptable, however, we much prefer watching videos on the display that we found on the web.

• Music features: Playback of music through the BlakcBerry Style’s speaker is solid; songs sounded loud, but not distorted or too tinny. Music also sounded great through the included headphones.

• Formats supported: We were able to play MP3, and unprotected AAC (Apple’s audio format) formats.
• Features: Repeat, Shuffle, and Playlists (you can even create playlists on the cell phone). There are a couple of other features to enhance the audio quality such as Headset Music EQ and Audio Boost, but we didn’t need to use them. Plus, you can save tunes stored in your cell phone as a ringtone.

• Connectivity: The cell phone works with Sprint’s 3G networks, but you can do a lot on this cell phone using a WiFi connection. 

• Bluetooth: The BlackBerry Style worked seamlessly with the Motorola T505 and callers didn’t know we were using a Bluetooth connection. We were also able to transfer contacts, pictures, and music to other Bluetooth-enabled devices.
• WiFi: It has 802.11n WiFi (that’s pretty secure) and we were able to log onto available WiFi networks to surf the Web or send/receive e-mail. It just takes moments to set up. The only thing you need is the WiFi network you want to use and password if needed.

• Battery life: The battery life on the BlackBerry Style is acceptable for a smartphone, but not stellar. We were able to make it a single day when we used the cell phone to occasionally check e-mail, surf the web, and take a few pictures before needing to recharge the BlackBerry Style. On the plus side, you can recharge the phone when it’s connected to a computer via the USB-to-microUSB cable.

We appreciate that the BlackBerry Style runs OS 6.0 and is easy to use overall, however we wish some of the features were implemented a bit better.

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