The BlackBerry Bold is Research in Motion's attempt at cashing in on the recent emphasis on multimedia playback and 3G connectivity found on a growing number of consumer-friendly smartphones. It’s a risky decision by RIM considering its strong business user base found on its previous devices.

The main functionality of the Bold is centered around the pearl trackball, which makes its second appearance after its debut on the Bold's predecessor, the BlackBerry Pearl. It's just the right sensitivity so that you don't over shoot any of the icons or have to continuously scroll to the correct icon.

Having a reasonably-sized, easy-to-use, keyboard located underneath the screen can usually make or break a smartphone, but RIM have managed to design the keys on the Bold so the possibility of pressing multiple keys at the same time is greatly reduced. Typing on the keyboard was comfortable and you could easily touch type once you learn the layout.

With 1GB of onboard storage there’s enough room for quite a few music tracks and movies. If you do need additional storage, expandability comes in the form of a microSD card slot which is hidden behind a cover on the left hand side of the device. Once installed the card is hard to remove as it sits flush with the body of the Bold with the cover blocking the slot, making removal of the card a lot harder than it should be.

The Bold connects to your PC via a standard 5-pin making transferring media to and from your Bold a matter of dragging and dropping if you select Mass Storage Mode when you connect. An additional application is also available from BlackBerry that allows you to sync the Bold with iTunes for your music.