The hardware is exactly the same, so here we're sticking to evaluating what has or could have changed in its AT&Tification process—networking and software tweaks. Taken out of context of our earlier Bold review, what's below will actually sound kinda bad. It's not—the Bold is an awesome (if massive) piece of hardware with an amazing screen and keyboard. It's got a pretty, easy to use OS that really elevates the BlackBerry experience, though the media functions could stand to be beefier and more intuitive. The battery life is incredible for a 3G device—a day of heavy use is no problem. In short, it's the best BlackBerry you can buy.

Network
Since RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis told us when we checked out the Storm that AT&T certification was behind the hold up, let's start with the network. The Bold's 3G is vastly more reliable than the iPhone 3G, even after the latter's otherwise magical 2.1 update. Anywhere in New York City that the iPhone would seizure into EDGE, the Bold held on to 3G with an iron grip (this is more of an iPhone issue than a Bold one, but for people looking at both for whom network reliability is an issue, the Bold easily outperforms it). In short, we never saw any network issues with the Bold—the connection was steadfast.

One issue, however, is that you cannot manually select EDGE, to save for battery life or for any other reason. Wi-Fi could also be kind of finicky—it simply wouldn't connect sometimes, even though 10 million other devices sat pretty happily on my wireless network. Rebooting the router got it to hook up, but that's unacceptable.

Browser(s)
While I didn't fully consider before how asinine it was that the Bold has essentially separate browsers for Wi-Fi (hotspot browser) and 3G (internet browser) that you have to manually configure, it really, really bothered me this time around. Especially because connecting to a Wi-Fi network isn't as deliciously pie-easy as it should be. There needs to be one browser that does Wi-Fi and 3G, totally seamlessly. The current setup is unnecessarily confusing and aggravating.

Update: So apparently, the Internet Browser should actually jump to a saved Wi-Fi profile automatically—you shouldn't need to use the Hotspot browser. After some finagling, I did get the internet browser to jump onto Wi-Fi automatically most of the time, though if you use AT&T's MediaNet browser (which only uses cell service) and then switch right to Internet Browser, it'll only use cell as well. My issues could possibly be related to the fact the Bold had issues with my Wi-Fi network from the start (even though a brigade of other phones and devices sit on it just fine).

Okay, so even with the Bold's 3G network advantage over the iPhone—or hell, even when they're on the same playing field on Wi-Fi—the Bold's browser(s) just can't keep up with Mobile Safari. (And I made sure not to repeat the mistakes we saw in the last showdown.) The Bold's browser is exceptionally competent, with few pages rendered inaccurately—notably, National Geographic—but it still chokes hard on script-heavy pages that Safari otherwise breezes through (like the full version of Giz, or National Geographic). From what I can tell, the dire serious Javascript issues some people ran into appear to have been fixed—the Bold still doesn't like scripts, and runs them slowly, but I never had it crap out on me, using either the Internet browser or the hotspot browser.

One weird problem I ran into though, and I'm not sure what caused it, is that at one point, neither the internet nor hotspot browser would work—they would finish requesting a page, then after they started loading it, they would simply stop, displaying blank white pages. The only way to resolve the problem was to pop out of the battery and hard reset the phone that way. I haven't been able to repeat it, but given that browser issues were likely the other half of the Bold's epic delay, it's worth noting in case someone else sees this happen.

All that said, it's the best BlackBerry browser around ('til the Storm, anyway, which Lazaridis confirmed will have a newer, even betterer browser than the Bold) that's highly usable will make most people extremely happy, even if it still can't quite step to mobile Safari.

Apps
All of the usual BlackBerry apps, like BrickBreaker and ones for editing Office docs are there, with one notable exception—BlackBerry Maps has been entirely dropkicked off the phone in favor of AT&T's standard Telenav-powered navigation app, even though it appeared on the non-AT&T Bold I reviewed earlier. And yeah, you gotta pay for it after the free trial expires, so Google Maps is your best free option.

I more seriously considered the app situation for the Bold this time around, since it's now clear how critical the app situation is for a smartphone. So, while the BlackBerry dev scene is gravy, from a user standpoint, the app experience is frustrating compared to the iPhone or G1. BlackBerry's entirely browser-based solution is subpar and slow in comparison to the streamlined find, grab and install experience of a bona fide app store. On both the BlackBerry app site and AT&T's Mall, navigation and searching is unintuitive and time-consuming since you have to wait for every page to load in full. Also, some apps just aren't available for the 4.6 OS yet, according to the BlackBerry site (most notably, AIM). There are apps for BlackBerry, great ones, there just needs to be a better way to get them, so the BlackBerry Storefront can't come soon enough.

Conclusion
Like I said, taken out of context of the earlier Bold review, this doesn't sound so excellent. But really, the Bold is a great phone. AT&T just didn't improve it much, and it needs a few tune-ups in user friendliness: Most importantly, a single browser that better switching handles Wi-Fi and 3G, and an app store, since those are the two things people will be using the most outside of email (the internet and apps). A decent desktop media manager wouldn't hurt either. But it's still the best BlackBerry you can buy. For now, anyway.

Let's be clear: If you hate BlackBerry phones, you will still intensely dislike the Bold. As many coats of polish as RIM has thickly layered on the Bold, it is still a BlackBerry, with all of its suit-and-tie DNA fully intact. Fundamentally, it works and plays just like every other BlackBerry, but with a load of small-to-medium improvements, updates and tweaks that add up to a richer, more refined phone that also looks far better than the rest while doing its thing.

Screen
Yes, the Bold's 480x320 screen is dazzling enough to warrant its own section dedicated simply to praising it. Incredibly rich and contrast-y with stunning pixel density, it's so nice you want to touch it. I actually tried to once or twice to hit okay on a dialog box, forgetting that it wasn't the touchy kind of screen. It almost makes reading the plain text of an email depressing, knowing you could be looking at a gorgeous video instead.

Keyboard
A BlackBerry lives and dies by its keyboard. When RIM diehards countered reckless banter about the death of the BlackBerry per the iPhone's Exchange support by pointing to the keyboard. After you get used to the slight angle shift in the Bold's keys, they're fantastic, like a delicately balanced wine, with a perfect blend of springy, punchy and spongy. The glossy navigation keys are overly large for reasons I cannot quite divine. The backlighting is beautiful.

Body
It's hands-down the best looking phone RIM has put out, not to mention one of the most attractive pieces of kit on the whole market, even if the clean chrome on black is borrowed from another phone (and we're not saying it is). It looks like an incredibly modern business device, what you imagine people with more important jobs than you would carry to conduct business that's more important than yours, while talking to their accountant about how much fatter their bank account is than yours. It exudes power. Welcome to 2008, RIM design department.

It's larger and wider than the Curve, but it still feels fine in my hands, which aren't giant-sized by any means. The faux-leather backing, however, is absolutely puzzling, like RIM tried to add a touch of class in the same way Donald Trump's hairdo gives him a touch of handsome. In other words, it's fake as crap and feels tacky. Insignificant, really, but it's actually the thing I hate most about this phone. Nonetheless, it feels rock solid.

Connections
It has everything you want: 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi. Despite earlier reports that it suffered from bad 3G problems, I found that it was more consistent and reliable with its 3G connection. It wasn't uncommon to grab four bars of signal where, say, the iPhone only saw one. (I realize bars are not standardized or totally accurate, but the disparity between the two was often significant, two or more bars.) In drive-testing, handoff went smoothly. GPS was slower than I would've liked, more often than not taking up to a minute to get a lock, and the maps app could be snappier (and prettier) than it is, but it'll do. At least on AT&T it will immediately have a decent navigator app.

Battery
It's a champ. Despite lots of 3G browsing, email and other everyday app use, a half charge right out of the box got me through an eight-hour day with no problem. Expect more detailed battery test update later, but all indications are that this thing will last you throughout the day with no problems at all. Way to go, RIM.

Browser
Okay, so there was some controversy about how quickly its browser renders compared to the iPhone. In my tests over Wi-Fi—and believe me, I triple checked to make sure it was on Wi-Fi—it was either tied with, or just behind the iPhone, like the dude who lost to Michael Phelps by a finger tip. The speed difference really is trivial.

It's the best BlackBerry browser ever (this phone is a lot of "best BlackBerry ______ ever"), and one of the most usable mobile browsers around. In other words, it's actually usable. Not a miracle. The trackball isn't the most elegant way to navigate pages—largely because of the zoom metaphor—but it gets the job done, and the vast majority of the time, the Bold shows you pages the way they're supposed to be. It definitely sets a standard for what mobile browsers should do at a minimum, and it's fine for light surfing.

Email
What's a BlackBerry without email? Perhaps wisely, RIM chose to mostly not fix what ain't broken, adding small but significant tweaks like the ability to see pictures in message, full HTML and attachment viewing. Otherwise, it's basically the same experience you're used to. The higher res screen makes the text pop more and adds clarity, but it's not any prettier, which somewhat stands out against the rest of the overhauled UI.

Media
The Roxio-powered desktop Media Manager still sucks total balls—can you please get a decent integrated manager, RIM? And the music/video setup is essentially unchanged—same menu system and organization—but it has a cleaner, less tacky skin on top that makes it look like it's greatly improved, even though it isn't.

But! Watching videos on this thing is a-maz-ing. The sample Speed Racer trailer was so gorgeous and yummy, I almost wanted to watch that 80-car-pile-up of a movie. Almost. The external speaker is surprisingly good, too, with richer sound than most other handsets. Still, this is one of the areas of the phone that needs work—the video quality nearly woos me into giving it a pass—but I can't emphasize enough how much it needs a decent media manager.

OS & UI
RIM has re-skinned the entire operating interface, shifting from pixel-y, realish bitmaps to slick, almost Tron-like high-res icons that have a neon pseudo-science fiction modernist feel to them. One issue: It's no longer immediately apparent what each icon does, so expect to hover initially. (With Precision Zen, the theme with splashes of color, it's easier to discern what icons represent.) I like them, but it's really an issue of personal taste—still, future skins will benefit from being able to go high-res.

All of the top-level menus have been cleaned up as well, with crisp white text on a black background. It feels nice, and goes with the look of the handset itself, conveying the sense of it being modern and powerful. Unfortunately, when you go into applications themselves—mail, contacts, etc.—or deep into settings, you feel like you've entered a time warp three years into the past. It's like eating a tuna sandwich after a piece of sashimi—the tuna sandwich alone, uncontextualized, is fine, but next to a pure, clean slice of maguro it looks like crap.

Startup on this device has been exceptionally slow—I initially thought my unit was busted or something (maybe it is), though I suppose BBs are always damn sluggish on cold starts. For the for first minute or so after booting, the OS kind of chugs as well, but after clearing the pipes, I guess, it runs totally smoothly, as it should with its speedy 624MHz processor.

Still, overall, it's the same BlackBerry OS as before, just prettier and running on snappy hardware. If you're used to a BlackBerry, you won't have any problems getting around. If you're not, well, it's one of the easier mobile OSes to learn and deal with, everything is more or less up front, and on top, at least, it's pretty.

Conclusion
This is RIM's best phone ever. Does that mean it's the phone for you? If you're a BlackBerry fanatic, yes—it really is the phone you've been waiting for, if you're not hoping RIM radically changed the recipe. Because they didn't. It's cleaner and brighter, but it's not an overhaul by any means. It's a more powerful and beautiful distillation of the same experience.

For other people who were eyeing it as the time to switch to BlackBerry, the issue is less straightforward. As I said in the intro, it's coming into a complicated world, where it has more consumer crossover appeal than a flagship RIM device—currently, the 8800—ever has before. (No doubt, even more people are looking at it in light of 3G problems on other handsets, either suit-and-ties who were considering the jump, or people looking for their first high-end smartphone, though more of the former.) At its heart, this thing is a corporate workhouse. It will play movies, music, browse the internet and all of the things consumers usually want—and do it well—but it is coming from a different mindset than the iPhone, something to keep in mind if you're torn between these two phones.

AT&T has not set a price (or a date for that matter) but we're hearing that it will not touch the $199 mark when it launches in September. Depending on how aggressively RIM and AT&T want to push it, it looks like it could go as low as $249, but $299 seems more likely, another factor that makes it more suited to corporate than consumer. (Update: We're hearing that it's definitely $299, and it will hit September 12.) Still, whichever side you're on, this is a fantastic phone that perhaps pushes the BlackBerry experience to its peak. The flipside of that is that with its next generation of phones, RIM might have to radically reinvent it to stay ahead of the game.

Huge, huge thanks to Wireless Imports for providing us with the hardware!