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Camera
At just 5-megapixels, the Bold 9930's camera isn't designed for much more than snapping quick shots and sending them to friends and family. The photos we took often looked grainy and had considerable noise in the backdrops. On the upside, the convenience button can be used as a physical shutter button, but don't expect to pull any spectacular images here.
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Likewise, the video footage we shot with the camera didn't particularly impress with clarity. It's rated at 720p, but we wouldn't recommend using the camera for more than quick clips for personal use.
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Maps
BlackBerry's built-in maps software is a remarkably sparse offering – one that lacks anything resembling a satellite or street view, plus there's no public transit info. It'll find your location with GPS and map you to a destination via vehicle directions, but it doesn't do much more than the absolute basics.
Luckily, there's an easy fix. Simply navigate yourself to Google Maps in the web browser, download the app when prompted, and enjoy the fully featured maps program whenever you need it.
Apps
The Bold 9930 comes preloaded with a handful of useful apps, including Twitter and Facebook – both of which are limited by the display size, but usable – plus YouTube, Documents to Go, various IM services, and a couple of simple games. Naturally, more are available for download and/or purchase online.
Navigating a messy, sluggish interface when there's a suitable reward at the end is bearable. Doing so when the contents within are lacking is utterly frustrating. Sadly, the latter is the case with BlackBerry App World, the terribly designed and lag-filled app store offering found within the Bold 9930.
We frequently found App World to freeze for numerous seconds at a time during navigation, while installation of a tiny app would sometimes take several minutes to complete and essentially halt all other operation of the phone in the meantime. Sadly, there's little worth finding on App World. Headline apps and games from other phones are almost completely MIA; what you'll find instead are lazy knock-offs and other limited-use offerings.
