Review of BOLT Browser 1.5 for Blackberry (Free) with Download Code

It only takes a few page views for even a novice Blackberry user to find serious flaws with the pre-installed Blackberry browser. It is often slow to load pages even with EVDO Rev. A and renders web pages poorly.  BitStream’s BOLT Browser 1.5 (free) is a must-have alternative. Images load at blazing speeds and even complicated web pages render properly.  It also features a easy setup for optimizing video rendering. The browser is highly configurable and there are keyboard short-cuts that improve the browsing experience.

Speed

The vast majority of web pages are designed for viewing on a computer. BOLT routes your web page requests through its proprietary servers.  BOLT’s servers optimize images and videos for viewing on a Blackberry.  Less data transfer is needed to render optimized images and videos which results in faster loads. The quality of optimized images and videos is entirely user-controlled.  The choices are High, Medium and Low.  The lower the image quality, the faster images load. The pre-installed Blackberry browser does not optimize any content.  If you use the pre-installed Blackberry browser, you are essentially waiting for data to load that produces no improvement in the browsing experience (because the Blackberry has a much lower screen resolution than a computer).

Proper Rendering

Candidly, I do not know why BOLT renders pages better than the pre-installed Blackberry browser.  You’ll have to trust me on this or see for yourself.

BOLT is the only Blackberry browser I know of that comes close to rending Google Wave properly.  For a brief while, BOLT rendered Google Wave properly.  Google must have changed some code because it now produces a giggly error: “Everything’s shiny, Cap’n.  Not to Fret. Unfortunately, you’ll need to refresh.  Wanna tell Dr. Wave what happened?”

Keyboard Shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts in BOLT definitely improve the BOLT browsing experience.  The are based on the numeral keys and the # and *.  2, 8, 4 and 6 scrolls your view up, down, left and right, respectively — similar to scrolling with a trackball but much faster.  Smack in the middle, 5, is important.  It switches the browser from a column view to a full page view. The FAQ lists the other shortcuts.

Important Note:  Magnification

Different model Blackberries have different screen resolutions.  I use the Blackberry Tour which has one of the highest screen resolutions (480 x 360).  I almost ditched BOLT because text was showing up way too small.  However, I found that at the highest level of magnification (under Preferences –> Magnification), text appears very readable.

Suggestions

I would like to see tabbed browsing in the next revision of BOLT.  Also, Cap’n would like to see everything shiny and a workable rendering of Google Wave.

Supported Phones

BOLT is available for a wide variety of J2ME phones, including all Blackberries.  I have not tested BOLT on a non-Blackberry but expect that it would be substantially similar to the Blackberry version.

Overall — Try it Out

The BOLT browser is also a small app, weighing in at 278 kb.  Maybe I am stating the obvious but installing BOLT does not overwrite the pre-installed Blackberry browser. Accordingly, I recommend taking it for a spin and seeing if you like it.  It’s free.  Let me know what you think. Download: http://boltbrowser.com/download.html

If you really want to try something slick, load your Blackberry Messenger 5.0, select “Scan a Group Barcode” and aim at the barcode below.  Your Blackberry will begin the download automatically (hit the Blackberry key in BBM 5.0 and scroll way down to “Scan a Group Barcode”):

Download BOLT

How does this work?

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