The article contains the word "boondoggles"

Well today we picked up a shiny new Bold 9900 in white for Nic. It's updating/charging right now so it hasn't been taken for a test drive but it certainly feels and looks like a solid premium phone.

So what's the verdict after one week?

I think its amazing. First BB I've properly used and found it very easy to get on with and set it up for Nic. I'd even be tempted myself!

She also loves it and is glad she went with it which is amazing as she normally moans about something on a new phone.

What is it with "feels and looks like a solid premium phone", does this mean that it must be a weighty beast to be classed as premium?

I personally think a little bit of weight helps, not that I'd want it to pull my trousers down when it's in my pocket. When the Google Nexus came out the same time as my old Desire HD I remember thinking how the lightweight plastic body just didn't feel like a premium phone whereas the metal bodied HD did.

It's an odd thing that. Generally I find it's not whether a thing feels heavy or light, but that it feels 'solid', which apart from the obvious things like you being able to flex them with your hand really doesn't have a meaning you could define objectively. I think the point is we have an idea of how heavy a given thing should be and if it feels lighter than we think it should then that gives us an impression that we're not getting value - at some subconscious level we still value things by how much they weigh and getting something 'light' makes us feel cheated.

It is entirely subjective though. I wouldn't be at all surprised if gadget companies give non-working mockups to focus groups and ask them whether they think they 'feel' about the right weight and then either add or remove a few grams to the production model.

Jon

Is it an expectation given by the market leaders, I know when the iPhone 4 came out it felt like a brick when compared to the iPhone 3gs, thanks to the slabs of glass it uses. When I test drove a Galaxy S2, I went bleeding hell thats light, but it didnt affect my perception of the phone itself. Apart from now I keep on forgetting which pocket its in
To me a premium phone is one that is all singing and dancing at tries to be the best, with the corresponding price tag of course. Feature full not light.

But I know im one of thoses thats more concerned about function not form, so in some cases Im the last person to decide what is called premium.. Im a marketing persons nightmare
I ask silly questions like "can it do x,y or z", when they go "but it looks cool"
to the response "yeah, so what!"