Snakeskin battery cover, yellow scroll ball, and Turkcell carrier bottom panel.

In the past couple of years we’ve seen BlackBerry go from a business-oriented uber pager, into the swiss-army knife of smartphone entertainment and productivity it is today. With so many high-end devices on the street, my Bold is no longer as special as it was when it first launched late last year. Time for a change that will elevate my device ten floors above the pedestrian and into the penthouse.

The Bold was the first BlackBerry that could be easily customized with interchangeable battery covers. On launch they had red and blue faux leather, now there are dozens of battery covers available from gold snakeskin to pink denim. We got our custom kits from Cellular Nationwide Network: an OEM parts distributor with a thorough selection of BlackBerry custom parts and quick shipping.

For these custom devices we wanted to switch the silver bezel and buttons out for a matte black set, I also wanted to switch carrier tags to add some international flavor. Ordering a battery back is simple enough but for these other modifications we’re going to have to so some disassembling and warranty voiding. Taking the device apart was simple enough, putting it back together is a little tough so here’s a disassembly guide just in case.

I would like to note how light the BlackBerry Bold’s guts are without the battery and external housing. To me the bold is a computer in every sense, but taken apart it weighs about as much as an Oreo.

Black denim battery cover, black scroll ball, matte black bezel with blank carrier bottom panel, and a set of black buttons.

If you’ve done any BlackBerry case modifications that you’d like to share please email us at tips(at)blackberrycool(dot)com.

© Matt Cameron aka W4LNUT for BlackBerry Cool, 2009