The software has been researched, redeveloped and revamped so now all complaints about previous models not being finger friendly have been acknowledged and solved. If touch screen isn’t your cup of tea, don’t worry, BlackBerry have been smart and kept the QWERTY keyboard so many users love. So with the best of both worlds on one device this handset really is a genius of the smart phone era.
Key-bored?
Do you love BlackBerry’s? But find yourself intrigued by the touch screen capabilities of iPhone’s and Nokia, then this could be the model for you.
The BlackBerry 9800 torch is a breath of fresh air, the screen is big enough for everything not too feel crammed and with one quick slide a QWERTY keyboard appears, especially useful for tapping out those long emails. The big screen is optimized by the landscape touch screen meaning everything isn’t cramped into a tall thin vertical display.
The on-screen keyboard is great, especially since RIM opted to make this device landscaped friendly, so if you’re too last to pop open the sliding keyboard from under the chassis of your phone you won’t have hassle typing a message on-screen. The predictive text felt intuitive and the new built in spell checker made sure that there is no possibility of error when typing in a frenzy.
The touch screen is a great bridge for new customers to cross, if they are BlackBerry first timers, and the available option for an alphanumeric on-screen keyboard means even the mobile phone users who have stayed in the dark ages will find this an easy phone to pick up and use.
The untouchables
We are sure BlackBerry users that hoped for the perfect touch screen in the previous attempt RIM made, BlackBerry Storm, but it just didn’t work.
The software felt rushed as if it was just put on the market to compete, and really we felt this did more damage than good as it made us concerned about any other touch screens created by this developer. We have to assure you the Torch is a stand out effort, RIM have ditched the awful SurePress screen that felt unresponsive and, quite frankly, infuriating. Instead of SurePress RIM have added multi-touch features so, like iPhone, it is possible to pinch and spread your fingers to zoom in and out, among many other new features.
To make this handset even better, RIM, have equipped the Torch with the latest software, BlackBerry OS 6, and this is what helps make the phone feel as if it was designed to be touched and not like it was added last minute just for unfinished competitive reasons.
Social Net-Working
You’ll be happy to hear that the issues with the previous web browser have been resolved and the new one is a humongous improvement, speedily connecting to sites and rendering web sites accurately and efficiently.
To condense the amount of space used up on your home screen RIM, put on their thinking caps and, have given you the Social Feeds app which really helps those who multi-network on Facebook, Twiiter, MSN, Yahoo messenger etc.
BlackBerry App World still provides an excellent service to update and customize your BlackBerry with hundreds of cool and useful applications. They can be expensive but they are definitely useful and aimed specifically at the business arena.
You can also get your social-networking updates sucked into the famous BlackBerry integrated inbox, along with your emails from multiple accounts, and text messages, not to mention your BlackBerry Messenger missives. With BlackBerry Messenger, you can IM other BlackBerry users for free, anywhere in the world.
Holding the Torch
The email service is better than ever on this handset with its ability to add new email accounts being simpler and faster than ever before, this really is a winner.
The ability to push emails means being able to acknowledge when an email is sent to you and responding has really never been simpler, as with text messages you are signified to a new email with a tone.
Getting connected to the world wide web has also never been better now that BlackBerry have updated the Torch with the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. The device comes with 512MB of internal memory and a 4GD microSD card, which we think is plenty of space. However, if you do like to have a large amount of space, you can up it to 32 GB.
The battery life is fantastic lasting 18 days on stand-by with 5 and a half hours of talk time. The phone feels as if it has noise cancellation software built in as even when we were down the pub during the football we could hear the caller and didn’t have to repeat ourselves at all.
We certainly had no trouble getting connected to the Interwebs, with the Torch offering the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. It also includes 512MB of memory built-in, along with a 4GB microSD memory card, which can be upped to 32GB.
Conclusion
This is the best of the best of both world devices on offer, with its touchscreen QWERTY and alphanumeric capabilities there isn’t a type of user left out. The phone is solid and still fits in your pocket perfectly, with a weight that lets you know it’s safe and sound.
BlackBerry have improved their email powerhouse and is still perfect for any business person, there are plenty of pluses about this handset. With the ability to speak for free to any BlackBerry user worldwide with BlackBerry chat and its push notification systems you will never be out of the know.
Features:
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- 3G with HSPA support
- 3.2" 16M-color multi-touch capacitive touchscreen of 360 x 480 pixel resolution
- 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and VGA video recording
- BlackBerry OS 6
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
- Built-in GPS with BlackBerry maps preloaded
- 4 GB internal storage and a hot-swappable microSD card slot
- Nice design and build quality
- 3.5mm standard audio jack
- Accelerometer sensor for screen auto-rotate
- Bluetooth v2.1 and microUSB v2.0
- Document viewer
- Optical trackpad
- Good audio quality
- DivX and XviD support
Specifications:
- 111 mm
- 62 mm
- 14.6 mm
- 161 g
