Firm, Functional and Fun
BlackBerry Torch 9800 is a new smart phone from Research in Motion that offers a perfect blend of touch-screen input and slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
Since the BlackBerry handset is designed for chatting, especially on BlackBerry Messenger, the slide-out keyboard is particularly convenient for typing. The Torch 9800's keyboard is like that found on the conventional BlackBerry phone, which was also great for typing with your thumbs.
Now, with the keyboard hidden under the screen when the phone is closed, there is ample space for the Torch HVGA touch screen, which is pleasingly large at 3.2-inch, with 480x360 pixel resolutions.
With this screen size, you can read web pages much more easily than you could on the conventional BlackBerry handset.
You may also use the larger landscape QWERTY virtual keyboard on the screen by tilting the horizontally. The touch-screen input makes it more convenient to interact with the phone as you can quickly tap a spot to activate an application or input text, for example.
For those who prefer to use the conventional input and navigation tool, the Torch 9800 also provides an effective trackpad under the screen for moving the cursor around the screen.
The Torch 9800 runs on the BlackBerry 6 operating system, which has several improved features. Among other things, BlackBerry 6 is designed to blend the touchscreen and trackpad interface. It shows shortcuts to commonly used applications on the home screen, such as browser, text messages, music player, and video player.
The BlackBerry 6 OS is also integrated with social networking applications like Facebook and Twitter. It also has a Social Feeds application that lets you monitor updates of your social networking accounts in one application. You can use it to monitor accounts of Facebook, Twitter, YahooQ Messenger, MySpace, Google Talk, BlackBerry Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and AIM.
The reviewer managed to connect to Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Twitter and Facebook accounts with ease. The BlackBerry push mail worked effectively, delivering mails to the handset when they arrived at the Hotmail account.
The social Feeds app updated status from Facebook friends and tweets of Twitter accounts quickly and efficiently.
The applications of Torch 9800, especially multimedia applications, were quite responsive during tests. The handset is powered by a 624 MHz processor and it has 512 MB working memory.
It also has 4 GB internal storage plus a 4 GB micro SD card with the package. It supports up to 32 GB micro SD card.
With Wi-Fi connectivity, YouTube clips were rendered with good quality and performance. Its bright screen reproduced video clips beautifully and smoothly.
Another nice feature is that the phone comes with a standard 3.5-mm stereo jack so you can use your premium headphones to listen to music. The in-ear stereo headset, which comes with the phone, also sounded good during tests, with good bass reproduction.
- KEY SPECS
- OS: BlackBerry 6
- Network: Tri-band 3G UMTS 2100/1900/850/800 MHz; Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- Camera: 5 MP
- Display: 3.2-inch HVGA+ touch screen (480x360)
- Video format support: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV3
- Audio format support: MP3, AMR-NB, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WMV, Flac, Ogg Vorbis
- Memory: 512 MB flash memory; 4 GB eMMC+ 4 GB media card included
- Battery: 1300 mAHr removable/rechargeable lithiumion cell
- Dimensions (mm): 111 (when closed) x 62 x 14.6
- Weight: 161.1g
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