BlackBerry has always meant business. Since the time RIM has launched its array of handsets it has focussed on business class. But the continuation of the same thing over and over again takes out the thrill of owning it as they all seem the same. With BlackBerry Torch 9800, RIM has finally learnt its lessons and has come out with the device which is appealing to both business class and general consumers. This handset consists of both utilitarian QWERTY keypad and impressive touch screen in slider design.
Design:
The overall design of the Blackbery Torch 9800 is little heavy and thick as compared to other BlackBerry’s. The phone comes with the dimension of 111 x 62 x 14.6 mm and weight of 161 grams. Edges of the phone are well rounded and body of the device is made up of plastic or rubber. The phone is firm to hold as the battery cover is grippy in nature.
Front of the phone is adorned with display and just below it there are basic keys like Back, End, BlackBerry, Send and optical trackpad. These keys are not that large and you need to take care while pressing. Size of the trackpad is extremely small, though it was not required in touch phone.
microUSB key is on the left side of torch with volume and other keys on the right. Button for the camera is also situated on the right just below the volume toggle. On the top there is 3.5 mm jack which works with headphones. Lock and silence button are laced on the top edge as found in BlackBerry Bold.
BlackBerry Torch 9800 is a vertical slider phone and slides perfectly to reveal QWERTY keypad beneath. The slider is strong and well built. The keys on the keyboard are similar to Bold 9700 and 9650. Remove the cover and you will find the place to put memory card which can be pushed in without turning down the torch.
Display:
Blackberry Torch 9800 has its front laced with touchscreen which is TFT capacitive touchscreen of 3.2 inches having the resolution of 360 x 480 pixels. Though resolution is fine but there are many phones which have higher resolution than this. Overall screen experience is good as it poses no problem while reading texts, looking at pictures, browsing web and camera. Display has good brightness and enables you to view both indoors and outdoors in bright sunlight.
Connectivity:
BlackBerry Torch 9800 comes with both 2G and 3G network support. High speed web connectivity is attributed with feature like 3G, Wi-Fi, GPRS and EDGE. Data transfer can be done through Bluetooth and USB.
User Interface and Performance:
After using new and updated operating system in various Android and iPhone. New and bold OS for the BlackBerry device was need of the hour. Torch 9800 comes with the all new slick Blackberry OS 6. This is the first phone to have this and has brought a new lease of life to the device and BlackBerry users. There have many up gradation in look and designing of the home screen. On the top of the home screen there is a bar which indicates alert for new messages, mails and Social networking feeds.
Just press on the bar and you can see the messages which you have received in the chronological order. On the top right of the homecreen there is universal search bar which allows you to search for anything in the phone just by typing initial few letters.
Main menu has also been revamped with three levels of views assorted into frequently used, Favourites and downloads on sideways flicking. Another improved addition is the Webkit browser which is found in the likes of Android and iOS rendering high speed and smooth downloading of the web pages. Multi tab browsing is now possible allowing you to open number of tabs at the same time and easy to switch between these. The processor of the phone which is 624 MHz processor looks little tried out when we try to open multiple apps on the device.
Camera:
BlackBerry torch comes with camera which is fitted at the back, of 5MP having the resolution of 2592?1944 pixels. The pictures captured are pretty good and thanks to LED Flash even in DIM light conditions it manages to get some decent snaps. Features like Geo tagging, Continuous auto focus and image stabilization are also present. On left side of the phone there is camera shutter button which allows clicking the pictures by simple push rather than using the touch screen. In time when high mega pixel video recorder are available in the market Torch still records with VGA camera.
There is inbuilt media player which supports MP3/WMA/eAAC+/FlAC/OGG music formats. Videos are also supported like DivX/XviD/MP4/WMV/H.263/H.264. You can listen to loud and clear sound through 3.5mm earphone jack.
Messaging:
Blackberry phones are designed especially for the ones who are addicted to messaging. Here you will find all the messaging options like SMS, MMS, Email and IM.
On the email front Torch handles accounts like Exchange, POP3 and IMAP4 like a breeze. More than 10 email accounts can be handled by the phone. Whether you are corporate user or Yahoo one you can check the mails on both. Even the HTML mails are supported with only problem in HTML images. Overall ,Email is good allowing you to handle operations like send, reply and forward with simple touch.
Sending of text messages is great too and are called text bubbles. Adding of the media files to the text message is also done with ease and can be send as MMS. With BlackBerry messenger you can send and receive the mail for free also it allows PIN-based messaging. Apart from BBM there is Yahoo messenger, Google talk and Windows Live.
In the notification bar you can view all your messages and Social networking messages as well in the master inbox . However, if you do not want them to be clubbed in one you can make multiple accounts for your convenience.
Social Networking:
There is in built apps for supporting various Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and all. You can get updates, messages and mails from your Facebook friends and view them directly through the notification bar which is on the top right. There is also provision for the social feeds which streams in feeds from the Facebook Twitter and MySpace along with RSS feeds.
Battery:
BlackBerry phones are known for their long lasting battery life. The standard Li-Ion 1300 mAh battery gives the talktime of 432 hours in 2G and 336 hours in 3G. Talktime is about five hours 30 minutes in both 2G and 3G. With torch you can easily carry out activities like Facebook, Twitter, unlimited phone calls and browsing web, the battery will surely last through the day without draining out.
Verdict:
BlackBerry Bold 9800 is the serious attempt by RIM to come up with something new and innovative. The odd blend of touchscreen with QWERTY keypad may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But still it is a refreshed change from similar looking Blackberry’s. Also there is advanced Blackberry OS 6 with webkit browser to give better surfing experience. Overall it is a decent handset to go with all the latest features and applications.