BlackBerry Torch 9800

The BlackBerry Torch is not the first phone to give you both a full hardware QWERTY keyboard and an ample touchscreen in a smartphone setting. But it’s a debut for BlackBerry and one that will probably shape the future for the next generation of RIM phones. The supplied 6th version of the BlackBerry OS is looking to balance user-friendliness and performance, tradition and creativity in the latest BlackBerry touch products..

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the usual impressively built gadget, the ultimate email machine.

One would think RIM is among the lucky few phone makers that could’ve for ever pretended the iPhone didn’t exist. When your devices are in a class of their own and you’re a household name in corporate services, it’s easy to believe you’re special.

But RIM is not looking for safety in habit. We’ve seen enough proof that complacency is not on the company’s agenda. And they deserve credit for that. RIM still put business users first but the game has changed and they know it. So, a first-ever slider and a new OS are the torchbearer for RIM looking to revise their whole strategy.

Key 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 The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is meant to appeal to the average Joe while making sure the typical corporate user receives the usual high quality service. Wait a minute. Since when are they even remotely interested in the average Joe? Now, that’s what this whole thing is all about. With touchscreen, app stores and the growing smartphone market share, the typical mobile phone user is not what they used to be.

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is meant to appeal to the average Joe while making sure the typical corporate user receives the usual high quality service. Wait a minute. Since when are they even remotely interested in the average Joe? Now, that’s what this whole thing is all about. With touchscreen, app stores and the growing smartphone market share, the typical mobile phone user is not what they used to be.

RIM not only makes phones – it’s a service provider. But that has changed too. People are no longer simply offered a piece of hardware – they get online services by others too – Ovi, Google or else.

That’s the new reality RIM know they need to adjust to. Keeping up with an evolving market without losing their identity is not an easy thing to do. At least the Torch 9800 isn’t their first try. The clickable SurePress touchscreen didn’t quite make the splash it was supposed to. But they stood by it and tried to make it better.

It’s now up to the Torch to show to the world that RIM can make touchscreen and QWERTY work together in a BlackBerry set and in BlackBerry fashion.

Design and construction Alright, it’s a touchscreen-on-QWERTY portrait slider – a rare though not extinct breed. In a crowd of side-sliding QWERTY messengers, the Torch and the Palm Pre will meet few of their kind.

The form factor isn’t the only thing to make the Torch special. This isn’t the first touch berry we’re dealing with but the presence of a hardware keyboard makes things a lot different.

The most important thing about the Torch is you can pretend there’s no touchscreen. We know this isn’t the point at all, but you can control and navigate the phone with the trackpad and buttons just like you would with any regular BlackBerry phone.

So, what was it? Trying to make it less of a shock for long-time BlackBerry users or giving potential new adopters a choice? We’re not sure but the Torch works we think. You get a trademark BlackBerry keyboard and the handling is comfortable and familiar with the standard BlackBerry controls. On top of that, there’s a good capacitive screen – complete with multitouch – to use for handling media and browsing.

Equally important, there’s no mistaking the authentic BlackBerry pedigree of the Torch. The phone is shyly hiding a keyboard underneath a touchscreen but the styling has RIM written all over it. Which is actually good news, because those Canadians are quite good at making sleek phones.

The only part of the Torch which we aren’t quite sure about is the rubbery ribbed back. It’s the kind of phone that does need a secure grip. It’s a heavy (but certainly well balanced) portrait slider that gets taller when open.

The special finish at the rear does well to let you comfortably handle the device. Maybe it just doesn’t fit the overall styling all too well. Or at least that’s what some on our team think. Others among us find it better than the faux leather you get on some BlackBerry phones.

Anyway, the Torch isn’t a phone you see everyday but it has preserved the distinct BlackBerry feel. Most of the people who saw it seemed to genuinely like it.

The front panel of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is taken by the 3.2" capacitive touchscreen. The image quality isn’t too bad but neither the size nor the resolution can be considered top notch as of late.

360 x 480 screens were great a few years ago and good enough last year but are now decisively starting to look outdated. There is a whole load of phones with more than double the pixel count (the iPhone 4 more than triples it) and that inevitably reflects on image sharpness.

Not to mention those AMOLED displays (and even more so Super AMOLED), which beat the Torch screen hands down in terms of contrast. At least, the BlackBerry Torch can match the best for brightness and sunlight legibility.

We did notice quite a lot of on-screen color banding too, which we cannot quite explain as the Torch is said to support 16M colors. It could either be that RIM weren’t perfectly honest or that the single-color gradients rendering is imperfect.

The capacitive touchscreen is performing very well in terms of sensitivity (though we now consider this the standard rather than a great achievement). The good news is this time with the latest BlackBerryOS 6, there’s multi-touch (and there’s even pinch-zooming) so not all is lost.

Design and construction (continued) The five controls on the front panel are the typical BlackBerry set. You get two keys on each side of the optical trackpad (Call and Menu on the left, Back and End key on the right). The trackpad is as good as you would expect from RIM, or otherwise said – it’s perfect. The buttons all have solid stroke and adequate press feedback.

On top of the front panel we find the earpiece and a status LED to notify of missed calls and messages, low battery and charging. The proximity sensor, which takes care of switching off the display when you hold it next to your ear during calls, is here too.

The left side of the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is where the microUSB port is placed. There isn't a cover over it so dust is likely to accumulate over time. On the right, we find the so-called convenience key, the 3.5mm audio jack and the volume rocker. Much like the microUSB port, the 3.5mm audio jack is exposed.

The convenience key’s default function is camera which means it will let you both start the camera and take pictures. You can set it to serve other functions though.

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 loudspeaker grill is located on top, between the two of the company’s trademark hidden keys. The Lock key is on charge of turning the screen on and off while the Mute key now acts as a Play/Pause button when playing music and videos to highlight the media slant of the phone.

User interface Now this is probably the most interesting part of our review. With the level of user-friendliness of the BlackBerry OS 5 being…well… basically rubbish in touchscreen terms, a major overhaul was in order for the 6th version to have a shot at wider appeal. And for a company that has limited experience in the area, the challenge is as formidable as it gets.

Knowing that OS 6 would set the course for the future generations of BlackBerry phones, they put in quite a lot of effort and the end result isn’t bad at all. The BlackBerry OS 6 isn’t going to rival Android or iOS just yet but those insulting monochrome menus are finally getting some color and a few extra icons, and have become more thumbable.

Sweep gestures are enabled all over the thing too. Kinetic scrolling has been around since the Storm2 so it doesn’t really count as a novelty.

The app tray has been modified and now you can pull it out to show between one and four rows of icons. Scrolling it sideways reveals your favorite (manually added) or most frequently used apps (auto generated).

On the opposite end is the profile selection shortcut, while the area in between is reserved for notifications.

All in all, RIM has done a good job of improving the experience with the BlackBerry OS 6. The speed and response are likely to please users too, although some animations aren’t buttery-smooth yet.

We still don’t think however that the user-friendliness is up with the best.

Even if you aren’t great fans of flat menus and the what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach and even if you don’t mind pressing the Menu button all the time to see all available options. It’s just that some UI elements are somewhat illogically placed and you will need some time figuring it out. Oh, and some widgets for that homescreen wouldn’t have hurt either.

Phonebook got a boost The BlackBerry devices phonebooks have always been functional and all but until now they have been… well let’s say not that nice to look at. Not that BlackBerry 6 has blessed the Torch with the best contacts manager on the market but it’s certainly way better looking than before.

Plus it’s things like unlimited capacity, adding custom fields and having SNS (well, at least Facebook) integration that matter the most. You can search for a specific contact thanks to the kinetic scrolling or by just entering a part of their name with either the hardware or the virtual keyboard.

The contacts get listed alphabetically by first, last name or company and you can pick which of their recent activities to get displayed when checking out their profiles.

Like previous BlackBerry devices, the Torch lets you put your contacts in one of two categories - personal and business and then filter your phonebook accordingly. There is also grouping available this time and you can create as many custom groups as you like.

Editing a contact gives you a vast number of fields which are organized in several sub-groups. You can also replicate some of the fields and add custom ones easily so it’s all cool.

Telephony doing well Unlike the phonebook, the dialer interface of BlackBerry devices has rarely disappointed us. You get a tad better graphics, tabs and cool features such as Smart dialing. By the way Smart dialing works when adding contacts in messages too.

Speed and voice dialing is also available and with a full QWERTY keyboard at your disposal you can assign half your phonebook a speed dial key.

The in-call screen offers four large and easy to press buttons plus five shortcuts to features you are most likely to need during a call. Those include notes, calendar, contacts, dial pad and home screen. Well that last one might not be what you need during a call but it's the quickest way to an application that is not on the list.

Messaging up for the task If you have used a BlackBerry handset before then the Torch 9800 messaging department holds no surprises for you. The device excels in handling all kinds of messages - SMS, MMS and email. It also has the BlackBerry instant messenger preinstalled.

The inbox is neatly organized by date, but you can also move your messages to different folders. Searching is also available and naturally threaded messaging.

Music player slightly refreshed The Torch 9800 music player comes with a slightly polished interface, but basically identical functionality to its predecessors. Don’t expect to be totally wowed but it does a good job.

The music player sorts the music library automatically by artist, album and genre and you can search your tracks by gradual typing. You can also create your own playlists in no time.

Excellent audio quality The BlackBerry Torch 9800 did very well in our traditional audio output quality test. When attached to an active external amplifier (i.e. your car stereo or your home audio system) the device is next to perfect with the cut-off extreme bass frequencies the only thing to frown at.

A good video player Watching videos on the Torch 9800 is hardly a thing to write home about. The experience is just about average in every single aspect.

The interface is simple and functional. Converting videos all the time is not really our cup of tea so we appreaciate the fact that the Torch supports DivX and XviD. Mind you the handset played correctly only about two thirds of the videos we threw at it so unpleasant surprises are to be expected from time to time.

On the other hand the resolution and contrast of the screen don’t allow the videos to show their true potential and the video browsing interface, while not terrible, is not much of a looker.

5 megapixel shooter does autofocus too The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is the RIM device with the best camera yet. But winning those Paralympics doesn’t guarantee that it will be able to compete at the highest level. There’s nothing too bad about a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with a LED flash, but there’s nothing to be excited about either.

It the Torch was just another BlackBerry we would be more than happy with that, but it’s promoted as a multimedia phone too and we don’t think it lives to the expectations.

The camera interface has been changed but is still among the worst on the market. Since the display has the same aspect ratio as the camera sensor, the readings that appear at the bottom cover a part of the viewfinder and impede proper framing.

There are only three shortcuts to actual camera functions but at least those are rather well chosen (scenes, flash settings and geo-tagging).

This time RIM also added a few features, which might be considered standard elsewhere but are still novelty to BlackBerry. We are talking about the just mentioned scenes and the face-detection. Geo-tagging is also here but that’s been around for a while now.

To get to the rest of the settings you will have to press the menu key and search for the options item in the scrollable list. There you can pick you preferred storage place (phone or microSD card), whether or not digital zoom to be available and the obligatory picture size.

The image quality of the BlackBerry Torch is decent with enough resolved detail and tolerable (if unspectacular) noise levels. Contrast is fine too but the colors are off more often than not.

Here go several samples so you can judge the image quality yourselves.

VGA video recording no longer suffices The Torch is able to capture VGA videos at 24 fps. Now that was good enough a couple of years ago but today it’s not worthy of a flagship. There are already a few dozens of phones in our database that do 720p video recording so you should forgive us for not being over-excited with the Torch.

And with the handset also applying a bit too much compression we don’t think the videos are really good even in their own league.

Videos are captured in 3GP format and if you fancy, you can apply various color effects. The LED flash can also be set to work as a video light and there’s some kind of image stabilization, though we didn’t find it particularly effective (as is the usually the case with mobile phones).

BlackBerry Torch 9800 sample video

Connectivity: all covered Luckily the time where you got to choose between three BlackBerry devices, based on whether you prefer 3G, GPS or Wi-Fi are now long gong. The Torch comes with an excellent connectivity set with no noticeable omissions.

The quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support secures global roaming and the 3G with HSPA gives you the extra speed. Wi-Fi is also at hand with a nice and easily customizable.

Bluetooth with A2DP support rounds off the list of wireless connectivity options.

The Torch also offers a standard microUSB port that is enabled for both data connections and charging.

Finally, you have the option to use your hot-swappable microSD memory card slot for file transfers.

The web browser get pinch-zoom, no Flash With a trackpad and a multi-touch display, browsing the web on the Torch is an enjoyable experience indeed. RIM has put the touchscreen to great use and have added pinch-zooming, while the trackpad-controlled mouse can come into play when extreme accuracy is required.

Panning is done by sweep gestures, and despite having troubles with larger pages, it does just fine on most occasions. You can also zoom in by double-tapping on the screen.

When you zoom in by tapping on a desired column the text does automatically center onscreen. Well at least it tries to, as on some sites it’s a matter of hit and miss really.

Page rendering is decent, up with the best in class. The resolution allows a good amount of content to fit on the screen but it is no match for the WVGA screens, let alone the iPhone 4 Retina display.

Organizer does the job The organizer is one of the best parts of the Torch, just as all previous BlackBerry devices. It has a good set of applications and now that the BlackBerry OS 6 has added to their look makes up for a powerful time-management tool.

The calendar has monthly, weekly, daily and agenda view modes and allows easily customized events to be set up. A few event presets would have been nice too but it's not really a deal-breaker.

Mobile office is also decently stocked, with preinstalled applications able to open Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. PDF files can be handled too but through a separate app.

Strangely enough though this time document editing isn’t supported and you will need to purchase a paid upgrade for that. This was available on the Storm2 and it’s curious why RIM removed it now.

The organizer package includes a calculator with a built-in unit-converter as well as voice recorder and a Notes application. A handy To-do manager allows you to set up and organize your upcoming tasks.

GPS navigation BlackBerry Torch comes with a built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support. For navigation you get BlackBerry Maps, which comes preinstalled.

BlackBerry Maps provides basic map functionality plus voice-guided navigation. You can enter addresses straight from your phonebook and you can also save your favorite spots so you don't have to type them every time. Finally it lets lets you send your location to anyone via email or SMS.

BlackBerry Maps doesn’t work without a BIS account much like email.

Final words So did RIM succeed in creating a phone that’s friendly (and trendy) enough for the average user but still secure and dependable for the typical business target? In one word – no. But you know, smartphones are complicated creatures and describing them in one word is never quite fair.

The thing is the traditional BlackBerry users are the ones who pay the bills. So RIM wouldn’t want to turn its back on them. They had no choice but keep the familiar interface and the usual controls. It seems existing BlackBerry users will account for most of the Torch sales anyway. Why wouldn’t they – the Torch is a worthy upgrade over any previous BlackBerry phone (even the BB Storm 2).

So, sorry to those of you who might have expected an incredible overnight change. It will take several more generations of BlackBerry devices before it goes all mainstream and commercial. It makes sense to ensure you keep your current customers aboard before you start exploring new grounds.

That’s why the Torch is a device that’s hard to recommend to newcomers. It’s only good enough to compete with mid-range multimedia devices. And the comparison will not be in its favor – the cost of the Torch is sky high. But let’s be honest. Even if RIM did go all in with a shiny new interface and multimedia power, luring the masses over from their iPhones, Desires and Galaxies would be a tall task.

To put things in some perspective let’s give you an overview of the phones you can get for a similar amount of cash.