For years RIM has targeted the business market, and has been very successful in doing so. The first thing you'll notice about the Torch, obviously, is that it looks very much like the current crop of BlackBerry devices. Besides that fact that yes, it slides open, you're basically dealing with the same industrial design that we've come to know from RIM over the past two years or so. Sure, there are variations on a theme, but side-by-side with the Bold 9700, it's obvious to see where Torch got its looks from.
The size and shape of the device is nearly identical to the 9700, and in fact, its dimensions (4.4-inches up and down by 2.4-inches across when closed) are within spitting distance of the simpler, portrait QWERTY model. The thickness differs by a tiny margin (the Torch is 0.57-inches thick, while the Bold is 0.56-inches), though for some reason it feels much more significant when holding the two in your hand.
The Torch keeps the familiar, metal-like (it's plastic) bezel around the edges of the phone, looping around back just as with the Bold, though this time it's split in two pieces due to the separate screen and keyboard portions of the phone. The front of the device is mostly taken up by the Torch's 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen (480 x 360, just like the Storm and Storm2), though you'll find the familiar BlackBerry call, menu, back, and end buttons and optical trackpad just below the display. Along the right side of the phone is a 3.5mm headphone jack, volume rockers, and user-assignable convenience key (it defaults to the camera), while the left side houses only the Micro USB jack. Up top there are mute and lock buttons, while the phone's 5 megapixel camera and LED flash sit in a familiar spot along the back of the phone.
Browsing is where old-school BlackBerry users will notice a huge leap forward on OS 6 and the Torch. For years, it was the Achilles heel – the part of the OS that you felt RIM had forgotten about or couldn't be bothered with. But no more. The Torch gives BlackBerry users their best web-browsing experience yet. Like Apple, Android and Nokia, it uses the WebKit engine to process pages, and the experience is fluid. Pages load incredibly quickly and mostly without error or formatting issues.
The Torch comes with a 5 megapixel camera, that's about mid range these days but, with autofocus and LED flash, it is effective for most situations. mages were good, though the flash under 'normal' settings was a little too eager sometimes – coming on when it didn't really need to, and it made the images look a little more yellow than they needed to be.
You really notice the change between what you see when you're focusing and the processed image. After the shutter click, the image changes to something richer and bolder in front of your eyes – as though an autofix has been performed.
Wi-Fi, 3G /EDGE and Bluetooth are all here, as well as GPS, which has pretty much become standard since the Nokia N95 set the benchmark. Up until a couple of years ago, you'd never find a BlackBerry with Wi-Fi and GPS, only one or the other. Now, you get the whole package. The Torch is only missing FM and NFC radios, the latter of which is slowly being rolled out on up-and-coming mobiles by other manufacturers. However, it's still in its early days and, therefore, not the most useful addition yet.
Connecting the Torch to the computer, meanwhile, is a cinch. It's always been straightforward on Windows. The problem was with Macs.
Blackberry claims the Torch will give 5.5 hours of talk time and up to 27 hours of music playback. It sounds a lot but – based on our experience – not beyond the realms of possibility. What's interesting is the fact that this phone only has a 1300mAh battery. Anything less than 1400mAh on a smartphone would usually get a sneer and an upturned nose, but it's clear here that RIM has put a lot of effort into making sure that it doesn't guzzle juice like it could have.
If you're a BlackBerry user who wants to move to OS 6, you may go for the Torch because it has that veneer of gloss. It's also a new form factor – especially when you consider the 9780 looks almost exactly the same as the 9700.
Likewise, if you're a power user who wants full customisation, this may suit better than an iPhone. And despite Android having been around for several years now, the media aspects of OS 6 far outshine Google's standard offering.
Overall, the Torch doess the basics (calls, messaging, Twitter, Facebook, PIM) well and then expands on them with an improved web browser (albeit without flash), brilliant media capabilities, a camera that does the job and phenomenal battery life.
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