BlackBerry Torch

A combination of its Bold 2 and Storm 2 models, it has touch as well as qwerty.

This flashy little phone is a device that balances the touch screen, for those who want it, and a slide-out qwerty keyboard. A mixture of the Bold 2 and Storm 2, the BlackBerry Torch comes preloaded with its latest operating system, BlackBerry OS 6. The Torch looks and feels good in your hand. Though I’m not a fan of slider phones, the slider in this phone does have a solid feel to it. Released only on AT&T Networks in the US, the Torch should hit Indian shores soon; though the price and release date are yet unavailable, it should be released here in a month.

The high resolution 3.2 inch, 360 x 480 capacitive touch screen display is great to look at. The touch interface is fast and smooth, giving the phone a stylish feel. The new operating system installed on the Torch, OS 6, is similar to previous operating system releases by BlackBerry, making navigation easy and convenient. When closed, the phone measures 4.4 inches, and 5.8 inches when open, although at 161 gm, it does feel a bit heavy.

OS 6, though similar to previous versions, has some notable improvements. It finally has a universal search feature that lets you search for information in your files, contacts, apps, emails and on the net, all at one go. The BlackBerry Messenger has had a makeover, designed to look like any other chat messenger now. The new web-kit-based browser finally makes browsing on a BlackBerry a better experience, although I will still stick to Opera as my browser.

The keypad is a 35-key full qwerty, and the track pad is optical, like in the last few releases from BlackBerry. The phone runs on a powerful 624 MHz processor with 512 MB flash, and has a 4 GB built-in memory, which you can always expand by using microSD cards, up to 32GB. 

The camera in this BlackBerry has been upgraded to 5 megapixels and supports image stabilisation. Featuring a 1,300 mAH battery, it provides 5.8 hours of talk time on a 3G network, 30 hours of audio, and six hours of video playback.

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Gagandeep Singh Sapra