BlackBerry Torch first hands-on! (update: video)
By Nilay Patel 
posted August 3rd 2010 12:00PM
posted August 3rd 2010 12:00PM
Update: We went back in for round two with a functional device -- the hardware is quite nice, and the keyboard feels similar to the Tour / Bold. Software-wise, we're still waiting to play with BlackBerry 6 in-depth, but it definitely feels like the OS overwhelms the hardware a little when it's really cranking -- for example, the phone basically locked up while it loaded Engadget in the new Webkit browser, but when it was done loading it responded smoothly to panning and zooming.
Update 2: We've got video, people. It's a little scattershot in scope, but it should illustrate the basic feel of the new OS. You can find it below the fold.
Since I'm one of the only commenters here who has actually used this phone, I'll give my impressions:
Hardware: EXTREMELY solid. The slide is firm without a hint of wiggle. The keyboard is just like that of the Bold 9700, if not slightly wider, meaning it feels great to type on. I had been worried that it wouldn't feel as good as the Bold keyboards because the keyboard "pan" would be too thin, but no worries there. The dark chrome bezel is really attractive.
The resolution is a disappointment. The 9000 had one of the best resolutions of any phone when it came out, so for this phone to offer such jaggier-looking text and icons feels like they really missed an opportunity to wow us here. On the bright side, the screen appears to be made of Gorilla glass.
I tested the camera against my iPhone 4's camera, and it did VERY well. It performed nearly as well as the iPhone in a low light environment, and the photo was slightly more saturated than on the iPhone. Overall it looked very nice. The lack of HD video recording is a big miss, though.
Software: OS 6 is definitely a huge improvement over OS5, and feels a great deal more modern. The Webkit browser is the improvement we've been waiting for, and the tab switching will feel very familiar if you've used an iPhone. The only thing that hurts the Torch in this regard is the low screen res.
Some parts of the OS 6 interface feel poorly thought out. For example, it doesn't really seem necessary to have screens for "All" icons, "Favorites", and "Frequent", though the one for all Media-themed apps is a nice touch. The "Social Feeds" app that comes included is really nice...think of it as something that cleanly and simply accomplishes what Motoblur attempts to do, but it's more customizable, and it throws RSS feeds into the equation, which is a great addition IMO. If I owned a Torch, I'd assign this app to my convenience key (speaking of which, there is no left convenience key...kind of odd if you've used BB phones before).
The OS is VERY snappy and there wasn't a hint of delay or lag in any of the actions I performed, which tells me that the CPU they went with is just fine for this phone, and a 1GHz processor won't be missed. YouTube works like a dream, and videos look great.
Overall, I'd say that if you like BlackBerry, you'll love this phone. It's easily the best phone RIM has ever made, and OS6 does improve a great deal on what they've done before. The one major drawback is the screen res, which I think is a big miss on RIM's part. Otherwise, don't listen to the haters. I liked the Torch quite a bit.
Oh, and by the way.
This phone looks and feels nothing like the Palm Pre.
At all.
Fail
I love the people that already know that Torch is "a year behind" or "slow" having never touched, used or seen one.
The anti-RIM brigade is tiresome.
@kool1
I agree, trolling is so annoying. More the half the people that go around and stalk crap will never go a check out the device even after it's released.
@Andy - Thanks for the intelligent and informative post. Very good post!
Looks like a PALM phone. Sorry RIM, you need to do better than this...
Did you notice when the guy was trying to zoom it kept on bringing up the virtual keyboard? Spazztic OS. And the screen...totally behind. Users should wait for a better CPU that can handle the new OS and a better screen. I like the fact that you can add SD storage though.
What is this video?
I know that all the fanboiz (and fangrrlz) will be starting flamewars over whose platform is better.
Blackberry was NEVER a smartphone. It started as a pager. Then they jury-rigged the pager to become an email device. then they added a phone on top of a pager and added a bigger screen and a GUI. Then they pimped up the GUI because people love nice graphics. Then...
You can see where I'm going... the RIM device is a pager with stuff piled on, just like the iPhone is an iPod with stuff piled on.. The only difference is that RIM started to FAKE smartphones as soon as everyone started copying and improving on its concept because, with all respect to BB users, RIM's never dared to go beyond the pager concept.
The 9800, for all intents and purposes, may be good looking. But in its heart, it's still a pimped-up pager with real expensive stuff.
I'll hold of on upgrading my phone until the devices start running on duo core Atoms, perfect and smart push tecnhnology, and finally, the ability to run Crysis and WoW without crashing.
@TheReverendJacques wait. The 9800 is a pager? Really? And the iphone is just an ipod? Really? Ridiculous.
P.S. You want your phone to run wow and crysis? Do you also want it to come with a mouse and keyboard? How do you expect to play wow or crysis on a phone?
@codemaker A former XO on a Canadian warship once told me that sarcasm is a training tool. The problem is that end-users (read: anyone who had, has, wants/doesn't want to have a smartphone or wishes to have a smartphone but couldn't afford one) have become spoiled, expecting the next big phone to be a super PSP.
I guess the big concern is the we all want something with which we can be happy, fulfilled, but we are always afraid of the big letdown. As soon as I'm at the end of my contract with my current provider, I'll make my decision. Given the competition out in the market and my ongoing needs, the BB will just be one of the many choices.
Still, it would be nice to play WoW on a Smartphone. There must be an app for that!
Engadget is a great site but in this case if you want to see what this phone can really do check out the hands-on video at crackberry.com http://crackberry.com/blackberry-torch-9800-hands-video-first-look . After you watch this you may not think the CPU is too slow and you may see how productive you can be when you know how to use this device. It may just be enough to forgive the small screen size too. Check it out.
Honestly, I can't tell if the device is going to be great or not. The first thing we need to do is get that phone out of that guy's hands. He is not qualified to handle a smartphone. I mean look at him entering standy mode and locking the device so many times. Plus what the heck was he trying to do with the browser, repeatedly zooming out even though we all know that's the entire page already displayed.
With that said, I am a big time blackberry user, mainly because of BBM and its ability to communicate worldwide effectively (free of charge), something no other phone in the market (no matter how great the OS is) can deliver. I am looking forward to seeing this phone on the shelves, but as of right now, I agree with most of you, it doesn't look promising at all. Not a whole lot of improvement from my 9700.
And yeah, blackberry apps really suck. Not a single good app, compared to my iphone or ipad...
@archelium which apps suck, and which apps are you comparing to the iphone? You praise BBM in your comment. That is an app. Amazon, poynt, ubertwitter, flixter, BBM, pandora, all good apps.
Really? You can't think of a single good app? Really?
Should have done better on SCREEN SIZE -
In a market where the product is outdated so quickly, one doesn't settle for "good enough". Screen size of 3.2 inch... with little effort, this could have been 3.5 or 3,7... Why so much space wasted for the 'Blackberry' branding. (Oh yes, the internals and this and that prevented the extra screen size... if it was easy, everybody could do it.)
palm pre plus blackberry!
I was rooting for this "Bold 9800" before deciding whether to ditch my Bold 9000 for iPhone4 and........I AM SO GOING TO ORDER MY IPHONE4 tomorrow (or soon)...
Seriously, what's up with that I-DON'T-SCREAM-OF-A-FLAGSHIP-DEVICE name?! And the on-screen keyboard looks ridiculous...
time to WAKEUP RIM and start INNOVATING. my once-beloved phone company is turning into the next No-hope-kia
We always hear it from the users, Engadget is biased towards iPhone, or Android and doesn't give other phones and OS' credit. The response usually comes back from Engadget that "if RIM actually announced something worthy, we would cover it like we cover the iPhone." We learned today about the double standard. Check out the front page of Engadget as of 9 AM EDT on 8/4, less than 24 hours after the launch.
Still looking for a 9800 Torch article? Keep looking. It didn't manage to make it in the top 5 articles, let alone it's own special banner like iPhone gets. The Blackberry article that is in the top 5? The UAE/Saudi Arabia is shutting down the service. Nice call guys. Three separate Torch articles happen to be the most commented on (top 3-5) but they are shoved down the right side of the page.
Here we have a device that, while not being an iPhone killer or an Android killer, is, at worst, equal to those devices from a hardware perspective. The software is the largest revamp of the BB OS that RIM has had in at least 3 years, potentially longer. RIM puts on a show, launches a compelling new device, and gets pushed off the front page by a iPhone jailbreak, an iPhone data study, a Motorola Sage gallery, and a fake Chinese EVO.
Apple holds a press conference about antenna problems and gets 13 articles about sales, improved reliability metrics and free bumpers. This doesn't count the responses from the other phone manufacturers, which I consider separate stories.
Wait, it this not Engadget Rants? I must be in the wrong place.
@Jf well said. Although, I do have one gripe. You describe the torch as being "at worse, equal" to iphone and android devices from a hardware perspective, and I find that to be less than accuerate. It is about one generation behind when it comes to hardware specs. To be equal, it would need a 1ghz processor, a higher resolution screen, and maybe a front facing camera. Now, if you were talking about build quality, then sure, it's equal (probably better), but I don't think that is what you meant.
@codemaker Comparing hardware for devices that don't run the same software is always tricky, so I may be guilty of engaging in a bit of hyperbole with "at worst equal to iPhone" for hardware specs. Point taken on the screen, which is definitely a comparable item no matter the software.
However from a memory or processor standpoint, the issue is really with how the device functions and feels. It make take a more powerful processor just to get iOS running on an iPhone which means that a 1GHz processor from Apple may be equal to a 500 MHz on a Blackberry, which may be more efficient when it comes to OS. I have no way of proving this, but it certainly seems that the hardware is capable of running software that accomplishes the same goal as the iPhone in a very similar manner.
One area where it clearly exceeds the iPhone and equals certain Android devices is the slide out keyboard. To me, this is a compelling phone for many reasons, and yet, if I were not checking Engadget yesterday, I would have missed the news entirely. I'm frustrated at the lack of coverage, that's all.
omg, it has UAC XD
to put things in perspective, the one click connection manager? WM has had that, in nearly the same implementation, since 2007
@artshark and blackberries have had that since before then. Open an icon, access your connections as necessary, they just changed the method you use to access it and tweaked what it looks like a little bit. Not sure why you felt the need to say that.
For the 1000th time. You cannot compare blackberrys with Android devices and the iphone. Android and gapple (gay+apple) are geared toward younger crowds. Blackberrys are and will always target CORPORATE individuals who dont care about apps but do care about PRODUCTIVITY and being able to edit those reports on the go. YEA YEA YEA Androids and iphones can do that too but blackberrys are in a class of their own. A VP doesnt give a damn about the processor in a phone.As long as it does what they need it to do without having to dig through a bunch of junk to do it, then they are happy. And no, I dont use a Blackberry anymore. I have a Droid X but I still have love for blackberrys. They served me well in the corporate environment.
pretty cool how all of ATT press events they end up using wifi instead of their normal EDGE
It's another BB with an out dated OS running on a 2 years old hardware.