Blackberry Torch 9860 in White Review
By Blake Sanders on November 1st, 2011
Performance is, however, where this phone shines. With the 3.7 inch Liquid Graphics technology screen, touch connection is responsive and smooth. Overall the operating system has an eloquent feel to it, due equally to the increased hardware specs and the new Blackberry OS 7. The interface has been refined over the past two operating systems, now coming to its full potential with the 9860’s touch screen. The layout is not entirely dissimilar to that of the iPhone. Blackberry users may feel a tad bereaved at the level of difference with the Torch, whilst iPhone users will find it quite like home.
With this said however, it still brings to the table the traditional elements that we have come to expect from Blackberry handsets, namely the faithful optical trackpad. The screen is certainly bright and colourful, and though some adjustments may have to be made by those unfamiliar to the new interface, it is nevertheless a pleasing experience.
Without the slide out keyboard, the design of the phone also receives some modifications. With its redesign you might even forget you are looking at a Blackberry, if it were not for the Blackberry logo glaring at you from the top. The iconic Blackberry is of course interlinked with the image of a QWERTY keyboard taking up a good portion of the phone. Change isn’t always necessarily a bad thing (it’s not like the touch screen keyboard doesn’t do its job properly), but it will sadden the more nostalgic Blackberry fan. The phone is 12mm thick, giving it a very slender feel. In addition, its edges are nicely curved giving it its sleek persona (and reminding one slightly of the iPhone 3GS). The white version does look great, but again the iconic black exterior might be missed by some.
Sadly not all the hardware specifications are above reproach. Whilst the 1.2GHz CPU is impressive, the phone suffers from a low 2.5GB internal memory. The battery life also leaves much to be desired. It sits at a comparatively low 4.5 hours talk time. How much of an issue this becomes will of course depend on the user, but on a competitive scale, it falls short against its rival phones.
In many ways the Blackberry Torch 9860 is a phone that shrugs off the traditional idea of Blackberry handsets and embraces a new future for RIM. Sadly, it doesn’t as yet do enough to deviate itself from the competition. It tries to be an iPhone whilst retaining some of Blackberry’s unique features, but whether it quite hits the mark is debatable.
