New BlackBerry Torch 9800 on AT&T inspires & brings together your BlackBerry smartphone with a new touch, the first BlackBerry with a touchscreen, slide keyboard design & OS. See the new BlackBerry 9800 Slider.
RIM flirts with new designs, like any phone manufacturer. Though we think of the wide QWERTY bar when we conjure up the BlackBerry, RIM has released the all touchscreen Storm and Storm 2, the short-lived BlackBerry Pearl flip and the skinny and successful semi-QWERTY Pearl line of phones. The Torch, at least for those who don't despise touch screens (are there any touch screen haters still out there?), is one of RIM's brightest ideas. You get that wonderful hardware QWERTY keyboard and a capacitive touch screen. I know some of you actually like the Storm's SurePress moving display, but it's safe to say it wasn't a mainstream hit (no one copied it, did they?). Capacitive displays are the bee's knees: they're easy to use, allow multi-touch and are found on most Android phones and all iPhone models. If you're a 'Berry person, you know that it's hard to beat a good hardware keyboard for serious messaging. But nobody wants a tiny display and RIM's raison d'etre isn't jumbo phones, so we need a slider to allow room for both. Voila: the pocketable, QWERTY touch screen BlackBerry.
The design isn't the only new stuff here: this is the first smartphone to run the new BlackBerry 6.0 operating system. While touch was cobbled onto OS 5 for the Storm line of phones, OS 6 has been redesigned for touch. That doesn't mean your beloved keyboard shortcuts or excellent optical d-pad went away-- they're still there and RIM will release OS 6 non-touch BlackBerry phones. But the menu structure has been greatly simplified, icons and items are large enough for touch and the home screen has several touch-aware hot zones that bring massive device control, information and applications together. OS 6 still feels very BlackBerry, but it's modern, easier to use and more pleasing to look at. The OS replaces the lamentable old 'Berry browser with a fine Webkit browser (the iPhone, webOS and Android all use Webkit). That doesn't mean RIM's got it all: there are still no 3D APIs for games. There's no direct MS Exchange full PIM sync out of the box (you'll need BES for that, or rather your IT guy will need it).
Design and Ergonomics
Though there's never been a BlackBerry with this form factor, the Torch is easily recognizable as a BlackBerry. The hallmarks of 'Berry design are there: a chrome front surround, the classic BlackBerry shape and the rubberized sides. Some reviewers complained that they Torch isn't thin enough. QWERTY sliders aren't thin, with the exception of the Motorola Droid. Though the 5.3 ounce Torch 9800 feels weighty and chunky in the hand, it's not all that fat. It's just a hair thicker than the EVO 4G and Motorola Droid X's thicker end (the X tapers). The super-skinny Samsung Captivate and iPhone 4 are thinner. The Torch fits reasonably well in a pocket and it feels very durable.