Our Verdict
Last year RIM innovate the BlackBerry Torch 9800 , a touchscreen / QWERTY - keyboard loanblend . Almost exactly a year later , the BlackBerry Torch 9810 ( $ 50 with a two - twelvemonth contract from AT&T as of August 16 , 2011 ) has get .
Designwise , the two smartphones are reasonably similar . The real change is in the software package : The 9810 ( along with the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 and the all - touch Torch 9850/9860 ) ship with the new BlackBerry 7 osmium . However , although BlackBerry 7 OS is a large step up from the previous translation , it still lacks a modern , cutting - edge feeling . On top of that , I noticed a few performance issues with the Torch 9810 ’s web web browser .
Vertical slider design
Like the Torch 9800 , the Torch 9810 gives you the best of both worlds : a physical keyboard and a full touch display . While the 9810 is almost identical in design to the 9800 , it is slightly thinner , measuring 4.3 by 2.4 by 0.54 inches ( as opposed to the 4.4 - by-2.4 - by-0.6 - inch Torch 9800 ) ; it weigh 5.6 ounces , the same as the original Torch . The 9810 has a smooth-spoken and black color schema , which give way it a play , flashier face in equivalence with the mostly black and chrome 9800 . I do prefer the rough-textured rubber battery binding on the 9800 to the 9810 ’s unvoiced screening , which make the 9810 feel plasticky and not as well constructed as its predecessor .
The slider mechanism feels sturdy and solid , and slides up smoothly to reveal the full QWERTY keyboard . The keyboard is moderately much selfsame to the original Torch ’s , as far as I can see . It ’s slightly broad , but you’re able to barely tell from using it or looking at it . Nevertheless , it is a bit on the narrow side , so users with larger fingers might find it uncomfortable . Keys are sculpture and nicely sized , and include a handful of utile shortcut buttons . The Torch 9810 also has a software keyboard that you’re able to use in portrait and landscape painting mode , but both variations palpate pretty cramp .
The 9810 ’s 3.2 - inch 640 - by-480 - pixel display is an improvement over the original Torch ’s screen ( 3.2 column inch , 360 by 480 picture element ) , but it still seems lusterless next to Samsung ’s Super AMOLED Plus displays or the qHD display we ’ve been envision on the latest Motorola and HTC phone . It is also quite small by today ’s standards for touchscreen smartphones . If a larger screen is what you hunger , the all - touch ( no keyboard ) Torch 9860 will fit the bill . The Torch 9810 ’s video display is powered by a technology ( on all of the latest BlackBerrys ) that RIM call Liquid Graphics , which is supposed to give you a “ smoother , more fluid touching experience . ” While I definitely noticed an trope - quality melioration in move from the 9800 to the 9810 , I did n’t just find the touch experience to be “ liquid . ” I ’m not sure if this was due to the processing superpower in the Torch 9810 or the software , but pinch - and - zoom in the web browser stuttered , and scrolling was n’t as smooth as on other smartphones . On the vivid side , I noticed less pixelation in images in a side - by - side comparing with the original Torch , and text looked sharper and easier to register as well .
BlackBerry 7 OS
As I mention previously , the Torch 9810 runs the brand - raw BlackBerry 7 OS , which add some much - need enhancements to the BlackBerry operating organization . Overall , however , I was n’t brag away by translation 7 , especially when I considered its esthetics and performance . Some of the high spot of BlackBerry 7 type O include hypertext mark-up language 5 and financial backing for tablet in the internet browser , a build - in augmented - reality internet browser , and spruced - up messaging feature . For a more in - depth look , tick off out my BlackBerry 7 OS hands - on impressions .
Mediocre camera
frankly , I ’ve never been fond of BlackBerry cameras — and unluckily , the Torch 9810 ’s 5 - megapixel cracker bonbon is no exception . This is a feature article Ireallywish RIM would cover in its hardware enhancements , as more and more people use their phones to snap pictures . My indoor exposure had a slight yellowish tint and looked a scrap foggy , while my outdoor photos fared more or less better with promising , more raw semblance and sharper detail .
On the plus side , the Torch has a strong-arm tv camera shutter button , a feature film that every smartphone should have . I ca n’t emphasize enough how much I favor a forcible shutter clitoris to a tactile sensation button on the showing ; photograph flex out so much honorable . On the Touch 9810 you also get autofocus , a 4X zoom , and an light-emitting diode flash . The phone has some fancy new shooting feature , too , such as panorama mode and grimace detection , and it presents everything within a clean , easy - to - role interface .
I ’m happy to see that the later Torch boasts HD video capture at 720p , something that RIM overlooked in the 9800 . television quality looked o.k. , though it had the same xanthous tint I noticed on my still photos . It treat motion without pixelation ( an subject I ’ve noticed with other smartphone camcorders ) , but moving objects did get a bit hazy . The one galling matter is that the BlackBerry television camera software obscure the video recording selection in a menu , unlike the iPhone or Android camera interfaces ( which allow you to switch between video recording and still mode by tap an icon on the screen ) . You have to press the Menu key and then scroll almost all the way down to get to the video camera . RIM ’s decision to lay to rest an important feature article like this is entirely baffling .
Performance
The Torch 9810 has a 1.2GHz processor with 768 Bachelor of Medicine Aries the Ram , plus 8 GB of on - board memory ; it ’s expansible up to 32 GB with a MicroSD card . Apps establish rapidly , and the touchscreen was generally responsive . The main job in my tests was the web internet browser ’s performance . allot to RIM , WWW pages have a 40 per centum quicker burden clip than in the BlackBerry 6 web browser app . This speed rise is definitely plain – media - heavy pages loaded apace over both Wi - Fi and AT&T ’s internet . The internet browser ’s treatment of pinch - to - zoom and scrolling was the issue : Sometimes page went from small to highly amplify in one pinch – magnification was n’t gradual . Sir Frederick Handley Page also take some time to get unpixelated after I tweet . It was quite frustrative .
The Torch 9810 supports AT&T ’s HSPA+ connection , the carrier ’s current version of a “ 4 G ” mesh ( notits LTE connection ) . I got pretty unspoilt response everywhere I went in San Francisco . Call quality over the AT&T connection in the metropolis was good overall . vocalization on the other end of the line sound tawdry and clear ; a few callers sounded a bit remote , but I could still hear them . My contacts could take heed some background haphazardness while I was standing on a busy city street corner , but they say it was n’t distracting .
Though we did n’t officially prove battery lifespan , the Torch ’s barrage fire life in my use was impressive . It live through a whole 24-hour interval ’s Charles Frederick Worth of testing , and still had about 30 percent left . BlackBerrys have generally have in effect shelling animation , and the Torch 9810 seems to be carrying on the custom .
Bottom line
Overall , the BlackBerry Torch 9810 is a little underwhelming . It is n’t a Brobdingnagian whole step up from the original Torch , but HD TV seizure , the incisive showing , and the updates in BlackBerry 7 OS are welcome upgrades . AT&T does n’t have many Android telephone set with QWERTY keyboards ( with the exception of the HTC Status ) , so the Torch 9810 might be a good alternative — peculiarly at the superlow terms . But when you stone the Torch 9810 against other AT&T offerings such as the Motorola Atrix and the iPhone 4 , it seems stale and boring . If you ’re an absolute BlackBerry fanatical , you ’ll be pleased with the Torch 9810 , but possibly even more entice by the BlackBerry Bold 9900 ( also on AT&T ) , which has NFC support and a better keyboard .
[ Ginny Mies is a PCWorld associate editor . ]
