It's been getting a lot of flak in the press lately, but the RIM Blackberry Torch is actually a really good phone. Problem is, there's little about it that actually feels original and fresh, making it a tough sell in today's smartphone market.
Physically, it's not particularly attractive, although it does look appropriate for business users. It's not as big as I imagined, but it is hefty in hand and construction feels sturdy. Display is a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen (480 x 360 resolution) that's bright and responsive, while the bottom-sliding QWERTY keyboard made for comfortable typing (not as good the Bold, though).
As a phone, the Torch delivered great call quality, with little problems (there was occasionally some distortion). Those on the other end reported very good sound as well. Speakerphone had too little volume, though, so it was difficult to use in noisier environments. Battery is rated at 5.8 hours of talk time and should last over a day (might make it to two) with normal use.
One of the phone's biggest features is Blackberry OS 6, which finally updated the platform's interface into one better suited to today's market. Overall, it delivers on its promise: better UI, faster navigation, a well-executed universal search and an updated, infinitely more functional browser. If you've handled an iPhone or Android before, though, there's really nothing new that leaves you impressed. The handset runs a 624MHz processor and is quite sluggish when switching between tasks to the point of freezing for a few seconds.
Being a Blackberry, it's got the solid business capabilities down pat: quad-band world phone, robust connectivity (3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS) and impressive messaging services (Blackberry Messenger, Blackberry Enterprise Server and more). It's up to speed on the social networking end too, with preloaded apps for Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, along with an aggregator called Social Feeds. There are a number of notable apps, as well, such as Documents To Go and AT&T's variety of services. While it does have access to App World, you can only store apps on the 512MB of built-in memory.
Data speeds are good, but not spectacular. YouTube requires several seconds of buffering, but it does play continuously after the initial slowdown. Multimedia playback has been vastly improved, with a sexy presentation and a good collection of supported formats. The screen could have been better, but it's definitely serviceable for both music and videos. A 5.0 megapixel camera is also onboard, with some nice editing features and above average shot quality.
Overall, there's nothing bad about the Blackberry Torch. It's just that RIM is now competing with phones that have leaped ahead of it both in hardware and software. While it's officially listed at $199.99 from AT&T, Amazon has slashed down the price to $99.99, so it might be worth it to consider.
This phone looks great but i dont think it can hold a candle to the New G2