By Rishabh Prasad:
In the midst of controversies regarding Blackberry’s security risks in India, UAE and Saudi Arabia, Blackberry is ready to step in the arena of slider phones with its “All-in-one” design in its upcoming smartphone named Torch 9800. This design will allow the user to choose the high resolution touch screen, opt for the legendary, slide out QWERTY keyboard or aim for precision with the optical trackpad.
Not only the hardware, even the operating system is new. Torch 9800 is out with BlackBerry 6 OS. It allows the user to see all social and RSS feeds in one place. The user can type an update once and send it to one, all or select networks. The whole new web browser experience has been introduced with this OS. It offers a Universal Search option in which the user can search everything on the smartphone at once, and even reach out to the web. This OS also opens a whole new chapter with its album art, new camera modes, sharing, a built-in YouTube app and more.
RIM has some history behind the Torch name. It relates to a company which RIM acquired last year to improve the browser experience. The web browser is totally revamped with its pinching and zooming, tabs that let the user to swap between different web pages. It’s a full HTML tabbed browser for “PC-like” web browsing.
It is fully loaded with GPS, 3G, 8GB of memory (extendable up to 32 GB) and a 3.2” HVGA+ display. It also claims to have an extraordinary battery backup but other Blackberry phones have already offered much better battery backups in past. Blackberry Bold 9700 provides six hours of talk time, and 38 hours of music playback, compared to 30 hours for the Torch.
Besides fascinating features, the phone has some shortcomings too. It does not have a front facing camera which leaves no scope for video conferencing. Blackberry Torch comes with a measly 4 GB of internal storage and 4 GB MicroSD card. This means users will have to invest in another MicroSD card if they want to save all their music or other data. At a time when most smartphones have a 1 GHz processor, BlackBerry Torch’s 624 MHz processor from Marvel makes it slower than the rest.
This smartphone might not be smartest of all but it marks Blackberry’s evolution indeed.
VIDEO BELOW: Click here if you can’t view the awesome video!
The writer is a Tech-columnist of Youth Ki Awaaz.