BlackBerry phones have this way of looking overly serious, with their Qwerty keyboards that seem like a good fit only if you’re going to attend corporate strategy meetings. What about everyone else who is interested in looking trendy and cool? A BlackBerry is not for them? Hopefully all this will change with the introduction of the BlackBerry Torch 9860, RIM’s first touchscreen phone without a keyboard.
First impressions
When you look at the BlackBerry Torch 9860, you’ll instantly notice that it doesn’t have that traditional BlackBerry look. Sure, it’s still sleek and stylish, but its physical design is much more like an Android phone. However, that’s fine and no one is going to complain about that. Look a little lower below the oversized (read: massive) touchscreen, though, and you’ll see a series of buttons that BlackBerry phones are so well known for. These include the optical trackpad, back button, BlackBerry button, and call answer/end buttons. The buttons aren’t particularly obtrusive, but they do open up the debate on whether or not optical trackpads are needed for phones with large enough touchscreens.
Main features
The display on the BlackBerry Torch 9860s is undoubtedly the first feature you’ll notice. After all, the 9860 is RIM’s first touchscreen phone, so it makes sense. But what’s even more remarkable is that the touchscreen is actually the most impressive feature you’ll find on the 9860. For starters, the screen is 3.7 inches in size, with a 15:9 aspect ratio, which which makes the screen longer and thinner than it really is so that means more of the screen for you to see. The physical Qwerty keyboard that BlackBerry users will be so used to has been transferred to the screen and it looks very easy to use. The BlackBerry Torch 9860 is also powered by the BlackBerry 7 operating system and a 1.2 GHz processor, so you can expect this phone to run pretty fast. And for those who like to see things in HD, you’ll be happy to know that 720p video recording is possible with the 9860 with the 5MP camera. There is only 4 GB of onboard storage, but it can be expanded with the help of a microSD card. The BlackBerry Torch 9860 also comes with the latest version of BlackBerry Messenger, BBM6.
The future
The BlackBerry Torch 9860 is turning heads because it’s RIM’s first touchscreen phone. People are interested in how the 9860 will perform and how it can keep up with other touchscreen phones on the market. As it is, the BlackBerry Torch 9860 is not considered a threat of any kind to high-end mobile phones running on Android. It’s definitely not going to upset Apple when the iPhone 5 comes out. However, there’s hope that the BlackBerry Torch 9860 will be a reasonably priced option for all BlackBerry loyalists. In fact, the touchscreen was a nice touch on this phone and hopefully this will help BlackBerry expand its market.
