We’ve given more attention to the BlackBerry Torch 9860 at RIM’s launch today, but alongside that touchscreen only phone is this, the brand new BlackBerry Torch 9810. It’s a successor to last year’s Torch hybrid phone, and comes packing a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen. We went hands on with it this morning: for our thoughts, read on!
Shall we get the good news out of the way first? The 3.2-inch screen has had a slight bump in resolution, which is a great relief. it’s up from the atrocious, grainy 480×320 to a slightly less poxy 640×480 display. It certainly looks a lot sharper, but in an age of qHD (960×540) smartphone displays, it’s still not enough.
We can’t really fault the performance of the BlackBerry Torch 9810 either: its 1.2GHz CPU puts it back in the mix, and it feels nippy sliding around the (badly designed) home screens. RIM’s relied on providing just enough software features to satisfy your casual user, and the same is here too: the less discerning BlackBerry addict. The Facebook and Twitter feeds work well enough, and we still love how easy it is to start typing and launch anything from a Google search to a voice call straight from the home screen.
The problem is, it’s still a mess of a phone, and ugly as sin. It’s still as fat as the original, and the buttons, while very responsive, are still sitting in a recess that’s ever so slightly tricky to get at. The back of the phone is still rocking that creepy ribbed condom texture too. In short, the designers phoned this phone in.
We’ll have a full review of the BlackBerry Torch 9810 in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, check out our hands on photos right here.
