BlackBerry Torch 9860

BLACKBERRY TORCH 9860 REVIEW

BlackBerry may have had a bit of a setback lately with the whole “outage” issue but that hasn’t really stopped them from pushing the sales of their new products. One of the latest devices to make it out of the Canadian manufacturer’s domain is the totally-touchscreen enabled BlackBerry Torch 9860. Here’s a closer look at the device that might just help you decide if it’s worth your while. Being a touch model and offering a large 3.7-inch display mean that the screen has to be good. It offers you resolution of 800 x 400 pixels, making it comparable to a number of Android and Windows Phone 7 devices. One thing is clear here: BlackBerry has figured out that people do care about specs. With 3.7-inches of screen on offer video certainly comes to the fore. Despite the very obvious omission of Flash video support limiting your consumption of common online video, we found that local content was handled nicely. HD media from the memory card was delivered smoothly, so if you happen to have a stack of MPEG4 movies, then you'll be able to easily enjoy them on your phone. There is no sign of DLNA support however. The 5-megapixel camera on the rear of the device is supported by an LED flash, suffering from the usual shortcomings you'd expect from a phone. Low light shots aren't great, but in good light, the Torch 9860 will give you reasonable results. Being an autofocus camera, you'll get nice sharp images. It does lack some excitement though, not offering anything by the way of effects. Video is also impressive, churning out good quality 720p footage at 30fps. Again, during video filming you'll find that you get continuous autofocus, so we don't have much to complain about. Plug in a set of reasonable third-party headphones and you'll find that the BB Torch 9860 sounds sweet. The external speaker also provides good quality and volume, be that for sharing your tunes at the bus stop or that ad hoc conference call in your hotel room. The biggest change, however, is the browser. BlackBerry knew they had to improve it, and it really has done. It is now much faster than previously, so straight website browsing is a pleasure, with pages quick to load. However, it isn't without problems. We've already mentioned that we experienced a lot of lock-ups when using the browser and this is a problem compounded by one of the other issues that faces the Torch 9860 and BB7 devices: apps. Without dedicated apps, you'll spend more time using the browser to access those services, or that information, to get what you need. Although BlackBerry has BBC iPlayer, Spotify, eBay, Skype apps, for example, they aren't available for the Torch 9860. Head to the BBC iPlayer website and you'll get the standard "Your phone isn't supported" message. In terms of battery stamina, the Torch 9860 turns in a pretty average performance. You'll get around a day's worth of usage on a single charge, although frugal behaviour will eke out perhaps another half day. We really like the Torch 9860. If you’re a fan of BlackBerry OS but have always wanted a touchscreen, this is the smartphone for you.

SPECIFICATION & FEATURES