BlackBerry Torch

The BlackBerry Torch could be accused of trying to be a jack of all trades – it has a touchscreen, a slide-out keyboard and BlackBerry services, all rolled into one.

It’s also the first BlackBerry in New Zealand to feature the new browser and interface for BlackBerry OS 6. Others will follow shortly, paving the way for the new BlackBerry Playbook which will hopefully appear on our shores later this year.

But Jack-of-all-trades suggests master of none, and the BlackBerry Torch is a master at several things.

Take, for example, the BB6 browser – now a webkit-based version, in common with the browser attached to the iPhone (and others). It now has all the gestures that an iPhone user would be familiar with – double-tap zoom, pinch, stretch, and so forth. The keyboard, the other main feature of the Torch, slides out smoothly and is comfortable to type on, although we found the slight recessing of the keys less comfortable than, say, the keyboard on the BlackBerry Curve 9300.

The 480 x 360 touchscreen looks a little less amazing than it might have, had we Kiwis received the Torch when it was released elsewhere in the world some nine months ago, but the font smoothing is handled well enough that the relatively low resolution compared to some of the other new smartphones we’re reviewing isn’t obvious. The other thing that isn’t obvious is that the processor is a mere 624 MHz, with 512 MB of RAM. The Torch runs speedily, and feels snappy and responsive. It’s not quite as quick as, say, the Samsung Galaxy S2, but it’s on a par with the next tier of smartphones.

You can use the phone as you would a regular smartphone, thanks to email apps and BlackBerry App world, but for those not familiar with BlackBerry, it’s worth noting you get best results if you also invest in BlackBerry data. BlackBerry data is usually additional to, or a separate plan from regular smartphone broadband data. BlackBerry encrypts and highly compress data sent through its servers, which lets you use BlackBerry email, BlackBerry Browser, BlackBerry Calendar and BlackBerry Messenger with minimal data usage. This usage is generally bundled into BlackBerry plans – such as the Vodafone BlackBerry add-on ($10.20 per month) – that provide a large amount of data through BlackBerry services as well as additional plain-internet data.

BlackBerry has a decent, if not overwhelming, set of apps available through App World, which includes apps to cover the basics in most areas – productivity, games, social networking, e-readers, and more. It’s not up there with Apple’s App Store, but contains the basic set of apps that you need to get by.

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