BlackBerry Torch 2 9810 Review: The Updated Touchscreen and QWERTY Slider

Posted By Ray Nicolini

via BlackBerryCool.com

Before the new devices got announced I was under the impression that a lot of users would be holding off and waiting for the QNX-based BlackBerry devices. I thought that RIM would be in transition and release something only slightly better than last year’s offerings, leaving BlackBerry fans to be sentenced to exile or to wait patiently for the second coming of BlackBerry.

Being shipped a new device that looked nearly identical to my current Torch 9800 only worsened my fears. The body of the phone seems to be cut from the same mold. It’s such a mirror image of the Torch 9800 that only Torch owners will know you even got a new device. If you’re one of those people who feels the need to show off your new phone you’ll probably feel unfulfilled with the new Torch.

For those who care more about actual performance, this is the device for you. The new Torch is nearly twice the phone that the old Torch was. This has to be the most significant update with the smallest jump in model number I have ever seen. After a week of using the new Torch, I found myself eating my words because my faith in team BlackBerry had been restored.

Better processor: more multitasking

I was a big fan of the Torch 9800 but I found it a little underwhelming when it came to battery life and multitasking. The processor on the Torch 2 runs quite a bit faster than the old Torch 9800’s. Clocking in at 1.2GHz, it’s almost double the rate of the Torch 9800’s 624MHz processor while maintaining some pretty decent battery life. Counting Megahertz is somewhat futile when comparing smartphones; one chip’s 624MHz can potentially outperform another’s 800 MHz. It’s more about how the chip works in conjunction with all the other engineering elements.

I’m not sure if I’m able to say that the new Torch is twice as fast but I am willing to put myself on the line for saying that it’s at least 50% faster than it’s predecessor.

Keep in mind that the Torch 9810 is still new and has yet to be fully optimized. When I first got the 9800, there was an OS update that came a month after launch that optimized battery, cut boot times in half and made navigation a bit smoother and more responsive. Right now my Torch 9810 has what seems to be a 3-minute boot time that I hope will be cured in the first update.

Liquid Graphics: OS lag reduced to acceptable levels

My biggest criticism of the Torch 9800 was that the extra flair put into the animated navigation was laggy. Users could really tell that they were causing a delay because actions were carried out about a second after you made them. I noticed the delay most when I wanted to mark my messages as read, I would have to wait for the OS animation to complete or the message will still be marked unread after exiting back into the messages list. Small stuff I know, but waiting for a computer for the sole reason of “seeing a pretty fade” is just bad design.

I know that all this OS glitter is something that consumers apparently demand. Why bother animate a smooth transition between two screens if you can just cut there? If I could turn off all the swipes and fades in favor of a less resource-intense cut, I would.

All this to say that Liquid Graphics has corrected the noticeable lag between OS transitions, and improved response time for swipe-based navigation, as well as pinch to zoom navigation.

Design: exactly the same as the Torch 9800

I’m very pleased that they didn’t change the design. The upside is all the advantages of the old Torch remain: a well-balanced, large touch-screened, keyboard-driven super-phone. Your old Torch 9800’s cases, skins, battery doors, Micro SD cards, batteries, data cables and chargers are all compatible with the Torch 9810.

A couple of things they have improved are the lightweight metallic body and the new and improved slider hinge. The new Torch is now a bit lighter, more rigid and it takes a lot less coordination to open.

The white space represents the Torch 9800 screen resolution

Display: 3.2 inch diagonal touch screen display with more pixel density

The New torch has a 640×480 display, up from the 9800’s 480×360 display. The display is about as bright and you probably won’t be able to tell too much of a difference between the two models until you realize that your font is a couple of points bigger than what is was on the old Torch.

If you love tiny fonts and packing as much detail as you can on to a mobile screen, you’ll be thrilled about the new Torch’s increased pixel density. There are close to 80 percent more pixels on the 9810 and I didn’t consider the 9800 to be lacking in this department at all.

Optical trackpad: still awesome

There is nothing to report here except for that since the dawn of smartphones, RIM has continually developed some of the best controls schemes designed specifically for mobile. Some users still feel nostalgia for the old scroll wheel, and I think everyone can agree that the new trackpad was an incredible upgrade to the sometimes-temperamental multi-directional scroll ball.

More app memory and more on-board storage

The Torch 9800 had 512MB of application ROM while the Torch 9810 boasts 768MB. With 50% more installed app memory, you can install a few more apps and games before noticing those extra-long boot times. The on-board drive space has been doubled too with 8GB for photos, music and other files. The Torch 9810 has a MicroSD slot that can accept a big 32GB card, bringing the total storage up to 40GB. While this is an improvement, it seems like storage is fast becoming a cloud-based service and we’re no longer concerned with RIM’s choice of SD Cards.

New: Magnetometer

A new addition the Torch 9810’s swiss army knife of features is the magnetometer. This new hardware will pave the way for Augmented Reality apps as well as better navigation apps. The two apps of note are the first party Compass app and the Wikitude augmented reality suite. It seems the software that powers the magnetometer needs a lot of work as I find that it asks me to recalibrate the compass every time I start a magnetometer-app, and several times while using the app too.

Camera and Video

While the old and new Torch both sport a 5 megapixel camera, the new Torch has some under the hood upgrades. Face detection allows the autofocus to choose faces to focus on rather than a distant light bulb that you unintentionally centered.
Also the video recording got a significant boost. The Torch 9810 can record in 720p (1280×720), up from VGA (640×480).

The camera sensor uses a CMOS sensor. CMOS is a great sensor with the exception of taking pictures or shooting video with a lot of motion. When there’s a lot of motion, the top part of the photo gets recorded before the bottom part and your image gets skewed. Same thing happens for video too, a round ball will turn oval when traveling quickly. This isn’t criticism so much as the limitations of CMOS in general. This type of distortion is called Rolling Shutter Distortion.

I love the new 720p video recording. The “send to” menu item is also a nice touch. Directly sending a 720p video to your YouTube account is a feature that is sure to see a lot of use.

Navigation nirvana: Universal Search

Universal Search has changed the way I access my BlackBerry. Introduced in BlackBerry OS 6, Universal Search allows a user to simply type in a word or two and your BlackBerry will present you with a screen full of highly-contextual options.
Begin typing a person’s name and the BlackBerry will show you the communications, social networking posts, calendar events and all the emails you’ve exchanged with them separated by accounts.

The big improvement OS 7 has made in this regard is how it lets developers tap into Universal Search by using something called Extend Search. This allows users to specifically search using any search engine they please, or specifically search within any app. The extended searches appear right below the universal search results and works wonders for reducing the time it takes to access the information you need.

RIM has also introduced Voice Activated Search that takes a sample of your voice and sends it to a RIM server to decipher it and turn it into text. It takes about 2 or 3 seconds for it to do it’s thing, definitely faster than typing on your BlackBerry with one hand.

These features are not unique to the 9810 but rather come with BlackBerry 7.

App World: available apps

With every new device there is always a two-month period in which very few apps have been ported. As of the writing of this article (August 2011) there are 13402 apps, 1308 games and 7083 themes available for the Torch 9800. Compare that to The Torch 9810’s 1990 apps, 169 games, and zero themes.

I’m not sure what RIM can do to have more apps ready for new devices when they launch but it wouldn’t hurt to try something like making the emulators available for developers earlier.

Faster network: better browsing

So the Torch Webkit browser now supports HTML 5 sites as well as JIT (just in time) javascript acceleration. I really noticed the HTML 5 content right away because embedded YouTube videos would load on-page as opposed to taking me into the YouTube viewer. I also noticed that the faster network connection meant no buffering when accessing multimedia content.

The documentation says that BlackBerry 7 gets up to 30% faster browsing than speeds than BlackBerry 6 and up to twice as fast as OS 5. I didn’t really notice any speed difference whatsoever between BlackBerry 6 and BlackBerry 7. Maybe it’s the rendering of the page that’s bit faster but the act of waiting for stuff to request then load is still as slow as dial-up.

The Torch 9810 has an HSPA+ radio, which is a small leap ahead of the 9800’s 3G radio. For me, this has breathed new life in to my BlackBerry Playbook’s Bridge Browser. I noticed lower access times, actually watchable online videos and tolerable wait times while loading web sites. As a result I’m packing the Playbook with me now instead of leaving it on my desk or coffee table.

Full version of Docs to go comes standard

RIM has included a full version of Docs to go on the Torch 9810. Right out of the box editing and viewing of office documents re-affirms BlackBerry’s business edge. I think that this is the first usable version of Docs To Go because of the new screen size. I’ll have no problem emailing myself a document or spreadsheet and working on it as I travel.

Should I upgrade?

If you use your phone to show off your sense of gadget style, are hoping to upgrade to BlackBerry OS 8 or buy a phone every second year, this is probably a model that you can skip.

If you spend more than 20 minutes per day on your BlackBerry, buy a new phone every year, are owed a device upgrade from your carrier, are a fan of the Torch 9800, or own a BlackBerry Playbook, you should without hesitation get the new Torch. It performs so you can outperform.

A look at the all-new BlackBerry Torch 9810

Post By Ray Nicolini

When we learned earlier in the year that RIM would release a slew of new devices in 2011, none had me more psyched than the Torch 9810. Sure, I’d been waiting for something like the Bold 9900 for years, and I was curious to see what a touchscreen BlackBerry sans SurePress would feel like. But the Torch was one of my favorite BlackBerry devices to begin with, and the new version figured to correct some of my biggest issues with it. Specifically, the faster processor should have made everything smoother, creating an ideal BlackBerry environment.

I’ve played with the Torch for about a week now, and I have to say that it’s lived up to expectations. Here’s a full breakdown.

It’s no iPhone or Android

Before I even dive into the specifics, I want to make clear that the BlackBerry is not the iPhone. It is not Android. It is not, really, for someone who wants cutting edge technology in their mobile devices. The BlackBerry, as always, is for those who want a simple, stripped down mobile experience with a focus on messaging.

In that way, the Torch delivers. It’s gives you easy access to multiple messaging formats, and then adds features on top of that. It makes for a smooth, easily navigable device that takes care of all the business you need.

BlackBerry 7

The Torch is among the new crop of BlackBerry handsets to run the latest version of the operating system. It’s billed as BlackBerry 7, though it’s really more like 6.5 or even 6.1. That is, there aren’t a ton of changes from BlackBerry 6. As I mentioned, there are subtle differences, such as the ability to limit your home screen panels. Almost every change is in this mold: a subtle improvement that, while welcome, doesn’t really represent a brand new version of the operating system. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I liked OS 6 plenty in the first place.

One addition that I, along with basically every other BlackBerry user, appreciate is the ability to add numbers to an existing contact. There were apps that did this, but it’s nice to have it finally along with the native OS. There are goodies like this throughout the OS, though I really haven’t noticed too many of them. That’s both a negative, because I’d like more small improvements, but also good, because I’m not really noticing any deficiencies. It really is a smooth smartphone experience.

I’d expound on this a bit more, but it’s more accurate to reiterate that it’s nearly identical to the older OS versions. It’s a lot smoother, sure, and I’m sure software improvements are behind that. But the faster processor, which we’ll get to in a minute, plays a large role.

Social Feeds

One specific software aspect I want to hit is Social Feeds. This debuted with the original Torch and OS 6, but this time around I’m finding a bit more use for it. As you can see in the screenshot, you can control almost every aspect of your non-email messaging from here, from instant messaging to BBM to Facebook and Twitter. The ability to remain logged into all of them is a definite plus.

If there’s a downside to this, it’s that those who follow a lot of people on Twitter might not have the best experience. My main feed is basically Twitter through and through. I had to scroll through about 30 minutes of tweets before I got to a Facebook update. And then it’s basically all my Twitter, followed by all my Facebook. A more even distribution — that is, real-time updating — would be better. But this is still a good app that can store all of your social information.

(And, as a quick tip, you can add a view under Settings -> Manage Views. This way you can follow specific people, rather than your entire Twitter feed.)

On the next panel is RSS, which allows you to add feeds from RIM’s internal list, or you can find feeds of your own. Again, because of overflow reasons I suggest keeping this to the essentials. Social Feeds is basically a quick and dirty way to stay updated with things that are of high importance to you. There has to be some manual filtering, or else it will get cluttered. For example, I have BGR, Wall Street Journal, and Wired in my RSS. That’s about all I need for quick and essential information.

Finally, you can add podcasts to your feed, too. I found this a bit hard when it concerned podcasts not in RIM’s database. But if you have enough savvy you can work around that and find the ones you want. Or you can just select from RIM’s library. Again, this is all about getting the information all in one place. It’s probably my favorite addition to OS 6, and it got a bit better, and smoother, in OS 7.

The feel

Now that we’ve established the software side of things — i.e., that nothing really has changed — we can move onto the feel of the devices. As you can see from the shot above, the device is identical to the Torch 9800. Everything, from the weight to the keyboard, feels exactly the same. That means it’s still a little awkward to type on the physical keyboard, but not too awkward. That is, it took me a while, again, to get used to the shallow keyboard rather than the full-depth one on my 9650. But it only took a little adjusting. It’s good enough, again, that the on-screen keyboard is mostly useless.

(Well, the keyboard does feel a bit more solid, but that might be because the 9800 is a year old. But it’s worth a parenthetical note, I guess.)

That said, the Torch doesn’t feel any bulkier than a standard BlackBerry. In fact, it’s the exact height and width of the 9650, and maybe 1mm deeper. That 1mm makes a difference to approximately no one, so you can consider this a standard BlackBerry with a few hidden tricks.

Really, the more I play with the Torch, the more I wonder why I would ever go with a standard-sized BlackBerry again. I’ve always been a fan of the standard style, since it’s stripped down and simple. It has an adequately sized screen and the best keyboard in the biz, so I never thought I needed more. But the Torch delivers more, without creating any problems in the way. The touchcreen interface is great for navigating the device, and the keyboard only comes out of hiding when I need it. That it’s the same size as a standard BlackBerry puts the Torch over the top, in my mind.

The processor

And finally we get to the element that brings together the device. The old Torch had a 624MHz processor, which put it in a class far, far below the other smartphones released in 2010. It made for a lot of lag, which got really frustrating after a while. In a way, I was relieved when my time with the original Torch was up. It felt like a huge tease. The elements were all there, but it was just too slow. Screens lagged, applications took forever to load, and it was generally a rough experience.

The Torch 9810, along with the other new BlackBerry models, features a 1.2GHz processor, which is right in line with today’s high-end devices. That makes for a much smoother experience, one that leaves me with little to no frustration. Even App World boots up in a snap. Again, while I’m sure that tweaks to the operating system played into the improved performance, I have to think that the processor plays an even bigger part. It’s physically faster, meaning it can handle more apps, more tasks, and more inputs.

At the same time, it does not negatively affect battery life. This is the most amazing part, to me. One reason RIM kept with its slow processors is because it believed that its customers valued battery life over speed. With the Torch they’ve found a balance between the two. The battery still lasts two days with moderate to slightly heavy use, just like my old BlackBerrys. And yet it’s worlds faster. This might be the Torch’s greatest accomplishment.

Overall impression

It’s fair to say that I’ve come away from my time with the Torch impressed. Again, if you’re expecting a revolution that vaults the BlackBerry in line with Android and iPhone, you’ll come away disappointed. The Torch is not that. No BlackBerry will come close, at least until they have QNX running smoothly on a dual core handset. But for what it is, a messaging-focused device with plenty of bells and whistles, the Torch delivers. It might be the only thing that would keep me with Rogers for my next BlackBerry upgrade.

Even better, Rogers is offering it on-contract for $149.99. The Bold 9900, meanwhile, is $199.99. I don’t think a BlackBerry deal  of this caliper gets better than that.

Via www.bbgeeks.com