BlackBerry Torch 9800 hands on… again

By on Aug 6, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Featured August 6, 2010

Alright guys, we finally have a BlackBerry Torch 9800 in hand, before launch date, and we figured we’d do the second honors on your behalf. We have chimed in with our first-hand impressions of the new BlackBerry, but now that we have a unit in front of us again, here are a couple more quick thoughts:

  • Again, the device is really solid. Construction seems high quality, though there is obviously a “plastic” feel as opposed to something more luxurious. Like metal (aluminum, stainless steel). The rubberized back battery cover, while kind of scares me at first, feels really good when you hold the phone. It’s not overly rubbery, it is something that will probably save many Torch owners from flinging the device out of their palm while carrying it around.
  • The screen is depressing. I personally think at this point in time, there is no excuse. It instantly makes the phone not feel competitive, and doesn’t encourage you to use the phone. In fact, it makes me not even want to use the device. Not sitting next an iPhone 4 and a DROID X — no way.
  • Love the keyboard. I’m already able to bang out my 80 WPM emails (most likely ones yelling at Andrew).
  • Will reserve full thoughts on the OS and UI for our review, but the phone really does feel a bit busy as I mentioned earlier. One of BlackBerry’s strengths has been providing users with that “always connected” feel, but I really think they might have taken it too far with the BlackBerry 6 OS.

While we put together the full review, we have to ask — who’s getting one, and who’s passing?

Click on over to our BlackBerry Torch 9800 gallery!

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  • Mrwirez

    BlackBerry.. meh. They are soo 2006.

    • Jason

      and?

    • K Bear

      Better response would have been so 2000.

  • zukidrvr

    This has to be the stupidest review I’ve seen on this site. You’ve done much better in the past.

    “The screen is depressing. I personally think at this point in time, there is no excuse. It instantly makes the phone not feel competitive, and doesn’t encourage you to use the phone. In fact, it makes me not even want to use the device. Not sitting next an iPhone 4 and a DROID X — no way.”

    Not even want to use the device??? I’ve been using one for three days. I can’t imagine where you came up with this criticism.

    • Jason

      They get paid by Apple to talk shit about the competition.

    • JTKong

      Can you elaborate on the screen and its responsiveness??

  • Vito Capezio

    I hate when people say the shitty hardware specs are because of “battery life.” I only made it through a full day with my Tour, and I make it through a full day with my Droid X that has a 1GHz processor and a kickass, huge screen. The battery life is honestly the effin’ same.

    And please, enough with this ‘business’ bs. THEY MADE THIS PHONE TO BE A CONSUMER DEVICE AND TO COMPETE AGAINST THE IPHONE/ANDROID (because, if you didn’t notice, RIM sales are down while android/iOS are rising even more and more). A majority of the people buying this phone WILL NOT NEED ‘SECURE’ E-MAIL.

    I’m tired of the excuse that this phone is for business people. It’s not.

    One last thing…people need to stop knocking soft keyboards until they try it. Please, if you think you type fast on your blackberry, come see me on my Droid X. I will smoke you.

    • des

      You are not so naive to think that RIM will drop the business users completely aside and dive into the consumer segment directly?

      This is just keep business part and add small features for consumer segment. Then get in consumer market step by step. This is not an iPhone/Droid killer because it’s never meant to be one.

      Take some corp strategy 101 class before you post. Thanks.

      • blkrabb1t

        Well Windows Mobile did a similar strategy, and look at what happened. Nokia is also a good competitor, but they don’t have the BES service that Blackberry has. Blackberry isn’t the end-all for business/corporate use.

      • http://World B

        i’d like to see storm become the play toy everyone is talking about. the 9700 of this world left to be business oriented. the torch a half way between and the storm UI being something totally different with the underpinnings of OS 6 to make everything work but make it the iphone killer.

        the storm is ready to create the perfect storm ;)

      • wild homes

        The traditional BlackBerry line is still pretty successful– and as long as enterprise users are still hooked on the keyboard and BBM, it’ll probably remain that way– but the Storm was pretty much a disaster the first two times, and the recent information about the third versions suggests that we’re just in for a minor spec revision this year with the addition of OS6. Nothing there that suggests the Storm is about to kill the iPhone or any of the high-end Android devices on Verizon. Heck, I’d say the Storm isn’t in the same class as any of the Android devices on Verizon save for (maybe) the Eris.

        If RIM would finally devote itself to both the corporate and the consumer markets, they’d stand a chance at getting a foothold in the latter. But so far it seems they’re still hedging their bets– thus, this half-play with OS6.

      • Devon2000

        the storm 2 was not a disaster, the only people that complain about the storm 2 is the ones that had the storm 1 and swears its the same phone so they are unwilling to try out the storm 2, but the ones that are brave enough to take a chance i never hear them complain, neither does the ones that jump straight to the storm 2, so dont confuse the storm 2 with the 1st one, its a huge difference

      • JTKong

        “If RIM would finally devote itself to both the corporate and the consumer markets…”

        I agree, RIM just needs to stop trying to make a media powerhouse to compete with Apple and Android but instead focus on their loyal followers. We love the email, we love the keyboards, we love BBM, trackpad/trackball (I love both).

        Just focus on the good and what works, let Android and Apple duke it out over which is the media powerhouse. For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone would want to watch an entire movie on a phone?! Sure, I can understand the occasional video or listen to some music to kill time in line but who sits and watches a full length movie on their phone?!

        RIM you got us, just give us what we love, give us what attracted us to BlackBerry!!

        Cheers!

      • http://www.rossmanngroup.com Louis Rossmann

        I don’t agree. RIM’s failures are evident in all devices, not because they can’t choose personal or business.

        Lag is evident on all blackberries. To what degree depends on the phone. You can say it’s because of mesasge hoarding. With airplane mode on, I can access messages from January on the incredible with no lag.

        The browsing, while improved in OS6, fails to meet the experience of other devices due to the fail screen resolution. Web browsing is not just a consumer activity. The other day my webhost went down. i had a spare ghetto website up in the meantime. When it came back up, I had to switch the DNS servers associated with my domain over. I could do that on my incredible in 2 minutes. I know just between the hourglass switching between apps, copying & pasting, finding messages, resetting namecheap password, this would have taken damn near 15 frustrating minutes on my storm.

        I can fly on my Incredible. I never feel like I’m flying on a blackberry. This is one of the major problems, IMO.

      • http://www.rossmanngroup.com Louis Rossmann

        Also, the storm 2 was a disaster, just less of one.

        I tried typing on one the other day. The storm 1, if I type a paragraph or two, always got to a point where the blue light on the key stopped moving and 5-10 keys later it’d catch up with me. Sometimes the words would get typed perfectly, sometimes garbled during this occurance.

        It happened on the storm 2 as well. Slow boot up, general lag, fail browser, lack of IMAP subfolders on email accounts are all storm 2 faults as well as storm 1 faults.

        Rubberized buttons and a different click mechanism doesn’t change the 9550. a storm by any other name, is just as much of a pain in the ass.

      • wild homes

        I’d simply argue that RIM doesn’t have the time to get into the consumer market ‘step by step’. iOS is a monster, and Android is evolving more rapidly than anything we’ve ever seen. That recently noted 886% increase in year-over-year sales performance is not a fluke and Android is not tapering off yet. RIM needs to make a major play for the consumer market and they need to do it yesterday. BlackBerry OS is fine, but RIM does everything in slow motion. If they don’t stop being the company that released the exact same poorly received, slightly re-specced Storm twice and evolve into a company that moves as quickly as their competitors, they’ll find themselves in the same boat as Nokia– incredibly wealthy but with no real plans for the future, dependent on poor, developing markets.

      • Erik

        Excellent response. No one mentions that the screen is the same res as the iPhone 3GS and has a BETTER processor than the 3GS and 1st Droid. That doesn’t sound obsolete to me.

    • http://World B

      also you might want to get a job too that uses bb as a tool instead of some play thing and you might understand

      software keyboards are good but they don’t beat clicking down on something real

    • meske

      What you don’t get us that bb’s are embedded in business. There are many companies that will not allow anything but a bb to connect to their messaging infrastructure. This is for security and compliance purposes, as all the data is encrypted, password protected, and can be remotely wiped by an admin if needed. Those functions are not well developed in android or iphone, unless you use a 3rf party app (which is clunky from my experience).

      This device will sell extreemly well to the business consumer that only uses bb (huge!) And will get some consumer penetration from those that don’t like apple or are concerned about google knowing their every move.

    • JOKER

      BBM is what we se it for

  • thedeadbaby

    In what way was this a review? I hate how the media, your site included, sucks on the iphone’s balls. My god. I am in no way play favorites when it comes to technology. If it delivers in the way advertised, I will buy it. If I try the new device for a reasonable amount of time and it sucks, I return it. For being a journalist, this review fails. In now way did you even attempt to use this phone without a slanted view. This site is no better then gizmodo. Full of favoritism to apple. Hey bg, could you at least place a call on the blackberry? Because I sure couldn’t on my iPhone 4, hence the reason I returned it after 3 weeks, which was an accurate amount of time to full access the device in question.

    • lulu

      you’re forgetting this is the boy gay report

    • clint

      It takes 4 attempts before i can finally place a call on my 9700! It says “call failed” 3 times in a row. its been making me very mad lately. :(

      • Jason

        Insert your SIM card you fool. Ugh, some people are so fucking stupid it boggles my mind.

      • JTKong

        Ha! I love it. Jason, you should be in tech support :)

    • Dave

      honestly I don’t know what your problem is that “you couldn’t place a call” I mean come on are you kidding? I have an iphone 4 (in Canada) Toronto and I could make it lose one or two bars by holding it for more than 5 min with both hands around it completely covering the “death grip” strip and the whole frame of the phone and I still had 2 bars left I did all the death grip thing and still nothing. I never succeeded making it to go 0 bars and searching. I do believe the iphone 4 might have a design flaw but the poor At&t signal also has something to do with it. because I also tried my bold and again couldn’t lose bars they way apple showed so i’m not sure what else to say but saying that you can’t even make phone call with it is a bit of exaggeration. i’m not saying you might not have a drop call experience but not to be able to make a simple phone is just not true

      • clint

        dude, my fone drops calls all the time, maybe its a tmobile dallas/ft worth thing, i had to borrow my friends G1 to call dell support because my 9700 kept saying “call failed”

  • Mark Texas

    Some good comments on both sides. Personally I think the device will satisfy the people who prefer Blackberry but desired a better web browser. I guess sales will reflect if the lack of a higher resolution screen / CPU speed will make a difference. To me it’s like the difference between a DELL XPS and Inspiron – they both are solid computers but one definately will do more. (price aside).

    I’d really like to know the demographics of the commentors (Age, Job, Income) as it will paint a clear picture on who is buying what platform and for what reason. I have no desire for my phone to be the swiss army knife for all my communication / media needs. I have a 9650, iPhone 4 and have used both Incredible and Droid X (Which is borderline mini tablet). I will likely remain a dual phone person to leverage the strengths of each device.

    In the end I think RIM will be better off with the “gadget” crowd moving on. They are likely changing devices every 6 – 12 months and are frankly not part of RIM’s core market.

    I’m deciding if I should move to at&t for torch ot not. Verizon has not let me down the past 4 years.

    If RIM could ever launch a device across every carrier at the same time they would do some damage. Everyone being “exclusive” (for the states) to one carrier is just fragmenting the market.

    • Jason

      Mark,

      be patient if you really want to test it in a dual mode. RIM always sell their products on all carriers just time being the essence.

      For your survey: I’m Male 36, working in the financial industry, use BBs all my career. Income 150-200K I own a Mac mini @ home since 2005 and will upgrade a new one this Christmas(will never go back to PC). I own a Nano for music on the go because it’s small and don’t care if I drop or lose it. I tried both Iphone and Droids at local stores and find it too bulky and shinny. I’m not metro-sexual so I will leave the glamour phones for others to enjoy and stick to my BBs. I owned 8700, 8800, 9000, 9700 and will pick up 9800 up this Christmas as well. BBs just get the job done. Reviewed all the apps of all platforms and 95% of them are useless (sorry developers). I own an old Xbox and a wii. Grew out of xbox because I guess I grew up and need to focus on work and family. I use wii for exercise in Winter and play some cartoon and board games with my 3 yr old. can’t see any joy playing games or watching long movies on a phone especially when you need to conserve the battery for that important calls or sending that critical message.

      • clint

        good comment +1, except, why will you never go back to a PC? dont you hate having to sync everthing thru itunes. where as with a bb or android on windows you can just drag and drop without having to use a program?

      • Jason

        I don’t mind using the itune, it is a nuance that you have to go through but I do like the Nano for its size and punch. I guess I buy thing based on size becasue of the size it determines how often you will use it. Trust me if BB was big as Iphone or Droid, I’m not sure if I want to wake every morning to go to work knowing that I have carry a brick or extra charger just in case. BB and Ipod Nano achieve this for me.

      • JTKong

        “BBs just get the job done.”

        That’s it in a nutshell.

        RIM should change their marketing to “We Get Sh!t Done”.

  • stu

    Even though I disagree with BGR on this latest Blackberry device, they are not even close to WSJ, PC World, Barrons, and a few other “apple/android influenced[american] sites contraBlackberry view. No matter what Blackberry does, they produce numerous articles per week, sometimes per day, on the “problems” with Blackberry. Yet there are around 50 million people worldwide using Blackberry, with 5 million plus added every 3 months.
    I guess we are all naive users who need to know what is a “sexy” phone.
    Blackberry Torch sales, I believe, will do extremly well and I’ll be one of the buyers!

    • Jason

      Because they are all suckers who get paid by Apple to push their product. How else can Apple sell a defective iPhone?

  • Lath

    I switched from my old berry to an Evo about a month ago with the thought that maybe one day I’d go back to RIM. Lol, what a crazy thought. Blackberry’s are good for business people using a ton of email who need exceptional battery life. Everybody else should go Android (or the iPhone if you love Apple and can stomach AT&T). Blackberry’s aren’t even in the same ballpark as the new Android phones and if the Torch is all they’ve got they better prepare to fall even farther behind.

    You can have your 624MHz processor and outdated OS. I’ll take my rooted EVO, overclocked 1GHz snapdragon processor, and FroYo.

    Welcome to 2007 RIM.

    • Jason

      ‘You can have your 624MHz processor and outdated OS. I’ll take my rooted EVO, overclocked 1GHz snapdragon processor, and FroYo.’

      all that speed and 22nd century techno, for what again?

      • Bob

        That is on sprint, right? the carrier with worse coverage than t-mobile, right?

        And outdated OS? Not anymore…
        The processor speed is fine for what the device is trying to accomplish. It doesn’t need ultra-ub3r power to achieve the same things the torch will be doing.

    • clint

      +1

  • Me

    At the end of the day wtf do you do with a super fast phone??
    the same that u could do with the 9800, we re not talking about a computer here, its just a handheld device, messages…. calls, and fb creeping book or yourporn, u dont do anything else!!

  • caffesilvia

    God, I’m amazed that Blackberrys even get reviewed on tech blogs. Are you guys gonna start reviewing staplers and hole punches too?

    • Jason

      you said it, BBs should be reviewed at Man Genius Report. This place is for kiddies who like to play with their shinny and fast toys in which 3/4 can’t even afford to buy worthless apps because they spent all their saving on a phone and a plan.

      • wild homes

        I think you might have misunderstood the previous post.

  • MikeD

    I don’t care what the nay sayers say. Why? Because they have the absolute worst record of predicting almost anything.

    The 9800 is right on target for its audience. And Haters… don’t be dicks about it and start insulting people who will buy it.

    The 9800 is a big step for the blackberry platform and it isn’t going to alienate users of the older devices. In fact they will feel right at home with the 9800.

    So its going to sell, and it will sell really well. It actually could also consolidate the number of devices RIM releases because it has a physical keyboard yet has a full sized screen.

    Do not sleep on this device, else you will look foolish.

  • SouthLA

    I will get one on Thursday.

    I have no need for my “phone” to be my primary internet / media / gaming / camera / device. I have dedicated devices that even the best phone can’t begin to compare with for all of that.

    I need a good PHONE, that can go all day, two or three would be better on a charge, Exchange integration with secure email, and decent internet access for those times I can’t open one of my laptops. Everything else is like A1 on a good steak, nice, but not necessary. I don’t need bleeding edge, or even cutting edge, I need dependable, familiar, and productive. This seems to fit the bill as has my string of current and prior BBs.

    My Bolds are in fact still doing the job, but the web kit browser will bring value when dealing with secure webmail messages from business associates.

    I have no issue with the other devices, I plan to by a Droid 2 to play with, but when it’s time to make money, it’s BB.

  • agi

    When that big earthquake hits the western states, i can’t wait for all the iphone fanboy hipsters to realize they can’t make calls or send texts during such a massive natural disaster.

    The one’s still communicating and receiving emails will be blackberrys, just like what happened in the huge chile quake last year.

    When that happens, that will be a huge eye-opener for everyone.

    Blackberrys are known as the only phones to work in natural disasters with limited service available. Could save 1000′s of lives.

    • clint

      my fone constantly drops calls, where as on an android with tmobile in the same spot where my 9700 is dropping calls, the call is clear and the connection is strong. BIS likes to freeze up on occassion also

    • Schtupenheimer

      I’ve had the 3GS/iPhone 4… and they are great toys…er I mean phones… but in all seriousness…

      Both were great phones, I didn’t hate them.. nor am I an apple fanboy. They just…weren’t for me.

      Every phone will have pros and cons… but the cons may affect one individuals lifestyle more than it would another; making them not want that phone.

      As far as one phone being better than another, I dont believe in it. HOWEVER, one phone being better than another for a certain individuals lifestyle/work I can believe in…

      Went from a 9700, to 3GS, to iPhone 4, to Palm Pre… now waiting for the 9800 to come out or might even go back to 9700 because thats what FITS for me.

      To each his own.

      All I really stress is that when you go to use a new phone, go in with a CLEAN SLATE. Try and not compare it to the iPhones… if it doesn’t have the features you want, DONT get it.

      • Schtupenheimer

        What I forgot to say… was that don’t get it cause “your friend has it”… the iPhone has a lot of uses and great apps, I’m not knocking any phones.

        Just clarifying that.

        iPhones do have the face back app though :-P (The Other Guys referance)

  • offday

    i was playing around with the idea of switching to a Blackberry in general..but after seeing the past few newest devices by RIM i don’t even want to hear about BB anymore. they’re almost in their own lil turtle race world, phh!

  • K Bear

    This phone makes me want to leave Blackberry fast. They call this innovation? A company called Research In Motion calls this innovation? What a huge disappointment.

    • Devon2000

      this phone looks awsome, i dont know what u r expecting, how about giving the phone a try, if u r with blackberry now then what r u complaining about? this phone is an inprovement in every way, a faster processor, touch screen and physical keyboard, a much improve camera, and web browswer, what the hell else do u want? I swear yall fuckers are a bunch of babies, yall always got shit to complain about geesh!!!!

      • Jason

        They are complaining that the technology is not 22nd century where the expectation is for smart phone to transforms into a masseuse and has to transform fast or else it is garbage and when it transformed it supposed to give them R&T while making calls or surfing the web or playing games or watching porn.

  • Andrew

    You’re all missing the point that BGR is trying to make completely. It is well understood by everyone on this website that each of the three “major” smartphone operating systems has it’s own niche to fill. iOS is obviously consumer oriented. It’s about fun, it focuses on apps, and content consumption. Blackberry is historically very utilitarian. It forgoes some of the “luxuries” that one might find on an iPhone or an Android device, in exchange for security, reliability, and utility. And Android fills the niche in the middle. It combines a lot of the consumer-centric features that iPhone users love, with some spartan-esque elements, the ability to customize your phone’s software to any degree you see fit, etc etc. But what BGR is trying to say is that it is no secret, and I don’t think anybody can argue, that the Torch is designed as a end-user, consumer device. The disappointment in this stems from the lack of consumer features. Blackberry OS 6 may be “new”, but the underpinnings and core of the operating system are 10+ years old now. It is an outdated platform that still runs on top of a Java VM layer, which really means that no matter how fast of a processor you put inside of it, you’re going to hit a platform bottleneck. Running Java applications for an end user simply doesn’t cut it anymore. It doesn’t have the ability to render and present the level of rich content that other devices and platforms are delivering. OS 6, in my opinion, looks to be nothing more than a facelift and a few optimisations on top of a platform that badly needs to be revamped from the ground up.

    The BlackBerry, as an enterprise and corporate device, is not going anywhere anytime soon. As a corporate email and messaging device, you simply cannot beat it. The infrastructure and reliability (for the most part) is unseen anywhere else in the mobile market, but as far as RIM being a consumer device juggernaut, they are going to have to do more than this if they want to stay in the game as a major competitor. They will ALWAYS be able to sell devices, just based on their brand name power, but if they want to see the success that the iPhone has, and that the Android platform is quickly obtaining, they are going to have to make a bigger push than this. It’s no longer going to cut it to put some consumer friendly apps and a pretty face on top of your rock-solid corporate platform.

    • synwars

      Nicely said. Again, going back to something Mike Lazardis brought out when the first iPhone came out, that RIM is not trying to dominate the smart phone market, rather ride in the wave of success that the iPhone and Android devices have generated in the smart phone world. Don’t think for a second that RIM hasn’t benefitted from the success of others. That is what competition does, it doesn’t kill business, it creates a larger more successful market.

    • http://www.rossmanngroup.com Louis Rossmann

      I don’t get this whole reliability thing.

      I have never seen an hourglass on my android device. My keyboard never stopped typing with the blue light lagging on my Incredible, and I have never had a second or two of lag & sluggishness before/after a completed phone cal on an android device.

      My Incredible is rock solid, something I could not say for the 8330, 9530, or 9550 I tried for a year to get along with.

  • Blicked

    Can’t wait for this to hit Verizon- I’ll definitely get one then. That said, I do wish it had a better CPU and screen.

  • skyy_flyer

    Wow, and this whole I thought that Fandroids and MacFan’s were bad… this covert Blackberry Army is really letting themselves be known on this post with any negative comment downranked, while any positive Blackberry gets upranked… Wow.

    • Versed

      Skyy,
      All blinders on fanboi’s are the same, its just a different product. I seen crap said about every device which for the most part isn’t true. Or cliche’s like, can’t make a call, or fragmentation or old school, which is utter crap. All of the three (and soon 4) major devices have their strong and weak points. And all of them are very good. Right now I have an ip4 and an Android Captivate, and like both. I played with the Torch yesterday and it seemed a great device, but not in the market.

      I just don’t understand all of this hate, as well as what I have is great and what you have is crap. Each major products forces the others to improve.

      Enough Said.

  • Bratan

    I’m not a fanboi of any one particular phone. I’ve used an iphone, android, and blackberries, and found something I like in all of them. With that said, I believe the BB is the only platform that serious money-makers use. If you are in any kind of regulated industry, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone NOT using a BB. These people don’t have time to play Paper Toss on their phones

  • mrsFAB

    I husband carries a Droid Incredible and loves it. I, on the other hand, am a BlackBerry/iPhone 4 carrier. Each of these devices have negatives and positives. I say just get what suits you. Smartphone compitition just makes the choices more and more yummy for us consumers!

  • Troy

    Everyone is missing the point. I use the BB 9700 for business. My biggest complaint is the size and resolution of the screen. The main reason, I actually want to use it for more than email…. and if you have to bang out a long email, pick up the phone. Doesn’t anyone else use the BB to look at PowerPoint and Excel? This is nearly impossible on the current screen, because it is too small and resolution isn’t high enough. I want to be able to read a slide without zooming all the time. That’s where the resolution of the screen makes a huge difference.

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