BlackBerry Torch 9810

BlackBerry
Torch 9810

For: Well designed, fluid UI, solid build quality.
Against: Still a little bulky, battery life could have been better.



Nearly a year after the original
Torch arrived in the market, RIM
has revealed the Torch 2 - or
9810. From a design and form-factor
point of view, the 9810 is exactly like
its predecessor and the build is just as
solid. The slide out QWERTY keypad
is just as smooth, but the keypad
could have been slightly more spread
out to optimize typing. The only thing
that may give the phone away would
be its new color scheme: shiny silver
instead of the gunmetal grey finish.
It’s still just a little on the heavy side
at 161g and the rubberized sides do allow
you to get a good grip on it. As usual,
the bundled handsfree and cables are
as good as they come. The inclusion of
a smart case would have been brilliant,
or a memory card for that matter, but
considering the internal storage has been
beefed up to 8 GB, the latter point is
quite moot. It was never too hard on the
eyes and the new jazzed up color combo
adds a bit of elegance to the overall
appearance. The 3.2-inch screen gets a
decent bump in resolution, and it now
runs at 480 x 640 pixels.
While the exteriors might be the same,
there are a few very good changes on
the inside, most important among them
being the processor. With the inclusion
of a 1.2GHz CPU, the 9810 can now play
toe-to-toe with the fastest smartphones
in the market. This change, along with
OS 7.0, makes for a superb browsing and
in-app experience. The phone responds

and moves from task to task effortlessly
and screen renders are instantaneous.
Browsing especially gets a shot in the
arm, and we think even the fastest
Android phones may struggle to keep up.
Media capabilities are still quite up
there with the best, though the lack
of 1080p video playback might be
considered a drawback. It supports
XviD and DivX codecs and plays most
file formats except FLV and MKV. Music
playback, thanks to the audio engine’s
Audio Boost and EQ presets, worked
as well as RIM’s other offerings and the
bundled handsfree proves well-matched
to the output quality for calls and music.
Although this device is equipped with
a GPS module, you’ll still have to contend
with BlackBerry Maps showing you in
the middle of an empty screen for Indian
residents. The other option is Google
Maps or paying for third party software.
The 5 megapixel auto focus camera
(with LED flash) also remains unchanged.
It features settings like image stabilization
and geo tagging, face-detection, as well
as continuous auto focus while recording
video at 720p. Image quality is just as
good as the 9800’s.
Seeing as smartphones, and especially
BlackBerrys, are the type of handsets
that one would tend to use on a frequent
basis, the Torch 9810’s battery proved to
be average. It’s expected that a device of
this caliber would offer a little more than
just keeping in tow with the rest.