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It’s been two years and I’m watching the Andriod phones hit the market with their sleek screens, fast processors and open source goodness. Iphone design and features are alternately catching up (multitasking) and exceeding (luscious screen) my Bold abilities. Very appealing. Two things holding me back on that front: no native Outlook sync for Android, and I just don’t like onscreen keyboards. I like to type accurately and know what letter I just pressed with some certainty. I’m weird that way. Outlook sync is the crucial step: I have so much data in my phone that to not back it up would be utter foolishness.

Then Research in Motion released the Blackberry Torch last week.  I was mildly interested , and read the lackluster reviews. They said it’s too little too late in this rapidly evolving smartphone scene, talked of the slow processor speed and low resolution screen. So without much enthusiam I meandered down to the AT&T store to check them out. I was very pleasantly surprised. I went back the next day and bought one. I am convinced that the AT&T employees are trained to tell you the phone you bought is the best one EVER. I mean, they go over the top making you feel like you’re oh so wise and lucky to have “X” phone. Anyhow….

I’ve long accepted that my smartphone requirements center on messaging (and.. phoning…), and for that I need a physical keyboard. The Blackberry Bold 9000 I bought two years ago is still the thoroughbred of keyboards in my experience and opinion. Coupled with Blackberry’s smart OS design, I love to brag to my iPhone toting wife that I can add an appointment to my calendar or lookup a contact phone number in the time it takes her to swipe left to right. Don’t get me wrong.. her fullscreen browsing experience causes  A TWINGE of jealousy. It’s so big and glossy… she zooms in with such ease.  Lets not digress into an Apple/PC or Blackberry/iPhone debate. This is about what phone satisfies MY needs which may not be yours: so lets get on with it.

My first impression was physical. She was hot, not way around it. The pictures did’t do her justice. To hold her and swipe my fingers across her surface and to push her buttons. I can’t believe I’m writing this. Here’s my rundown of key improvements, shortcomings and giddy-up-ness I’ve been enjoying on the Torch. I have read nothing but mediocre and only semi positive reviews of the Blackberry Torch, so I felt compelled to write this up. I will  occasionally comment on what those reviews have mentioned vs. my own experiences, as well as the inevitable iPhone comparisons, used as a point of reference. This is not meant to be a full exhaustive review but only a comment on my areas of interest in a messaging smartphone.

• The trackball is GONE! Can I get an Hallelujah!? That small trackball worked fine but if you are of the ultra hip movie star crowd (I’m not), you carry your phone in your pocket. Thats a guaranteed trackball failure from dust and crud getting in there after a couple years. I’ve always carried mine in the ultra uncool holster on my belt. I feel so six shooter-ish with it.  With no trackball problems other than… it sucks to use for browsing. Here’s me on my old Blackberry Bold after clicking a link, and I need to click on the back button: swipe , swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe… my  cursor is now halfway across the 2″ screen…. swipe swipe swipe… click. See where I’m (slowly) going with this? The new Torch replaces that ball with a very well designed, snappy fast and accurate trackpad. It grabs control of he pointer if you don;t want to use your finger on the touchscreen, and swipes through webpages with momentum like iPhone’s finger swipe. I find it more physically economical than swiping the screen (which Blackberry OS6 finally now supports). Kudos!
• Touchscreen: pinch and zoom and all the things you all (non Blackberry users) have enjoyed for the last few years. This one area is where I agree with the less than favorable comments I’ve read: it’s too little for a new smartphone in this market. While awesomely effective and improving my browsing experience by light years.. (for Blackberry users, anything is an upgrade. Remember: swipe swipe swipe…) . The pinch and zoom works, the swiping works. But.. it seems slightly less sensitive that even an older iPhone’s touchscreen responsiveness. The screen resolution also will leave some wanting if video watching is in your smartphone game.  My 2 year old blackberry bold has a sharper (though smaller) screen than the new Torch. I find myself wishing the screen was just SLIGHTLY bigger while browsing or watching video. But: how much phone does one want to carry around? I am pleased that I get such an overall big experience from such a small device. I can still fit this phone in my Bold belt holster (the gunslinging action continues…), even with a padded Otter Box case. I am thrilled that I now have a screen that’s big enough to read B&N Nook or Kindle ebooks on (in a pinch, it’s no ipad).
• Keyboard: it’s still Blackberry and its still faster than your touchscreen keyboard. Heck it’s faster than Blackberry’s own new onscreen keyboard. I have never owned or used a slide out keyboard so I have no point of reference here, but I do find myself wanting to have more thumb room on the top line of keys of the slide out keyboard. My fingers butt up against the slid up screen in a way that slows me down ever so slightly. I would be curious to hear fom other users familiar with standard Blackberry’s to see if this is just a  reaction to the way I’m used to typing on other Blackberry’s?
• Power Plugs: The Torch has a new tiny usb connector for charging. This is something I dislike (on all products). My Bold 9000 would sit in a cradle with no plug per sey to charge: the battery contacts were run to some beautiful, non obvious external chromed connectrs that look just like the phone: gravity made the charging connection when you dropped the phone in. Why aren’t ALL tiny electronics this way?? Those silly little delicate plugs. I know I’m going to break something one day accidentally.
• Power usage: The phones battery lasts forever. Ok.. not forever but compared to many fast processor phones: forever. This is one of the complaint areas I’ve read repeatedly: RIM’s processor choice is slower than alot of phones out there now. Apparently, people sometimes forget that fast processors = faster battery drain. It seems to me RIM struck a smart design choice balance here. I hope continued OS6 refinements improve on the efficiency and speed it can coax out of the processor.
• OS: YES it’s the long awaited OS6 for Blackberry smartphones. For us longtime Blackberry users this OS coupled with a touchscreen AS WELL as the keyboard is just… productivity and speed heaven. One touch access to email from the homescreen, integrated RSS feeds and social networking.. very cool. Personally I do not use Twitter avidly enough to want all my followers tweets in my inbox so I turned that off. The Social Feeds app is a great RSS newsreader however, and very intuitive once you figure it out. Reading newsfeeds is one of those luxurious smartphone features that have changed my life: every waiting room turns into an opportunity to catch up on the news.
• Browser: You may have heard Blackberry OS6 now has a webkit browser making it on par with iPhone and Android devices. Its very nice. If you are a Blackberry web browser user from the past: you have died and gone to heaven. And you then discover heaven is better than you even expected. If you are a Motorola Driod or iPhone web browsing user,  you are now looking down your long nose unimpressed. It works as any iPhone user would expect.
• Networking: Not sure if it’s the phone or the new OS, but this unit’s wifi integration works far better than it did on my Bold. In our home, we have poor cellular coverage (AT&T), often only getting about 1 bar without the booster turned on. As low signal makes your phone work harder and use more battery, I usually turn it off and use wifi when at home.  On the Bold this was cumbersome as many apps apprently needed a cell connection to work, and you had to go through menus and change settings to tell the browser to use one or the other. On the Torch, everything just works on whatever connection is available, exactly as expected.

My summary on the Torch and what I like about it… she is a great, sharp looking, nay, beautiful evolution of one of the  devices that started it all: Blackberry. Smooth, intuitive switching between the speedy keyboard text entry, the familiar and instinctive Blackberry buttons, and onscreen interaction is a huge productivity booster. Why did she become female in my mind? I don’t know, but I’m sure Freud does…and probably RIM, who are at the top of their game in my opinion.

Carry on folks!

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