BLACKBERRY TORCH 9800

My first Blackberry! I never known Blackberry before, I never know Blackberry Messenger (BBM) before, I never known I can get cheap internet through my HP before using the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS), I never known Blackberry produces good devices/hand phone until the day I switched to Torch 9800 from Windows Mobile PDAs. I used to have ill feelings towards Blackberry hand phones or smartphones. They are dull, ugly, bulky, using Blackberry OS (lol) and had a funny-name. It was a quite a drastic move switching from Mobile Windows based PDA (Sony Ericson Xperia X2) to a new world of Blackberry OS. It may be overkill too, since the Torch 9800 happened to be the top of the line Blackberry Smartphones range. The verdict: I simply like it. I don’t know, I won’t use ‘love’ to stuff or things or tools or any dead things.

The screen is not the biggest that I have put my hands on. The 3.2” TFT capacitive touch screen is somehow does not look that small compared to my previous PDA, namely Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 (also a 3.2” TFT Resistive touch screen) and Samsung Omnia II I8000 (3.7” Amoled Resistive touch screen). Despite Omnia II superior image display quality, I found that Torch 9800 is better in the overall performance. It reacts faster to commands and slides, less prone to typing mistakes… and the Torch 9800 screen is just awesome. It reminds me of the gorilla glass type of display I’ve tried previously on I-Phones and Motorola phone. It was just precise, plus that sturdy feeling. I guess this might be the difference of capacitive touch screen and resistive touch screen.

Weighing 161g is the heaviest of the three, and texting using the keypad single-handedly, is pretty challenging. By the way, I used to like heavy phones and PDAs… it kept reminding me when I accidently left it behind. The Torch 9800 has an internal storage of 4GB, with 512MB RAM and 512MB of ROM. It is amazingly fast even after a few applications install unto it. Unlike the Samsung Omnia II which boasts 8GB of internal storage, I had it quite a hard time waiting for applications to exit and so on. It took me more than 30 seconds to read and reply to a text message that I just received.

The setback of Blackberry Torch 9800 is, the Wi-Fi. Oh yes, it has a Wi-Fi, and it can connect to my wireless networking range, but it cannot do a thing with it. I can’t browse internet using it, I can’t Yahoo Messenger with it, I can’t do BBM with it, I can’t download applications with it… Each time I tried to do the aforementioned activity, the phone will re-route me using the local Blackberry Internet Service provider. Thus… a Blackberry is not fully functional unless being subscribed to a Blackberry Internet Service. Doh! What’s the purpose of the built in Wi-Fi?

The camera quality is superior over both Xperia X2 and Omnia II. Even in fact Omnia II has the same 5MP camera. The battery stand by time is quite good, since I can be without a charger for couple of days, if I do not actively doing WordMole on it. I like this game that came with it. Come to think of it, how on earth people playing WordMole on a non-touch screen Blackberrys like the BlackBerry Bold 9700 or Blackberry 9300 3G?

The slider screen is steady and firm, despite its bulky appearance. The Xperia Model (X1 and X2) I had beforehand suffers from excessive stress, and both experienced a sudden blackout screen and restarts. I am yet to find this happening with this Blackberry Torch 9800. I don’t know, a few accidental-drop on the pavement, on the tarmac (the worst drop) 2 feet drop… suffer a few scratches here and there, but nothing serious. I do not say that the Torch 9800 is capable of handling multiple drops. It may be just my luck. I never condone dropping your expensive PDA.

Apart from the WordMole game which I enjoyed very much, there are also MP3/WAV/WMA player. The speaker provides an exceptional stereo quality. There’s also a YouTube application that can be used to view streaming videos online. As for the Pocket Office, I am yet to try this, since I had my laptops to view my document. Furthermore I am not in the mood of viewing documents when I’m sitting alone inside a bus, or cab, or while awaiting morning call to prayer. 

My final say on Blackberry Torch 9800; this is a marvelous phone, only when you subscribe to a Blackberry Internet Service provider. Heheh!