BlackBerry Torch 9800

Product Type	Smart phone
Connectivity	Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G, HSPA
Operating system	Other
Screen size	3.2 in.
Camera resolution	5 megapixels
Size (WxHxD)	61x112x14 mm
Weight	161 g
Available colours	Black

The classic BlackBerry has a landscape screen with a Qwerty keyboard underneath, like the BlackBerry Bold 9700. But rather than stick with the landscape look for its new touchscreen Torch, RIM has opted for tall and thin instead. The keyboard slides out from below the screen the long way, which makes it narrower than it has to be. It also makes the phone feel top-heavy when you slide it open. Indeed, the Torch feels bulky, weighing in at 161g and porking out at 15mm thick.
The keyboard itself is okay to use, but we don't love it quite as much as the one on the Bold 9700. That's because it's got a lip around it that hindered our thumbs, and the keys didn't have the firm response that we like. But we still enjoyed typing long missives on the physical keyboard.
The on-screen keyboard is also very usable when you're feeling too lazy to pop open the slider. We had no trouble tapping out accurate messages, and the predictive text was helpful when we made mistakes. We also liked the built-in spell checker and the cursor, which made selecting parts of text easy.


We think you'll probably stick with the physical keyboard, otherwise you'll be wasting one of this phone's biggest advantages. But, if you want to type on the screen, you have the option of portrait and landscape Qwerty keyboards, a 12-key alphanumeric keyboard, and the SureType option, which offers two letters per key.