RIM's new BlackBerry Torch smart phone has radically new OS

Aug 4, 2010 9:31 AM

RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800 smart phone touch screen AT&T blackberry6 OS

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 will be available on
the AT&T network.
Photo: Research in Motion (RIM)

RIM yesterday overhauled its BlackBerry line of smart phones by unveiling the Torch 9800, a touch-screen phone with a slide-out keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera with flash, and a new social-network-optimized operating system that borrows heavily from the ones on Palm, Android, and Apple phones.

Available August 12 from AT&T for $199 with a two-year contract, the new phone maintains many of the buttons and controls familiar to BlackBerry users, but updates the interface to add new capabilities to the popular but aging platform. These include application multitasking, universal search, detailed notification previews, and more advanced multimedia functionality.

The Torch's new operating system, BlackBerry 6, enables users to view feeds from multiple social networks such as Facebook and Twitter on one page and blast updates to all of them with one entry. It's also possible to view multiple RSS feeds on a single page. But BlackBerry 6 takes things a step further by also making its onboard apps collaborate on a higher level.

For example, if you type the name of a recording artist in universal search, besides scouring your phone's e-mail, messages, contacts, music, videos, and the Web for info on the artist, the search may also cue up a cut from the artist on the phone's Slacker Radio app.

Enhanced multimedia capabilities include Wi-Fi Music Sync, which enables the phone to sync with the user's iTunes or Windows Media Player music libraries over a Wi-Fi connection. Users can create and edit playlists from the phone, as well as tag individual songs so you can download them later.

In addition, new apps on BlackBerry's App World will also be enhanced to take advantage of the new OS's capabilities such as integration with location-based services. But, taking a page from Apple, the apps will probably have more annoying features, too, such as interactive ads that collect data on user habits when they're not pitching additional-cost offers. AT&T will offer three ways to pay for these services: credit card, PayPal, or on your phone bill. Torch users will be able to run apps designed for older versions of BlackBerry.

The phone itself measures a pocket-friendly 4.4 in. x 2.4 in. x 0.57 in when closed, and stretches to 5.8 in. long when you slide out the keyboard. It weighs 5.68 ounces.

At yesterday's demo, the Torch's 3.2-in. 360x480 capacitive touch-screen display seemed much more responsive than the one on RIM's only other touch-screened phone: the Storm. One cool display feature: auto-wrap text zoom, which automatically rewraps text in a column to fit the screen when you double-tap it.

The phone's 5MP camera has a flash and can record video at up to 640x480 resolution. Other features include a 624MHz processor with 512MB flash memory, 4GB built-in memory storage plus a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that supports up to 32GB cards (a 4GB card comes with the phone).

Bottom line: RIM's new BlackBerry 6 operating system has done a very good job playing catch-up with the other "socially adept" smart-phone platforms. As for the phone, its relatively small screen and not-so-fast processor bear a closer resemblance to the not-so-popular Palm Pre than to the sleeker, larger-screened hotrods being churned out by Apple, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung.

We'll have more on the the BlackBerry Torch when we get it into our labs, as well as more info on the new BlackBerry 6 operating system. In the meantime, check out our Ratings of the latest smart phones (available to subscribers).

—Mike Gikas