BlackBerry Forums Support Community - 9800 Torch Review

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- General 9800 Series Discussion - Torch (http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-9800-series-discussion-torch/)

- - 9800 Torch Review – after a few weeks . . . (http://www.blackberryforums.com/general-9800-series-discussion-torch/240673-9800-torch-review-after-few-weeks.html)

9800 Torch Review – after a few weeks . . .

Earlier this month, I moved from a Bold 2 (9700) to the Torch (9800). I’ve been wanting a Torch primarily for its bigger screen and updated browser. Now that I’ve used it for awhile I wanted to provide some insight:

First of all, I love the device – the physical size is nice – I like keeping it in my front pants pocket and I don’t want to wear a holster so it fits the bill there. I think some of the newer, larger screen phones (Samsung Galaxy, HTC xxxx, et al) may be a bit too large although I’d probably get used to those too.
It’s nice having a choice of four keyboards (on screen landscape, on screen portrait full, on screen reduced, and slide out). I find myself using the onscreen to unlock the device but usually using the slide out for longer emails. Like any new device the keyboard does take a bit to get used to – for me the primary issue is that the keyboard itself is not as thick as the device – it’s thinner. Still – it wasn’t the big leap that some of us experience from a curve to the 9700.
On my 9700 I was a big user of the Standby function – where you hit the Mute Key to basically ensure that no buttons are inadvertently pressed (until you first hit Mute to take it out of standby). This feature is no longer there – in its place – you use the Lock key – although, oddly enough, it doesn’t engage the device password lock – it performs the old standby. One issue I have with this arrangement is that when I hold the camera or video camera in landscape, I tend to hit the lock key causing me to wonder what the heck is going on with the phone. I’m guessing I’ll get used to this.
Part of the reason I moved from the 9700 to the 9800 is because my visual voicemail wasn’t working – it works great on the 9800 but I experienced some weird issues where it plays part of one message then goes onto the next. I believe this is because the updated media player allows you to scroll through a carousel of album art – and in visual voicemail as I put it up to my ear then look at it to see who it is and repeat I must be inadvertently going to the next voicemail. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. (What I would call a training issue. :smile: )
Camera/Video Camera – takes great pics – haven’t had a chance to explore all options – although on a recent trip to the hill country in Texas, while on a horse with limited coverage – the geotagging feature tends to take some time before allowing you to take a picture. I’m guessing there’s a setting I can set to bypass this. There are a number of options available and I have yet to play with them. I did notice that the lens tends to get dusty or prone to finger prints so I find myself wiping it clean first. Don’t recall having this much of an issue with the 9700.
I love the intuitive UI on the home screen where you touch the profile icon to change the profile, touch the new message icon to view all new messages, etc. I do find that I tend to inadvertently touch the top right that brings up the network connections settings and when the Clock is displayed (i.e. when charging) just touching anywhere on the screen brings up the option to change the Alarm Clock settings – I would think that this should only be invoked by touching an alarm icon say at the bottom of the screen.
Battery is OK – seems like my 9700 lasted longer – but I had that on 2G only to minimize dropped calls. I read somewhere that reducing the backlight brightness would help – I changed mine to 70% than to 50% - but the screen doesn’t seem any dimmer. I can’t tell if the battery is lasting longer yet.
Apps – I use Viigo all the time and it ported over just fine. Another thread suggested that there may be issues with it – but it works fine for me except for launching an article in a browser – which I rarely do.
I have the latest version of Google Maps and you can’t pinch to zoom in/out. It still works with the “I” and “O” so I guess another version will have to come out to provide that support.
Prior to this device, I could also place icons exactly where I want them – I don’t think you can with OS 6 – that doesn’t bother me too much though – I marked those that I need as Favorites to show up in the Favorites section and I find that the Frequent section also helps.
Speaking of Favorites – I love how I can save bookmarks as favorites and I love that the browser can display websites such as Salesforce.com. I now have a few dashboards and reports from Salesforce as favorites and it works beautifully.
I miss the left hand convenience key. I used this as Calendar and the right convenience key as voice dial – Calendar shows up as Frequent so I’m good (for now).

That’s it for now – just wanted to share. Please feel free to comment or provide feedback. Thanks.