The phonebook has been overhauled. Besides each of your contacts, a series of links shows you a summary of all the communications you've had with that contact, whether it's SMS messages, phone calls or emails. It's a very useful feature, much more so than the social networking integration other manufacturers have built into their phonebook apps.
BlackBerrys are renowned for their brilliant battery life, but the Torch 9800 let us down. We had to charge the Torch everyday, so its battery might not last a particularly hectic day of email, browsing and multimedia use. We suspect this comparatively short battery life is due to the more sophisticated hardware and operating system compare to previous BlackBerrys, but it's still disappointing.
Despite its disappointing battery life, the Torch 9800 is the best BlackBerry yet. It lacks the polish of rival smartphones. Although OS 6 is a good start, it will need continual improvement if it's to keep up with the aggressively-updated Android and iOS and attract app developers too. A good place to start would be Flash support, a feature we hope to see both in an OS 6.1 update and the next BlackBerry handset.
Nonetheless, if RIM continues making touchscreen devices this good, Android could soon find itself overshadowed by BlackBerry.
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Verdict
The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is probably the best BlackBerry yet and the new OS 6 is one of the major reasons why. Couple this with a hugely responsive touchscreen, comfortable hardware keyboard and all the BlackBerry services you’ve come to expect and you’ve got a stunning smartphone.
Connectivity: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G 850, 1900, 2100 Display: 320 x 640 pixels, 3.2 inches OS: BlackBerry 6 Camera: Five megapixels GPS: Assisted GPS Processor: 624 MHz processor Bluetooth: v2.1 Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n Dimensions: 111 x 62 x 14.6 mm Weight: 161g Battery: Li-Ion 1300 mAh
