Blackberry has revolutionized the handheld mobile industry since its inception; even though the device targeted a much smaller niche market primarily Blackberry has now expanded their reach far beyond the initial professional and corporate circles.

Against expectation the Blackberry remains a strong contender to the Apple iPhone and the Android devices by providing a versatile range of functions exclusive to the device range and an exterior design that fuses practicality with sophisticated yet simple easy to use physique. Comparative advantages of the Blackberry devices range from the native messenger client, optional expandability of memory and battery coupled with ease of synchronization with multiple personal computers as well as multiple handsets. An added benefit of the Blackberry range is the ease of accessing large phonebooks and compatibility with a large number of third party applications with little hassle.

The Blackberry Torch 9850 is a fully touch enabled handset that is impressive in all faculties of reasoning. The new Blackberry 7 operating system is packed into a neat thin physical design. At first glance the sleek exterior of the Torch looks much like most other Blackberry designs in the market however the full touch operation with the option of a slide qwerty keypad makes the device a top option for almost any level of use.

The familiar BlackBerry call, menu, back, and end buttons and optical trackpad are visible just below the display of the 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen. The phone supports a 3.5 mm jack on the right edge of its exterior while the left edge house the micro USB charging port, the 5 megapixel camera complete with an LED flash sits in the familiar position at the back of the phone. The top of the phone is home to the mute button and the lock button. The phone slides upwards revealing a traditional Blackberry qwerty pad which allows for a rather pleasant typing experience.

The 5 megapixel camera offers a standard clicking experience and handles fairly good image quality. The video recording may experience a slight delay but runs smoother than most previous models. The done up image viewer app is an improvement and packs a pinch to zoom function which is a neat addition to the software.

The basic function of making calls on the Blackberry Torch is a fast pain free affair and the quality of calls is crisp and clear allowing a high quality calling experience and a decent loud speaker option. One of the newer additions to the phone’s software is the universal search option much like a PC making it easier to locate files within the device.

In terms of syncing mail and other social media utilities to the Torch Blackberry has made major improvement in compatibility. There is a native Gmail client that presents users with what is probably one of the best Gmail synchronizations outside of an Android handset. The web browser also is an improvement with features such as multi tab browsing and actual cursor providing a fairly accurate and rich web browsing possibility. However the Torch does come across a few lags here and there while browsing.

The handset also comes with an impressive battery life that lasts days uncharged and a highly compatible OS. In conclusion the Blackberry Torch is a high performance handset with an impressive set of functions.

By Dilshan Senaratne