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Hands On With the BlackBerry Torch 9800

Posted by kdawson on from the rim-shot dept.

adeelarshad82 writes "Research in Motion announced the company's first slider-style BlackBerry, the Torch 9800, which is also the first BlackBerry with both a touch screen and hard keyboard, and the first device to run the new OS 6. The Torch feels and looks very much like a BlackBerry, with the proper BlackBerry Bold-style arrangements of plastic, metal, and glass; there are also BlackBerry fonts on the keys and the now-standard BlackBerry trackpad. The Torch's 3.2-inch, 360-by-480 screen is a standard capacitive LCD touch screen. The screen is bright and sharp, but it's obviously behind the competition in terms of resolution. The Torch has a 5-megapixel camera with VGA video recording, Bluetooth 2.1, 512 MB of program memory, 4 GB of built-in storage, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The Torch has the same 624-MHz Marvell processor as the existing BlackBerry Bold. The new BlackBerry 6 OS adds touch to the interface mix. RIM appears to have totally rewritten its media apps. There's a new Desktop Manager coming with BlackBerry 6, and a Social Feeds app that combines Twitter, Facebook, and various instant messaging conversations."

9 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Bad Apple by Spazntwich · · Score: 5, Funny

    How you like RIM, Jobs?

    1. Re:Bad Apple by oldspewey · · Score: 5, Funny

      I once had a recruiter contact me about a position at Research in Motion. For the next 2-3 days as we corresponded back and forth, I kept receiving emails titled "re: Rim Job" "re: re: Rim Job" "re: re: re: Rim Job".

      I suppose I'm lucky they weren't all immediately filtered as spam.

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    2. Re:Bad Apple by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

      A job at Research in Motion.

  2. According to Slashdot by mark72005 · · Score: 4, Funny

    According to Slashdot, this phone already outsold the iPhone in the last quarter :)

  3. Re:Groundbreaking [2007]! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Business user: I need fast push access to e-mail and critical documents wherever I go. I don't care about anything else.

    Personal user: LOL i just want 2 play sum farmville and take sum pictures of my doggie and put it on fabo and omg twitter i liek dont care if it works all the time k just as long as its pretty pretty!!!!1111ONE00110001

    Youtube? Is that you?

  4. Re:Groundbreaking [2007]! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    So there is no reason the current crop of Android devices or iPhones would pick the Blackberry Torch 9800 over a non business person?

    I suppose that is a true statement, but kind of a weird thing to say.

  5. Renamed for the UK market... by scorp1us · · Score: 2, Funny

    The phone will be dubbed the "Blackberry Flashlight 9800" for UK owners

    --
    Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
    1. Re:Renamed for the UK market... by natehoy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Let's just hope they don't have any battery overheating problems, or the "Torch" name will turn into a bad pun really, REALLY fast.

      --
      "This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
  6. Re:Blech by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I end up swapping the SIM to my personal iPhone

    If it helps, I know a number of RIM employees who do the same thing.