• Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860

    Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860

    Chandrakant 'ck' Isi, Nov 21, 2011 2312 hrs IST

    An expensive fruit.

    Fresh UI; Great sound quality; Capable video player.

    Expensive; OS needs polishing; Limited number of apps; Display prone to scratches; BlackBerry Internet Service required; Limited operator availability.

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BlackBerry Torch 9860
MRP: Rs 28,500
Street Price (As On 21-Nov-2011): Rs 27,500 (Letsbuy.com); Rs 28,000 (Saholic.com; Flipkart.com)


A BlackBerry without a QWERTY keypad sounds as weird as a Bollywood movie without a song. Seems like the 9860 wants to challenge touchscreen smartphones with its 3.7" display, powerful CPU, and a spanking new BlackBerry 7 OS. Nevertheless, is it good enough to stand a chance against the high-end Androids? More importantly, will the BB purist embrace this QWERTY-less mobile?


Design And Build Quality
The retail box comes with a phone, USB cable, charger, and earphones. No complimentary memory card, which is odd considering the internal storage is just 2.5 GB.

The device measures 4.7" (l) x 2.4" (w) x 0.5" (d), and weighs 135 grammes. It looks slightly bigger than other 3.7" mobiles due to its large bezel. The front is all glossy, which I personally don't find classy for a premium device. On the other hand though, the metallic back with its rubberised grip looks impressive.

Five physical buttons are present below the screen: [Call], [Hang-Up], [Menu], [Back], and an optical trackpad. These buttons are well-spaced, making sure you won't end up hitting the wrong keys.


Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860




The phone is powered by a 1.2 GHz CPU and has 768 MB of RAM. Other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 5 MP camera, 3.5 mm jack, microSD card slot, a 1230 mAh battery, and a bunch of sensors.


Display
The 3.7" LED-lit touchscreen has pixel dimensions of 800x480. The display is bright and produces crisp images. Viewing angles are also good, but a colour shift is noticeable at extreme inclinations. While the lack of Gorilla Glass is a downer, what's worse is that the screen is prone to scratches.


UI And Applications
The new BlackBerry OS has brought in colourful and touch-friendly icons. It's a welcome change; but the icons look slightly tacky and may not please corporate types. On the other hand, the transparent menu backgrounds look decent. Instead of multiple homescreens, the BB7 OS features a drawer that reveals apps and settings when slid upwards.


Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860




The status area at the top of the screen provides quick access to the cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth settings. Below that is a notification bar, which brings up a full-fledged notifications screen when touched. Multitasking support is present and you can switch between apps with a long press of the [Menu] button.


Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860



The notification screen is on the left, while the status bar can be seen on the right.


Although you can navigate using just the touchscreen, the trackpad provides a functional alternative. It is indeed useful where precision matters, especially while editing Word files in the Documents To Go app. Overall, the UI is fast, but I experienced random freezes occasionally. Moreover, the system became sluggish quite a few times while browsing the app store. Let's hope RIM will iron out these bugs soon.

The App World is where you can get apps for your BlackBerry. Unfortunately, the useful apps are paid, and their pricing is not friendly either. For example, the Wi-Fi hotspot app called Tether is priced at an atrocious Rs 1400! Thankfully, you also have free apps such as Zombie Attack (an Angry Birds rip-off), and Fruits and Ninja (a Fruit Ninja clone). The games are strictly ok, but surprisingly the 1.2 GHz CPU failed to run them smoothly.


Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860



BlackBerry App World and its costly apps.


The phone has a GPS receiver, but it constantly requires an internet connection. Navigation is taken care of by BlackBerry Maps, but those looking for voice guidance will be disappointed. The web browser is snappy, and makes good use of the CPU. It supports all the features of modern-day browsers, such as pinch-to-zoom, text reflow, etc. However, Flash-based sites are a no-go.


Multimedia
The music player's interface borrows heavily from the iPhone's Cover Flow. However, I'm not complaining as it makes for good eye candy. Equaliser presets are present, and the sound quality though the earphones is great.

The video player supports MP4, DivX, XviD, and WMV videos up to 720p. Strangely, it failed to play most 720p WMV videos, probably due to some codec issues. Overall though, the multimedia performance is great when compared to previous BlackBerrys.

The onboard 5 MP camera is accompanied by a single LED flash. It produces good images in daylight, correctly reproducing natural colours and a good amount of detail. However, the low-light performance is unimpressive, with the resultant images containing a lot of noise.


Review: BlackBerry Torch 9860



Camera sample.


The device is also capable of 720p video recording at 30 fps. The video playback is mostly smooth, but clips can only be saved in the 3GP format.



Video sample.



Telephony And Messaging
The 9860 lets you sort contacts into Business and Personal groups, which can be very useful. For example, if you leave a job, you can get rid of all your colleagues simply by clearing the Business contacts.

The physical [Call] and [Hang Up] buttons make the phone experience better. More importantly, there were no reception or voice quality issues throughout the testing.

BlackBerrys are renowned for their messaging solutions. Little wonder then that the 9860 supports everything from SMSs to IMs. The virtual keyboard is not as accurate in portrait mode, but its landscape version is good. Even so, the experience is nowhere near BB's good old physical QWERTY keypad.
 
A major drawback here is the device's dependability on the BlackBerry Internet Service. The phone doesn't allow you to set up an email account without subscribing to BB's services. What makes things worse is that these services are available with only a limited number of telecom providers. For example, my provider Loop Mobile does not offer this service.

I agree that RIM offers superior security, but not allowing users to utilise their Wi-Fi and existing internet plans to set up a mailbox is totally unacceptable. The only saving grace is BlackBerry Messenger, which works with any internet plan.


Battery And Verdict
The 1320 mAh battery is good enough to keep the device on from 9 am to 11 pm under normal use. With heavy use, it powers the device for roughly 8 hours and 30 minutes before running out of juice.

The 9860 offers a proper touchscreen experience, thanks to the new BlackBerry 7 OS. To justify the product's price tag, RIM has incorporated a 1.2 GHz CPU and a decent screen, leading to good multimedia performance. On the other hand, the OS has a few bugs, the phone lacks scratch-resistant glass, and is heavily dependent on the BlackBerry Internet Service.

All things considered, the phone is overpriced at Rs 27,500. Inevitably, its pricing puts it up against merciless droids such as the Galaxy S II and HTC Sensation - we all know how that will end.


Features: 3/5
Design And Build Quality: 3.5/5
Performance: 3.5/5
Value For Money: 2.5/5
Mojo: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

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Discussion Board
(6) Comments
Joseph S
,Bangalore, on Nov 23, 2011 09:42 PM
My dear friends, I recently purchased a blackberry 9860. I think blackberry launched the phone or OS 7 with out proper testing and Research... its utterly a wastage of money. I was using their previous model curve and was happy with the services with in the 2G limit. But this is really a loosers bet... I saw my friends smart phones and now they are laughing at me.... The main issue is you cannot make proper folder options and you may not be sure where all the applications get installed... The main issue is if you get an alert while calling it gets hangs.. and may not rings next time or the speaker will not work.. how many times we removes the battery for resetting it ???? its a real waste... Next is the 3G is not supported by the operators... they still provide the normal blackberry edge plan. you will not get the 3g speed in your phone even if you avail a high paid 3g plann... the primary use of the phone is to make the calls and allerts unintrepted but this os does not support it.. I saw many are complaining about it.. the phone get hangs often... even with 1.2 ghz processor and .7K ram... !!!!!!!!!! I lost 29000 hardly earned bucks and which is spoiling my business calls also.... Please think thrice before you .... The back up is just a day with no heavy duty... ??????????????? I never suggest..... anybody... please go for the 9K worth normal curve... thats the limitation of the blackberry in india upto my knowledge... I m facing this issue from the first day and the guys in the shops said these are common for these phones and give me the best solution to remove the battery for resetting.... Ha Ha... what a pitty situation.. Now I need to collect my old curve back and use it for the messanger usage... But thinking why when Android is doing good with all call recording, video calls , skype calls... etc... fantastic... I tried to exchange it and the store is not accepting... I think In india all video chat is allowed , the call recording is allowed... but these handsets doesnt have any and need to pay for all the applications... If you need an HD Video Recorder is available for a pretty cheaper rate.. This phone is not usefull for a business talk... think how do you feel if you cant hear anything for a valuable call , the phone tells you the ringer is off... How to put it on? no one knows rather than a batter reset.... Its Shame from such a big dealer...
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Adityan
,Bangalore, on Jan 29, 2012 11:45 PM
My dear friend, its not that the entire generation is faulty, its only your device. Most probably your retailer has sold a faulty device and hence is not accepting an exchange. The phone is fantastic, I understand your problem, as told above, try re-loading the software. 90% of the people here in India lack basic knowledge on softwares and blindly blame it on lower hardware specs. These figures are arrived at after several years of research and invariantly never go wrong. Kindly do the re-loading calmly and am sure your phone would do fine, unless you have been sold a faulty device by your retailer, for which RIM cannot be blamed.
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Kunal
,Hyderabad, on Dec 01, 2011 08:00 PM
Its a sheer wastage of money... Bought this phone in Oct and already have got 3 replacements and they are telling me to go for another replacement. Sometimes when i make a call or receive a call, there is no sound and then i need to remove battery and sim then restart to make it functional. This happens very frequently. Even service center people are unable to help or detect what is the problem. Is anyone listening?? Let me know what has to be done. Replacement is not the only option everytime.
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Adityan
,Bangalore, on Jan 29, 2012 11:39 PM
I guess your phones software is glitchy. Try reloading the operating system using the blackberry desktop software, by downloading a carrier compatible version at RIM's website. It is a wonderful phone, just give it a shot am sure you will like it then on.
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raju
,chennai, on Dec 21, 2011 02:16 PM
BB have 1.2GHZ cpu .so,very speed.it have 5 MP camera is accompanied by a single LED flash. It produces good images in daylight, correctly reproducing natural colours
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Tarita
,Noida, on Nov 29, 2011 05:20 PM
Powered by a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm processor and runs snazzy new BB OS 7, it is a suberb device. Other highlights are 3.7" TFT capacitive touchscreen, 768 MB RAM, 2.5GB internal memory, Wi-Fi b/g/n, GPS, 5MP camera with LED flash, HD video capture, Optical trackpad, 3.5 mm audio jack, and smart dialing
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