Blackberry Torch

[rusty9]

Anyone seen this new phone yet? I'm going to pick one up Thursday when they come out. I played with a demo phone today. It is AWESOME.

 

[SensePhoto]

Yeah i had my training on it today (work for AT&T), not bad if you're a crackberry user but ill still stick to my iPhone

 

[rusty9]

i went in there to get an iphone, but they were all out, and then i saw the torch. i really liked it.

 

[FemFugler]

just googled it, looks like a nice phone. Let me know how it goes. I'll need a new phone soon.

 

[JClishe]

Kinda surprised to see it getting praise, as I've only read poor reviews on it. It only has a 624 MHz processor and has been consistently reviewed as being sluggish.

Interestingly, Information Week compared it to Windows Phone 7 and said that the Torch doesn't hold a candle to WP7. Here's a video of hands on demo's of the Torch and WP7. Torch looks pretty underwhelming to me. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt72pnfAPvE"]Torch Vs Windows Phone 7[/ame]

 

[rusty9]

i used the internet on it the other day and didn't have a problem with it.

 

[JClishe]

I'm not necessarily saying that there's a "problem" doing everyday tasks on it, I'm just saying that it's specs are not in line with its competitors, particularly the processor.

 

[DennyCrane]

Dollar short/day late in the current smartphone world. You have some terrific pieces of technology out there now... the Droid X, the HTC Evo 4G, the iPhone 4, and the Droid Incredible. I HIGHLY suggest trying a couple of these before jumping into the Torch. The Torch is laggy, gives a very limited internet experience...especially in light of the fact the Android phones are rolling out version 2.2 (Froyo) which will offer even faster speeds along with true support for Adobe Flash 10.

The Torch features RIM's new Blackberry 6 OS, which really doesn't make any kind of groundbreaking changes. The screen is extremely low res compared to the aforementioned offerings by Apple and the various Android makers.... 480x360. It's like going from a 1080p LCD TV to an old 19" picture tube TV with rabbit ears. The desktop has oddly crude icons that remind me of early 2002 Palm Pilot PDAs. In fact, the whole phone reminds me of a no-contract version of the Palm Pre... and we all know how that phone essentially killed Palm, Inc. The phone's camera is just average. Oh, and true multitasking just isn't happening... and with a 625Mhz processor, that's understandable.

The bottom line is, RIM saw the massive success of the iPhone since 2007 and the even greater success of Android in the past 12 months and decided it wanted in on the game. They failed with the Storm and tried again with the Torch and failed again. The core user base of business people will not embrace either of these 2 phones and will stick with what's a proven success- the standard keyboard Blackberrys without a touch screen. These people need functioning business communications tools, not a johnny-come-lately wannabe smartphone.

Unless you NEED a Blackberry and you must have a touchphone with iPhone/Android-esque features... avoid this phone at all costs, and do some more shopping and comparing of the other great phones out there.

Choose wisely.

 

[JClishe]

^^ Well said.

 

[rusty9]

i did some more research, and looked at some comparative videos, so i'm going to get the iPhone 4 16GB. i have a 32 GB iPod touch, and thought i would be downgrading by getting the 16GB phone but i realized that even with 500+ songs, and 30+ apps, i've only used 7GB =/

 

[DennyCrane]

Be aware that Apple is poised to release the iPhone on different carriers besides AT&T in the near future.

 

[rusty9]

i don't care. i've been with att all my life.

 

[DennyCrane]

Make sure you don't hold it wrong!

 

[OrionsByte]

Make sure you don't hold it wrong!

Heh. I picked up an iPhone 4 a week ago and so far I have yet to experience any dropped calls or poor performance because I was holding it wrong. I have seen the signal bars drop when I touch that spot, but so far it hasn't been enough to kill the signal completely, and I'm in a pretty low-signal area.

I think people are making that issue out to be more than it is. Granted, it's a design flaw, and shouldn't have been there to begin with, but personally I think for most people it's not going to be noticeable.

This is my 3rd iPhone (original, 3G, and now 4), and compared to my 3G it's a breath of fresh air.

 

[clarinetJWD]

I got myself an iPhone 4 recently. Would've jumped ship for android if I didn't already hae hundreds of dollars invested in apps. I'll tell you what, though, despite the clear engineering problem, this phone just screams quality materials and build quality at every seam, something that the 3G did not. The hardware is fantastic, but it is still hampered by Apple's restrictive "walled garden". If you get an iPhone, make sure you jailbreak it.