RIM Blackberry Torch 9800 review

In the second part of our BlackBerry Torch 9800 coverage, Clare Hopping reviews the eagerly-anticipated phone to see if RIM has finally perfected a touchscreen smartphone.

Below this top toolbar, there's another that can be tapped to display all of your missed notifications, including missed calls or new texts. At the bottom of the screen, there's a third toolbar. You can drag this bar up a little to see your favourite applications or shortcuts. Tap this again, and up will pop all of the applications nestled along the menu items.

Bundled apps include the official Twitter and Facebook applications, BlackBerry Messenger and a YouTube app. RIM's Social Feeds client that merges all of your social networking status updates and messages into one easy to use stream.

Another new feature of the BlackBerry 9800 Torch is visual voicemail. As with the iPhone, it allows you to view your voicemails as an onscreen list so you can pause and fast word through a message or skip entire messages using the clear onscreen controls. It also makes it simple to return calls straight from the application.

The BlackBerry browser has been completely overhauled to bring it up to the standard of Android's stock browser and the iPhone's Safari browser. However, although it's usually pretty fast, the rendering is sometimes sluggish, especially when zooming in and out using multitouch.

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.