RIM's Attempt To Torch The Competition

Long before RIM and ATT announced the latest addition to the Blackberry family, popular Blackberry websites were able to leak and show off images of the latest Blackberry. Unlike previous Blackberries which sport a great keyboard and a 2.5" screen, the Blackberry Torch takes a new approach by being the first sliding Blackberry. Coming exclusively to ATT, the Blackberry Torch 9800 retains it's great keyboard, newly popular trackpad (that replaced the problematic trackball) and adds a Blackberry Storm like touchscreen into the mix. Though this new form factor may be enough to make the Blackberry feel fresh, the REAL change comes in the form of RIM's latest operating system: OS6.

Hearing the many cries of it's consumers and the threats of jumping ship to the iPhone or various Android devices, RIM has taken it's first stab at taking their OS into a more consumer friendly direction as well as remedying the problems that has plagued it's older OSes. Though the UI will feel very familiar to Blackberry users, there are new additions that will help make things easier and less cumbersome. For example, the application switcher is no longer a long bar for users to scroll through but rather a grid of icons. The homescreen has been tweaked (for the better) as it has different views for applications which can be activated by sliding the bottom tray up. These views include Favorites, Frequent, All, Media, and Downloads. The biggest change comes in the form of RIM implementing Webkit into the OS as Blackberry users truly despise RIM's current browser. Webkit looks to alleviate previous problems as well as speed up the rendering of webpages and HTML filled emails.

Disappointment seems to loom when hardware specs for Blackberry devices are discussed and the Torch is no different. In a world where 1 GHz SnapDragon processors exist and gigabytes of application memory play a role in the size of applications developers create, RIM plays it safe by giving the Torch a 624 MHz and 512 MB of application memory. Good news is though, these low end specs seem to help retain it's reputation of having some of the best battery efficient smartphones on the planet.

With Apple cutting into RIM's smartphone dominance and Android finding a home on various devices, RIM is ready to put on the boxing gloves and throw down. With an August 12th release date, the only question left to ask is: Are you a fan yet?