The BlackBerry Torch smart phone has been getting plenty of interest in the tech community since it was first leaked in a bunch of images. In fact, it was not until RIM announced the official name did we know that the handset was called Torch; originally, it was simply labeled as the 9800 Slider.
While many are still not quite sold on the whole portrait oriented slider approach, it is hard to deny that RIM’s designs when it comes to keyboards are always innovative and successful. Even the awkward looking Pearl has a keyboard that makes typing out long messages quick and easy. Anyway, it has been reported that the slide out keyboard has been designed to maintain phone balance regardless of what position it is in.
Of course, the big new feature we want to see in the 9800 Torch is the improved BlackBerry OS 6 which is going to be focusing a lot on multimedia playback. While it is already confirmed that the new OS bring gestures, and plenty of other new features, it has also been stated that it will still have most of the BlackBerry’s original features.
So far, no official launch date for the Torch has been given, but it is expected to be released pretty soon. Speaking of gestures, capacitive touch controls will now be a big factor for the handset, so expect to have pinch-zoom and even kinetic scrolling implemented soon.
The 9800 Torch is confirmed to have a 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen display, a 5 mega pixel camera and of course, the new BlackBerry operating system.
In other BlackBerry related news, RIM handsets are going to be banned from the UAE following RIM’s refusal to release the encryption keys upon request, According to the handset maker, they do not have access to user accounts and have always kept it that way in order to keep the business solutions they offer fully secure.
Tags: BlackBerry, BlackBerry-Torch