BB Bold 9900 Torch 9810 and 9860

Hands-on with the BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Torch 9810 and 9860 

The BlackBerry Torch 9810 offers some improvements over its predecessor

TORONTO--To celebrate the announcement of the new BlackBerry OS 7 devices, RIM put on a special event for BlackBerry fans tonight to come check out the new models. Select media were also invited, and of course, we jumped at the chance to get a closer look at the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930, BlackBerry Torch 9810, and BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860 because despite all of RIM's recent woes, we want to see the company succeed and offer compelling and competitive products.
From what we saw tonight, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that these new handsets brings some much-needed hardware and software improvements, and generally speaking, we liked what we saw. The bad news is that there doesn't seem to be enough there to push it past, or even catch up, to its competitors. To be fair though, we haven't been able to do a deep dive with OS 7 or these devices, so we won't deliver a final verdict just yet. For now, here are our first impressions of the three models and be sure to share your thoughts on the phones and BlackBerry OS 7 in the comments section below.

BlackBerry Bold 9900
As a former BlackBerry Bold owner, I was particularly interested in this model and at the end of the day, it might be my favorite of the three. The Bold 9900 (Sprint's version will be the 9930) takes the slate QWERTY design that made the BlackBerry famous and adds a touch screen. The 2.8-inch, 640x480-pixel display looks sharp and feels responsive. The addition of the touch screen is particularly useful when browsing the Web and viewing pictures, since you can now use the pinch-to-zoom gesture to easily zoom in on text and images. Though we never had problems navigating through the BlackBerry interface (which doesn't change much between OS 6 and OS 7) on a non-touch display, it's nice now to have the option to simply swipe or tap the screen to complete an action.
The keyboard remains excellent. Similar to previous Bold models, the keyboard has a roomy, wide layout with good-size buttons. They have a slight ridge to them, so they're easy to press, and it, along with the navigation controls, is also brightly illuminated so it's easy to type in darker environments.
The general design of the smartphone takes after its predecessor, but RIM says that the Bold 9900 is its thinnest BlackBerry yet at 10.5mm thick. It indeed feels pretty slim and lighter, while still keeping a premium feel with its brushed stainless steel accents and smooth back. BlackBerry loyalists should find a lot to like in this refresh of the Bold.

BlackBerry Torch 9810
The Torch 9810 also offers some nice improvements, but it doesn't feel like the most exciting upgrade. Part of the reason why is because the overall design is very similar to the original Torch. It keeps the same shape and portrait slider design and though I understand that you can't completely change the look of a series, it wouldn't hurt RIM to shake things up a bit. A fresh paint job doesn't really cut it. Even worse, I thought the phone didn't quite have the same premium build as its predecessor and felt more plasticky.
It's still a very solid phone, and I was happy to see that RIM included a better display. The Torch 9810 features a 3.2-inch, 640x480-pixel touch screen, which isn't much compared to the competition, but I noticed pixels were less visible and text and images just looked smoother and brighter than before, so that's appreciated. I was able to quickly navigate through the phone's menus and launch applications, thanks to the faster 1.2GHz processor and improvements of BlackBerry OS 7.
The slider mechanism used to expose the keyboard is very fluid and strong as the screen locks into place when pushed up. RIM said it made some slight tweaks to the keyboard; more specifically, it's slightly wider, but I can't say I noticed a huge difference between this model and the first Torch. Thus, my opinion of the keyboard is the same--it's generally comfortable and easy to use but users will larger thumbs will need some time to adjust and acclimate. One good thing is that the handset doesn't feel top heavy with the screen open, so the phone doesn't feel like it's going to tip over while you're typing.
RIM also gave me a demo of the use of augmented reality and the Wikitude app on the Torch 9810, and I have to say it's pretty cool. Its integration with BBM is probably most interesting for BlackBerry users. Basically with the app and the phone's magnetic compass, you can point your phone's camera at a location and see any nearby BBM users and interact with them. If a contact has a personalized avatar, that will even show up on screen. Though augmented reality is certainly nothing new, its integration with BlackBerry-specific features is some of that uniqueness we're looking for from RIM


Read more: http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20087676-85/hands-on-with-the-blackberry-bold-9900-blackberry-torch-9810-and-9860/#ixzz1UPVXvWsw