Blackberry Smoothie | The Gadget Grill

Earlier this week RIM showed us their latest entry into the very competitive phone market, the Blackberry Torch. I’ve got to say that I’m impressed.

At last we have a Blackberry phone that I could live with. And at the Gadget Grill, I think it’s fair to describe this phone as a real Blackberry Smoothie.

First of all, it’s quite a compact phone. Significantly shorter than, say, an iPhone or a HTC Desire, its compact form (and nice feel in the hand) makes it a very comfortable phone to hold, carry and use.

But despite its compact form factor, the screen is big – especially for a Blackberry – bright and beautiful. While there’s an on screen keyboard, the screen also slides up and reveals the usual Blackberry QWERTY keyboard as well. This is nicely designed, and very well executed.

Blackberry Torch

Whereas the touch screen requires just a light touch to activate any on-scene controls, the buttons below the screen are actually physical buttons requiring a firmer push than I initially expected. This is not an issue at all; merely an observation. It took me but a few moments to become accustomed to this usage.

As a phone, the Torch performs as well as all of the other phones released this year. I’d really expect nothing less.

And bearing a 5 megapixel camera and a plethora of built-in apps and functionality, it performs a whole host of other tasks in a very competent manner. Battery life is great, too.

While it’s fair to say that I’ve not played with every Blackberry model ever made, I have seen most of them, and this is the first one that I think I’d be happy to have sitting in my pocket, day in, day out.