A Look Around The New Blackberry Torch 9860

Research In Motion, the company that produces the popular Blackberry range of mobile devices is attempting to tackle the competitive touchscreen smartphone market with their latest handset, the Torch 9860.  Following on in the footsteps of previous Torch models the device combines a large touchscreen display together with some impressive features.First impressions of this new model are very good.  The phone is certainly striking in the looks department with a large display dominating the front of the phone and the rest of the chassis constructed from a plastic material finished in a gloss black.  This finish catches the eye by looking stylish and modern but lacks the premium feel of other handsets such as the iPhone 4.  The screen used on this model measures 3.7 inches and is the first full capacitive display used on a Blackberry phone.  The handset keeps pace with other leading smartphones by offering a high resolution of 480 x 800 together with the potential of displaying over 16 million colours.   The screen uses TFT technology which results in a bright and vivid picture but one which lacks some of the depth offered by models that use AMOLED screens.  When all is said and done the screen is certainly of a high standard and superior to many of the smartphones currently available in the marketplace.  RIM have opted to keep some physical keys on the fascia of the phone so beneath the screen you will find four keys along with an optical trackpad which is always useful for editing text documents and e mails.The Blackberry Torch 9860 incorporates some excellent multi media facilities that include dual digital cameras.  The primary camera is located on the rear of the phone and can capture images at a resolution of 5 million pixels which seems to be the standard quality for a high end device.  The developers have loaded the camera feature with some useful other features which include an autofocus and image stabilisation.  The image stabilisation feature is particularly useful as it helps to minimise the inevitable camera shake when you are taking a photograph and the result is a much clearer image.  The secondary camera on the phone is a front facing unit that is primarily designed for video calls but also come in handy for self portraits.  In terms of storage capacity the 9860 offers an internal memory of 4GB but a micro SD card slot allows you to potentially expand this by up to 32GB.The Blackberry Torch 9860 is another step in the right direction for Research In Motion and should see the brand competing with some of the big names in this area such as Apple and HTC.The Blackberry Torch 9860 and the Nokia E6 are available now.