The New Blackberry Torch Combines A Keypad And High Quality Touchscreen

When RIM introduced the Blackberry range of handsets, the brand quickly found a niche in the market thanks to the incorporation of a full keypad.  Other mobile phones concentrated either on being a phone or on offering other more fancy features such as cameras.  The Blackberry appealed as more and more time was being spent messaging and e mailing, especially amongst business users.  Times change however and messaging facilities are now equally as attractive to the social networking younger market who keep in touch via instant messaging as well as calls.  Thus RIM had to move with the times, the keypad was great, but the handsets needed a touch screen to keep pace with the barrage of smartphones flooding the market.  The Blackberry Curve went too far by banishing the physical keys in favour of a touch screen, but the new Torch sets the tone perfectly by offering a slider phone with a full keypad and a responsive touch panel.One reason why the Blackberry brand has maintained its popularity in the marketplace is thanks to its excellent messaging options.  Yes you have the obvious SMS and E Mail facilities which include a unified inbox to present you with all of your mail in one easy to read place.  Blackberry IM however has become hugely popular amongst users of the handsets.  This format enables anybody using the handsets to text chat with other users totally free of charge.  This is similar in principle to IM systems found on home computers such as MSN, and is cheap and instant.  The keypad itself is revealed when the phones display is slid upwards, and the familiar Qwerty keyboard layout is revealed.  Despite initial reservations that the key layout may be a little cramped, it is pleasing to see that not only are they well layed out, but also just as responsive as you would expect from the brand that made this format famous.Obviously the main draw of the Blackberry Torch is that is offers a touch screen in addition to a keypad.  They main advantage of this dual system is although physical keys are perfect for typing, they are not so clever for navigating web pages and menu systems.  The screen itself measures 3.2" and offers the user HVGA quality which relates to a resolution of 480 x 360 pixel.  The screen includes user selectable font size as well as light and proximity sensors to perform auto adjustment and auto lock facilities.  For those who like the precision of the optical trackpad there is one included with this model, perfect for adjusting and correcting text documents.  The Blackberry Torch is the perfect crossover handset to take the high quality and stylish Blackberry name to the more mainstream market, and its blends of a full keypad combined with a touchscreen will appeal to most potential users.The Blackberry Torch and the LG Optimus Black are available now.