BlackBerry Torch 9810 Sim Free Smartphone - Zinc Grey

I got this BlackBarry Torch 9810 yesterday after having own its predecessor (BlackBarry Torch 9800) for the past year. I love BlackBarry phones and have had 5 different types over the years (Bold 1, Storm 1, Storm 2, Torch 9800, and Torch 9810). I prefer them to the iPhones mainly because of the fact that they are just so much more customable to my own personal preferences than the iPhone is. Don't get me wrong, I think the iPhone 4 is an awesome handset and perhaps the best one there is out there for the Internet experience, but I do prefer the BlackBarry.

Looking at the hand set there is vary little difference between the two. They are exactly the same size and shape (meaning that the 9810 will fit your 9800 covers, protectors and docking stations) and look identical elsewhere with one exception; on the 9800 you had a green and red button at the bottom of the handset. On the 9810 they are all white.

It's when you turn it on and use it that you'll notice the difference. Although I loved the 9800 I was always a little disappointed with the screen resolution. It just wasn't sharp enough, especially compared to the iPhone 4. The 9810 has a much better screen resolution, though still not perhaps as good as the iPhone 4, but it is much crisper than that on the 9800.

The 9810 also has "OS 7" which is a vast improvement on version 6 and isn't so different that you'll be lost; in fact it has many layout similarities as the 6 does.

The handset has a faster processor and larger memory and you do notice that when using it. Things are faster on the screen.

So for those of you who own a Torch 9800 and are wondering whether it's worth upgrading to the Torch 9810; I'd say yes, though if you are thinking of buying it without a contract (£400-£500) you may just want to hang on until you can get it as an upgrade via your provider. Unless, like me, you always have to have the newest gadget. :-P

I have noticed an odd thing: I am not sure if it's the handset or the OS (I believe probably the latter), but if my handset is switched off, when I power it back up it comes on and then a few seconds later hard resets itself, which takes about a minute or two to do. Only happens once per switching off though.

Also, if your phone is switched off; when you switch it back on again, if you get a text come trhough that was sent to your phone whislt it was off, the time of that text shows the delivery time (when it actually arrived on your phone after being swtiched on) rather than the actual time it was sent, so you don't actually know when it was sent. This is a thing that RIM have been told about and requested to amend since OS 4 or 5, but clearly they do not listen. As far as I am aware it happens on all BlackBarry models.

Battery Life: Though I haven't really had the handset long enough to assess the battery life, the battery is the exact same type as the BlackBarry Torch 9800 has (so now I have a spare battery :-D). I have had the handset on standby for the past 24 hours but most of that time the radio (signal) was turned off as I was in a no signal area) but in that time I have also been on FaceBook and sent and received a lot of texts and emails and I am still on 95% battery. I am back in a vary poor signal area for the next 24 hours so I will keep the signal on (which drains more battery power as the phone searches for a signal) and tomorrow I will post the battery results on here.

Edit: For the past 24 hours the phone has been out of signal range, save for a few minutes once every few hours during which time I sent and recieved many texts and emails, yet I kept the phone searching for a signal all that time to make the battery work hard. 24 hours later and the battery is at about 20-25% full. Had I been in a strong signal area for all of the past 24 hours I am confident that the battery would have a lot more power in it. I have tended, with all my BlackBarry models I have owned, to charge the battery fully once it drops below 50% and this seems to be a good way to do it as the battery tends to work a lot better that way.

I have always been a lover of Blackberrys'. I recently had the BB Torch 9800 and upgraded to this version.

The difference in the speed of loading internet pages and dealing with apps is amazing. There is a massive difference between the speed of the 9800 and the 9810.

I would recommend this phone to anyone and cannot rate it highly enough!

Got this in the Amazon Black Friday sales!

I've had BlackBerries since the Bold 9000, upgraded to the 9800, then 9870 and now 9810.

Had a 9900 for a few days and really didn't get on with it as I had gotten used to a large touchscreen from the 9800 but didn't want to loose the keyboard.

I've been using it 4 days now, the battery life has settled I now get more than a full days usage.

The software is smooth and performs well, the browser out performs my Sony Xperia Arc S.

The build quality is improved from the original 9800, no more wobbly screen :D, keyboard is tactile and responsive and the screen is the same, very smooth the Liquid Graphics UI has something to do with that.

Very excited as BlackBerry OS 7.1 is due soon with Mobile Hotspot support and a few other features.