Monthly Archives: October 2010

The down side that i’ve heard about the Blackberry Torch is about its battery life. I was skeptical at first, but true enough there was an issue with the phone’s battery life.

It’s nothing too serious, i guess. It’s really based on your phone usage. For me, i use the Torch only for Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and occasional email, Twitter and Facebook checks. Even my use of BBM varies. Sometimes i use it a lot, sometimes i don’t use it at all.

The battery lasts me for about two days. Like i charge it on a Saturday night, the battery bar will be red by late Monday. Note that my kind of usage is considered rather low.

If compared to my iPhone 3GS, i would say the iPhone wins. No offense.

It would be a problem for heavy users and even more for heavy users who are always out on the go. I would advise bringing spare batteries or juice packs (if there is for Torch) and preparing a spare charger for the car for those who drive.

Okay so i finally got around to exploring some of the apps in the Blackberry Torch.

I’ve been using the usual stuff like Twitter and Facebook a lot cause.. well.. i believe that doesn’t need explaining! I haven’t got to check out stuff like the browser and YouTube cause i’ve been out and about a lot without wifi. I didn’t want to use up too much of my prepaid data.

Alright, so there’s my Torch’s home page.

The bar with the little arrow at the bottom of the page is actually the phone’s menu. It can be slided up and down, and even half way to reveal all the apps in the phone.

One of the highlights of the new OS for the Torch is this app called Social Feeds. It allows you to view all your social media updates in one place. You can even sort them out by category.

Pretty handy for stalking, right *ahem*

Another highlight of the Torch would be it’s improved browser. It has better loading and rendering of pictures.

What could be a better way to test out this feature than to load my own blog, right! I think my blog is pretty heavy to load with the occasional picture diarrhea i have, so i suppose it’ll be a good try.

Well i wouldn’t say that the loading time was super fast, but it was efficient enough. I didn’t have to wait too long, so it was bearable.

Surfing in the browser is a lot easier with touch screen. The concept is pretty much like the iPhone. You can pinch to zoom in, and even double tap to zoom into a particular column.

Scrolling down a page gets a little laggy when the page is still loading. However when the page is done loading, scrolling becomes a breeze.

Either way, i must admit that i was impressed by the clarity of the images displayed on the Blackberry Torch. Btw, notice that the browser also displays the website’s icon on the top left?

When you tap the trackpad, a little black cursor will appear for scrolling and clicking. It’s just like the older Blackberries. But who would wanna go through the suffering of scrolling with the trackpad when you can just flick your finger with the touch screen.

The only downside of the browser that i’ve discovered is that it doesn’t seem to display videos that are embedded in websites. It just doesn’t show. It’s like a blank space there. Maybe RIM would fix this little problem.

You can also switch to another applications or go to the home page from the menu button while the browser still loads the page on the background.

The new OS for the Blackberry Torch also allows smooth transitioning between apps.

And as for YouTubing with the Torch, well so far i have no complaints. The Blackberry Torch is definitely up to par.