BlackBerry Torch (2011)

Phone itself is Excellent, with conditions – The Blackberry 9800 is an excellent smartphone for business use. It has everything that would be necessary for someone who needs to be connected.And in 4 years of fairly rough use it has yet to be damaged in any way. In this way the phone allows the user to have multiple emails delivered to the screen instantly with separate folders for business… Read more

email and personal email. I have owned and used my Blackberry for many years and could not fault it................... until I ceased working for the employer who purchased the phone, and paid the monthly account. To have my emails front and centre, along with many other features requires payment of a monthly top up fee to Blackberry. Just pay your monthly phone bill to Telstra, Optus etc and you dont get all the added bells and whistles. Thats where the Blackberry fell down. It is designed for business use, not games, not particularly for social media, but business. size, robustness, reliability, battery life Additional Blackberry monthly fee.

Dreadful Phone - do not buy – Ok, where do I start? I have had nothing but problems with this phone from purcpashe. SIM card issues, software issues, app issues and now it wont boot up. Apparently once the battery goes flat it has trendous problems turning back on, there are countless thrads on it so it would appear that it is not just me. Buy an iPhone or a Samsung, dont go near this very expensive paperwight. nice size and feel Pretty much everything else

Doesn't bounce too well – I have had a Blackberry Bold 9000 for quite some time. Fantastic phone, incredibly user friendly but, after a few years it started to show signs of wear so I decided to upgrade. I wanted the Torch 9810 but the dealer didn't stock them. Uncharacteristically, I relented to purchasing a Torch 9850. Big mistake. HUGE mistake. Touch screen is useless,… Read more

battery life incredibly short and phone is nowhere near as user friendly as the Bold 9000. Speed dial on the 9850 requires so many keystrokes, you may as well dial the number (as opposed to one key dialling on the Bold 9000). Suffice it to say the 9850 suffered an early demise and I have gone back to the Bold 9000. I am very happy with it, even though it crashes mid-call every now and then. I would not give this phone to my wrost enemy. Nice big screen for viewing pictures and video's. Touch screen would respond only once in every 4 hits and did not always type the key that was touched. Contrary to this, the touch screen was very sensitive to the phone case and would initiate calls or apps when holstered. Phone constantly shut down and would not restart unless I removed/replaced the battery. Phone would also crash regularly (screen would go white & phone unresponsive). This would also require battery removal to fix. Battery life from new was ridiculously short (less than 14hrs).

Plain Terrible – I am reviewing on behalf of my son, who purchased his Blackberry Torch 9860 at the start of this year. The phone was going for around the same price as the most current iphone, but as a previous Blackberry owner my son decided to stay loyal to the phone company who had served him well in the past. However, his phone was slow, froze very often,… Read more

had a terrrible battery life, and would crash everytime he opened more than 5 pages in the browser. Not to mention the limited availability of applications.

He wrote to them, asking if his phone was a dud, or if it was the model itself.

He subsequently found himself being blocked from their online customer support website, and never heard back.

He said in his own words that it was his "worst buy ever". It looked cool in the box.

Still have it – Got this blackberry as replacement to my damaged Bold 9700. This is my 3rd blackberry since 2009. Certainly blackberry isn't as fancy as iphone or android powered phones. What I found is its push mail capability is unsurpassed. Sure enough many friends and colleagues and even sellers (well we know they're shark and some time hasn't got a clue what… Read more

they talk about) have said iphone or android are pretty good and catching up. I find it difficult to believe. Synchronisation on non-bb phones aren't instant. The moment some important email comes in, my bb would blink just like receiving sms. I know bb aren't user friendly as its competitor but it isn't made to function as toy. And for an executive like me, can't live without it! push mail don't last long, typicall about a year before they deserve to throw into the bin

slow – I loved my blackberry to begin with. Now that I have apps on it it is slow!....the apps are definitely slack too, they have a lot of glitches and take forever to load and there's no support.....very annoying :( .....look forward to my contract ending so I can get an iPhone. size slow

It's not a toy – I really loved my Torch 9800 but the 9810 is so much more! It's just... excellent in every way! If you consider it an accomplishment to share video's, music and photo's with everyone on a social network and want them to know where you're going, how you're getting there, what you're listening to on the way there, when you got there and why you… Read more

went there in the first place...This device is not for you. This is a "Mobile Device." The "phone" is just one of many apps.

With that said: For quality, BlackBerry can't be beat! The only drawback for most people is having to read the manual and setting up the device. And then there's the absence of all the "Kiddy Litter" app's that come on those other Devices.

If you're looking for a flashy toy with mobile capabilities.. try toysRus. The nice people will even show you how to turn it on and off! The 9810 is perfect. Very responsive touchscreen, fast internet access... Lack of themes.

Meh! Old technology. Hellooooo – Dissapointing!! Thought I was on a winner, but regret getting this phone. Internet=Sooooo slooooow!! Battery= no good. Invest in a car charger. Apps are useless unless you want to pay...even then... No problems with reception. GPS useless, way too slow and doesn't work most of the time. Great for email, that's about it. Touchscreen good unless… Read more

you want to type and then it;s crappyola! Looks like blackberry is finished anyway, legal battles and no sign of any new technology. Try iphone or better yet Samsung galaxy s2 or s3. good looking phone, email slow internet, no apps, low battery life, slow browser etc....

Get with the times, Blackberry!! – I bought this Blackberry some months ago as a replacement to a more classic BB design i had. I hoped that, with the new touchscreen feature, it would be a more up-to-date model but alas it is not. If Blackberry wants to compete with the popular iphones they really need to start investing in better technology and better apps. The touchscreen… Read more

keypad is ridiculously hard to use, and the apps are pathetic and not as useful or interactive as other phone brand apps, the camera is hard to use (three hands are needed, or two if you aren't in any hurry). Overall, this phone isn't a bad phone: it can access the internet fine, and the mp3 player is good, and it's stands out as a classy alternative to the unavoidable iphone, but improvements have to be made to make it more competitive. Sleek design, easy access to email, the flashlight app is the best BB has to offer and it's not half bad, Blackberry Protect is a cool feature too Camera, apps, keypad, GPS should come with audio navigation, hard to buy accessories from official online store (always sold out), no interactive games with other BB users

piece of rubbish – Battery life 6 hours on standby.Less than half the reception of any phone I have ever had.Replacement from optus same.Second service with optus same model same problems.Blackberry internet as fast as 10 year old dial up service and unusable.Amongst all the local school kids now known as Crapberry.Now find out that in other reviews when released… Read more

these were all known to blackberry and optus.

faulty in 1.Battery life,2very little reception and 3 internet virtually no internet from blackberry

Not A fan – Have used blackberry for BBM with OS friends now for a while and decided to stick with them instead of going to the Iphone4. Although I like the combination of keypad and Touch screen options the slow response of the touch screen has left me mostly using the track pad and keypad. Constantly taking the battery out to reboot the device when it… Read more

freezes is also becoming old fast. BBM is the only thing keeping me with the brand but now with everyone using whatsapp on iphone it may not be for long.

As for its actual call reliability and email service however I cannot fault it. Call and email funtions slow touch screen response, having to reboot

Good – Moved on to this BlackBerry Torch 9800 from a Bold 9000. Considered the iPhone but really happy with this as a business tool. Even though I've mentioned the limited number of apps vs main competitors (iPhone and Android), I didn't choose this phone to play with thousands of apps, but for the good solid keyboard and efficient push email service… Read more

which BlackBerry is known for.

The touchscreen is smaller than an iPhone, but combined with a slide out BlackBerry keyboard, gives the best of both worlds. If you're after apps and games, you may consider Android or iPhone devices. If you're a geek, you may prefer Android. If you're image-conscious and want to be trendy, you may prefer iPhone. But for a solid business tool, the BlackBerry is purpose-built and does it very well, especially if you're heavy into emails and messaging.

The web browser is improved over previous BlackBerries, and almost as good as the iPhone. The handsfree speaker could be a lot better and despite still having a decent range of apps available, BlackBerry's app store, App World makes life complicated for users in certain countries and I found myself often having to download apps directly from the software vendor rather than through BlackBerry App World.

The only other surprise as with quite a few BlackBerry devices is that it doesn't natively allow you to view pdf files, strange for a business tool. PDFs attached in emails can be viewed, but only up to a certain size and you need to purchase other apps if you wish to view PDFs saved onto your memory card. The small space for installing apps is also very limiting, and cannot be expanded. Another reason not to choose BlackBerry for apps.

That's just a warning for people who want a phone as a play toy. The BlackBerry is intended more as a business tool and email device so I would still highly recommend it to anyone who requires email and messaging on the go. responsive touchscreen combined with accurate trackpad, real BlackBerry keypad, efficient push email, syncs with Outlook and iTunes playlists, wifi (for internet connection only), expandable memory with MicroSD (for storage, not for apps) touchscreen keyboard small and harder to use than another popular touchscreen phone it's trying to emulate , tinny mono speaker, BlackBerry App World very restrictive for Australian users, limited apps vs main competitors, cannot natively view pdf files, very limited space for app installation

Love this phone – Allows you to stay on top of business emails and messages and social media without being tied to the office computer Ease of use Sometimes social media connection breaks down

Loving most of what it offers! – I only bought this phone today after tossing up between this and the Bold (9780). After playing around in the shops with both I decided on this one. I've only had it for a few hours, but the touch screen is pretty good (up there with the iPhone), sound and call quality good and easy to use the menus. I've just put some songs on the phone -… Read more

drag and drop through My Computer - no software installation needed.

As I've only ever owned Nokias I'd say the hardest part is trying to figure out some of the short cuts etc., but I'm sure they'll come with time. Responsive touch screen, easy menus, keypad Shortcuts may take a while getting used to

Great work phone – Work in the industry so was able to test many and this phones easily the best. Very good battery life, updated operating system is much better then previous system, enterprise service works well for pushing down security measures from IT dept, coverage seems better then others on same network, choice of actual qwerty & touch screen qwerty is… Read more

really convenient, multiple emails and social networks on one phone. Slide is a little touchy sometimes. Very good battery life, updated operating system is much better then previous system, enterprise service works well for pushing down security measures from IT dept, coverage seems better then others on same network, choice of actual qwerty & touch screen qwerty is really convenient, multiple emails and social networks on one phone. dropped the phone, cracked the screen. cant be repaired and will cost $400 to replace. my own fault though.

Great Product but Terrible support – I love my blackberry 9800 except for the App World feature. I cannot download anything from it and trying to get technical support is absolutely useless. Tried the forums but the good people there could not help. It is a wonderful product but a little support goes a long way. Because of this I will not be looking at RIMs Playbook tablet. … Read more

Their loss as I purchased a xoom as I could not get an IPAD2, again Apple;s loss as my xoom is great but will write a review on that when I have played with it some more. Great Business Phone Bad Technical support and App World does not work

Excellent – What an amazing phone! All the perks of an iphone, with the sleek design of slide out buttons. Love this phone, great for work, hooks up to email, internet and microsoft word. Looks great, touch screen and buttons, great battery life, fast browsing and email service