Shine a light – RIM unveil the BlackBerry Torch 9800

RIM has been suspiciously quiet of late, letting Apple hog all the spotlight.  Now it looks like they were busy beavering away on their latest project: the BlackBerry Torch 9800.  A phone which they hope will ‘torch’ the opposition.  Sorry we just couldn’t resist that pun.

In something of an odd or brave move depending on your point of view, RIM has made the Torch 9800 a slide phone with a full QWERTY keyboard.  Now a BlackBerry having a QWERTY keyboard is about as shocking as Tuesday following Monday but as a slider it has the potential to go all kinds of wrong.  But judging by the pictures of the Torch 9800 they seem to have got the design just right.

Instead of appearing as if it has been beaten with the proverbial ugly stick the Torch 9800 actually looks quite desirable.  We always thought that the added bulk of a BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard would make a slide phone that had one look about as attractive as Piers Morgan but the designers at RIM deserve some credit for delivering a sleek looking handset.  Not the most attractive phone around to be sure but definitely better than some we could mention.

RIM has also added some real technical muscle to the Torch 9800.  It has a multi-touch touchscreen with pinch and zoom functionality and it is also the first BlackBerry to run the new OS 6 software.  The Torch 9800 has a 5-megapixel camera with flash, continuous auto focus and presumably other even more boring camera modes that you’ll never use.  This is all backed up with a 624 MHz processor, HSDPA connectivity and built in GPS which should enable geo-tagging.

Memory wise the Torch 9800 comes with a 4GB micro SD card but this can be upgraded up to 32GB which means you should be able to store a fair few tracks and pictures on the handset.

This is an exciting move for RIM and the Torch looks like it could be one for the very loyal BlackBerry fan base and even some new users.  It already looks like Vodafone have already picked the Torch as a potential blockbuster handset.  You can register your interest with Vodafone here.