The Torch 9800 was a big hit for Research in Motion and now the company is following it up with two new Torch phones: the Torch 9810 and the Torch 9860. The 9860 is a full touchscreen phone and a bit of a break in design for RIM, while the Torch 9810 is more in keeping with the original design.

The Torch 9810 looks and feels almost exactly like the original when we first got our claws on it. It is slightly thinner at 14.8mm though is also slightly longer. The device has a carbon fibre like back and is that little bit sleeker than the previous Torch in the materials that are used.

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BlackBerry Torch 9810

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It has an impressive keyboard, which feels solid, slides nicely and has excellent buttons. This and the new and improved 640×480 screen makes all the difference to the device. The new display is a lot more responsive than the older ones and is up there with the best of touch screens for accuracy – a relief for those that toiled with the previous touchscreen efforts from RIM. The colors are quite good, and though it is only 3.2in it is still okay for short clips and the like.

The processor has also gotten an overhaul and the device now has a 1.2GHz processor, twice the size of the previous one. It also comes with a new GPU and more RAM and this all leads to a far smoother experience when using the phone. The new OS7 has also helped and is a great improvement aesthetically and also in terms of speed.

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The camera has not had a hardware improvement but feels more responsive and shutter speed has improved, so at least you can capture things as they happen. The browser is also a good bit better, though it still does not support Flash Player and sites with it are slow to load and cause problems for the phone – strange considering the noise made over the BlackBerry PlayBook’s Flash compatibility. Having said this though, RIM seem to be taking sides with Apple in the whole Adobe Flash debate and ditching it altogether in favour of HTML5. HTML5 videos are now fully supported by the new OS.

We can’t really massively fault the BlackBerry but it does seem a bit unimaginative and is somewhat a plain phone to use. It seems to be a case of BlackBerry catering for their own users above all else and not looking to innovate too much of a degree to get the masses excited. Still, the original Torch was a big hit and by staying faithful to the original design while adding in some much welcomed updates BlackBerry may have another winner on its hands.

Thomas Whittle writes on behalf of Best Mobile Contracts, the UK’s leading mobile phone comparison website where the Torch 9810 on contract and the Torch 9860 contracts are expected to go on sale very soon.