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15 S IMPLY ABU DHABI BLACKBERRY TORCH the r e v i ew BlackBerry OS 6: Key Features Internet &Media The Internet browser has definitely gone under the knife and experienced a complete facelift from its Blackberry predecessors, allowing for a superior quality of user experience for surfing the internet waves. Internet sites and web pages seem to respond very quickly and load without causing frustration. There’s also another very familiar element, the pinch to zoom feature that concentrates in on a designated area of the web page or image at hand. You can also swipe the screen to drag pages around and a double tap to enable instant zoom. It’s my favourite addition and improvement to Blackberry so far. It’s quite easy to change pages using different windows as the browser now supports multiple tabs. Rotating the handset accordingly will also allow you to view in both landscape and portrait modes. Tucked away in the media tab there is an array of delightful entertainment applications which include a video player, a mp3 player, and a voice recorder which is brilliant for sending messages via BBM. One of the most satisfying new features is the ability to search music by scrolling through album art. You can also connect to you personal portfolio of music over Wi-Fi Blackberry Media Sync. The video player plays in landscape only, however plays back movies in widescreen with buttons at the foot of the screen The Torch ticks all the right boxes in terms of connectivity, starting with 2G and 3G quad-band support. There is both HSPA for high- speed downloads and uploads, with class 10 EDGE and GPRS as back-ups. You can connect to a local Wi-Fi network or hook up with another Bluetooth device, or listen wirelessly in stereo thanks to A2DP. If all else fails a micro USB port allows users to connect to a PC the old-fashioned way via cable. Camera The device includes a really nice five-megapixel camera, featuring continuous autofocus, image stabilisation and LED flash, with a control system that makes good use of the touch screen interface. Operating in landscape mode, a row of touch icons appears beneath the onscreen viewfinder, with a central blue button behaving as the shutter – you can tap this to take a photo or press a physical button on the top of the device if you prefer. On either side of the shutter button are controls to instantly turn the flash on or off, activate GPS for geo-tagging, choose a scene mode or access the picture gallery. There are more advanced settings that are available within the menu. For all you budding Speilbergs out there, you can also record widescreen video in VGA format (640×480 pixels). Social Feeds & Apps To satisfy the increasing demand for mobile social networking, RIM has attached a new Social Feeds app that is out of this world and so easy to use. This allows all social network junkies to access a virtual one-stop shop, pulling in feeds from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger and MySpace amongst others. It’s a fantastic solution that can be bespoke to your liking – you can see all the items in a single stream or filter it so they are isolated and grouped in separate lists that can be scrolled from side to side. As expected from Blackberry, mini versions of business related apps such as Word, Excel and Power point are also included, making life on the go even more convenient. If I was to compare the Blackberry torch to a car, it would have to be a Rolls Royce Ghost, its everything you want from a product, class, style, sophistication and power. Its responds well and there is a fluidity of genius and professionalism throughout the device. Unlike its competitors it has the ability to sustain modern day technology yet it combines it with a hint of tradition. This shines through with its dual keyboard functionality both touch screen and physical, making it a joy for the user.