[Serkle K]

I had a chance to play with it at a store close to me... Before I tell you my final decision, I'll tell you what I did.

I walked into the store, and I saw the display, front and center. Big TV and blue ring glory, I had my eye on it right away. The associate asked if she could help me, and I replied with out hesitation, and before she could finish asking me... I'm here to see the Torch.


She quickly took me over from the display to the working model. I was pretty excited to see it opened and thought to myself, "it looks pretty slick when it's open too!"

I then grabbed it, and immidiately noticed that it was open because of the way they put the security tag on it. I then became dissapointed, since I couldn't see it in the closed position. So, I figured, it's okay, it's not the end of the world, I still get to test out the keyboard and everything else. I have to say the keyboard is okay. Right away I noticed the recess that most people are talking about, as well as the cramped feeling when trying to use the keypad. But I also thought, I would most likely get used to it especially if I used it on a daily basis. Then I realized, that I can't test the onscreen keyboard and functionality of just the touch screen. It was already odd to try to hold and use it with the security tag on it, but now I can't even test the "full feel" of the device in my hand since it wouldn't close. I understand this is more the environment and not the device. So with that in mind, I did a quick reset.

I was pretty impressed with the boot time, and I then started to open the menu on the screen to see what kinds of things are on it. I saw much of the standard BB features that I have on OS5, but then I noticed the changes to OS6. The icons, the options, the menus. And then it dawned on me... the screen. As obvious as you would think the big screen would be, I didn't immidately notice the picture. With the menus and layout, the screen was also decent. I actually started to think it only looked slightly better then my smaller 9000 in terms of over all display. More on my thoughs of the screen later.

So then I figured I want to see this new webkit. So I opened the browser, and thought it was nice to see the tabbed browsing option. I went to the a couple BB forums on the device, and another forum I frequent at the same time to see how it would handle multiple pages at once. I also liked the double tap feature on the text of the webpages. It made for a better expierence when trying to read pages and articles. Over all, it was an improvement, but not as exciting as I thought it could be. But again, I still felt a little uncomfortable with the way the phone wouldn't close, and I couldnt get a good grip on it as it was. Maybe I was just a little distracted.

I then thought, okay how do I close all this? I went to the menu, and scrolled to "close" using the trackpad. That felt really natural, and that was impressive to me. After thinking it was "closed" I wanted to make sure it was closed, so then I wanted to figure out this app management option to be sure. I was quick to figure out how to find it by going through all the menu options. It was fairly easy, to navigate, not as busy as I thought it to be from all the tours and reviews I've been seeing. However, using the app manager did take a minute to gather myself to realize what I was looking at. I then realized that the OS and the Home screen were taking up the most memory and CPU usage at that moment as nothing else was open or running.

I then went to the home screen and tried to open a few other applications, and without noticable lag, I started to test the scroll through the rest of the menus. I did find that after clicking on a few things, I noticed the clock would pop up for a split second. This happened for a few applications I tried to open.

I downloaded the ESPN app and I have to say it was pretty snappy and smooth over 3G.

I then wanted to check out the pictures, and camera. The images were pretty nice and crisp, but then again those were the wallpapers. One odd thing I nocited, when I tested the pinch and zoom feature, it was nice, but the picture never got clear. It was pretty pixelated when I zoomed in on it. So I took a look at the pictures that people took with the camera and thought, "okay, this is still a cellphone camera." I liked the option to set the type of photo, and I took a couple on the Auto setting. Again I thought, it's a cellphone camera. I liked that the lense wasn't recessed like my 9000, and I thought that it would be decent for convenience pics when I dont have my actual point-n-shoot on me.

I then checked out the preloaded video. This was actually what impressed me the most for the instore demo. It reminded me when I was tesing out the 9000 when it first came out. I thought the pictures were really sharp and clear, and the colors were bright and crisp.

Then it brought me to the sound. WOW!! I was happy to hear it was as loud if not louder then my 9000! And the sound didn't seem to be excessive, with an inadiquate speaker to the point where the sound gets crackly. But it made me wonder more if it actually has the stereo speakers like my 9000.

This is a long post and I dont think I covered everything I expierenced in my initial tests. For most current BB users, I would suggest to test it out at the very least. I like it, and I might still get it. I haven't really considered any other device besides a new BB, but then again I was also wasn't considering a BB when I was looking to upgrade my WinMo device 3 years ago.

I am probably an average user with about 50-60 emails from work, and maybe 20-30 between my 4 other personal accounts a day. I do use many of the social sites (twitter, FB, MySpace) to keep in touch with family and friends as well as BBM and SMS/MMS messaging.

I am debating to see what follows the 9800, or take the jump to this one, if not this week, in a few more weeks.

Those are my thoughts, thanks for reading.