BlackBerry Bold 9790
This mid-range Bold is lightweight, looks good and has a 2.4in multi-touch display which boasts a resolution of 480 x 360. Not bad. Equipped with BBOS 7.1 and a 1GHz processor this is no dual-core delight, but it moves along nicely and clocks up a decent battery life.
The more traditional BlackBerry shaping of the keys, means quick nimble typing is an easy job – so no nasty surprises for the BB faithful here. It even has NFC, if you can find anywhere to use it. You can read more on this and its full feature set in Reg Hardware's full review of the Bold 9790.
BlackBerry Torch 9810
Endeavouring to get the best from both worlds is the BlackBerry Torch sliderphone. It leaves an impression with its noticeable weight, executive build and 640x480-pixel, 3.2in touchscreen. Yet this marriage involves compromises and the smaller than usual keyboard can be quite fiddly. However, the keys feature the characteristic BlackBerry shaping, so you soon get used to their diminished size.
Powered by a 1.2GHz processor, it's smooth enough but it could be making more of its display, as there's no HD video recording, Flash support or the ability to play top gaming apps. Admittedly, being a BlackBerry, BBM and e-mail needs are going to be a priority, but for the price you'd expect something more these days. Still, if you're tempted, check out our full review of the BlackBerry Torch 9810.
Next page: HTC ChaCha
COMMENTS
Re: Never
Why stop there?
You shouldn't use share a computer keyboard or mouse.
Don't take the lift, those buttons will be filthy. But be careful of the hand rail as you take the stairs.
Don't flush the toilet, you know where those hands have been. You can't be sure the last person washed their hands properly before turning off that tap either. Watch out for that door handle on your way out too! In fact, any door handle.
In fact just put on your paper suit and stay out of public places altogether, Mr Hughes.
Or on phones owned by adults who like to text using proper English and not kiddy's abbreviations.
Err.... you seem to have forgotten Nokia. E5? Or the really rather powerful E6?
Can't believe how fast the media has closed ranks against Nokia.... Very sad.
So sliders are off-topic?
Nokia E7 is still ruling that part of the jungle. It is everything the E-Series is about – I am not aware of anything out there that can touch it in terms of build quality, hardware features and overall design. I would love to see this form factor run MeeGo – I shake my fist at Nokia for not releasing the N950 to the general public. Not that Belle wouldn't do. In fact it does quite fine. Especially since it does the little things you simply expect a phone to do but apparently are no longer to be taken for granted.
I nearly keeled over laughing the other day when an aggressively anti-Nokia mate of mine (some people act like Nokia at some point pissed in their pint and made them drink it) sporting both an iPhone and some Android complained that "these days, you cannot turn phones off overnight anymore and still have the alert work in the morning."
I could not resist to ask him "You mean like a Nokia does, right?"
Priceless face, absolutely priceless.
Sliders
Does noone want qwery sliding phones anymore, or is it more of a case of the phone companies and manufacturers not wanting them for some reason.
I have a Nokia N900 and the missus an E7, both great form factors. I would love something like the E7, or slightly bigger with a decent grown up OS - think Maemo meets EPOC32.
There does seem to be Android sliders about, but not in the UK (Samsung Captivate, or Motorola Droid).
And no toys like the ones in the roundup dont count. I have a BB (for work), and absolutley hate the form factor as well as the phone in general, & every other chav around here has one.
