BlackBerry Torch 9810 review

So, OS 7 has a much-improved web browser that's brought to the BlackBerry Torch 9810.

And here's the strange thing: Both the Bold 9900 and the Torch 9810 have a 1.2GHz processor. They both have a touchscreen. And they both have the same OS 7 browser.

Yet, despite our less-than-overjoyed response to the Bold 9900 browsing experience, we have to say that it was much better on the Torch 9810. Heaven knows why.

Pages loaded fast over Wi-Fi and 3G and, while you can't have true tabbed browsing, the multiple windows system works well enough.

It's definitely been worth the wait. BlackBerries have always suffered with poor browsers, and despite words such as 'WebKit' being banded about to whet our appetites, they still didn't get that much better on OS 6.

We felt that the Torch 9800 gave us the best browsing experience on a BlackBerry yet (mainly because of that portrait screen) but this is where the Torch 9810 takes over that mantle with grace.

Here, we have a browser that you can comfortably use without wanting to throw your BlackBerry under the nearest train.

OK, so it's no laptop replacement, but for light browsing the BlackBerry Torch 9810 hits the spot nicely. Pages look crisp thanks to that screen, tap to zoom works mostly as it should (although you may experience a slight delay when pages are loading and some text will be cropped at the sides) and, compared to the nightmare the Bold 9900 gave us, this felt like a breath of fresh air.

It was brilliant. In fact, the only criticism we had is that sometimes, when we zoomed in on text, it looked slightly blurry, as though the processor was still catching up. We waited for it to clarify itself, but it didn't.

Bookmarks are a cinch to use, and you configure your choice of search engine. On the whole it's all fine, and lessons have clearly been learned here.

Or at least some have.

Here we go again. We sound like a broken record, but WHERE ON EARTH IS FLASH SUPPORT?!!

Don't give us the baloney about it being too buggy, RIM, because HTC and Samsung have managed it easily for a while.

So what if HTML5 is being regarded as the way forward following the decree of Sir Steve of Jobs? We want it here.

It's not just an annoyance, but a crying shame really, because this is where RIM could have snuck Flash in and then touted it as something the iPhone doesn't have - which it does with the PlayBook vs the iPad.

A lost opportunity. In fact, a wasted opportunity.Poor show, RIM.