Due to recent delays the BlackBerry Torch 9800 won't be released into stores in Canada until September 30th at the earliest. With my review already complete, it seems to serve no purpose to put it on hold and so I present to you my "early" review.

The Torch is a bit of an oafish brute in the BlackBerry family. It’s large like the Bold and Storm before it, but ever so much thicker and heavier. I’ve come to think of it as a gorilla in a tuxedo. So very smart and impressive in looks, but ungainly and mismatched in use. Such an odd choice for a device that is supposed to strike a delicate balance between legacy and next generation, between the assured typing of a physical keyboard and the light finger commands of a touch screen. With their new BlackBerry OS 6 software, RIM has that touch future well in reach, but have stumbled with the Torch in taking a step towards it.

Design

The Torch is the heaviest smartphone I’ve used in years. I thought at one point I was making too much of a big deal about it until I slid it into my front pants pocket and felt my jeans slide down towards my knees. The gun metal accent against a somber black finish is among my favourite of the BlackBerry styles and it’s an excellent match to the new graphic menus on the display screen.

The physical QWERTY keyboard is part of the phone itself and so it is the screen that slides away and up to reveal it. There’s no lip or molded leverage to help your thumb push it open, instead you’re stuck pushing against the touchscreen itself which tends to leave an undesirable smudge and makes it harder to do so one-handed. Once open, the Torch feels unbalanced in my hands, as if it wants to tip forward which isn’t very comfortable for typing.

Despite the size the keyboard is smaller and more cramped than the Bold’s and is even smaller than the virtual keyboard included with the touchscreen. Although you have both options at your disposal for most tasks, RIM has also included a trackpad which turns out to be very handy for selecting text to copy and paste with. It took Apple awhile to figure out how to do such precise actions with a finger and so it’s fair to expect RIM will need some time too. They might lose the physical keyboard for future BlackBerry models, but I’m guessing the trackpad will stick around for some time after.

Touch Screen Controls

The touch screen controls are where they should be. Light, fast, precise, and responsive. Gone, thankfully, are the dreaded clickable screen and vibrating feedback features of the Storm. Instead we have a more intuitive system where you can use two fingers to select multiple e-mails or to pinch-and-zoom into photos or simply adjust a web page for easier reading. It’s easy to scroll down pages, to swipe through menu selections, and to tap out text with the on-screen keyboard.

The new operating system offers a fantastic home screen. Information is comfortably divided with a notification bar right across the top middle. You can customize the screen, dividing icons across different home menus for favorites, downloads, media, and those you frequently use. It’s easy to swipe from one to the next, to drop down connection menus, and pull up application trays, all against a screen that may no longer be the most vibrant on the market as it was when the Bold first launched two years ago, but pops alive with photographic wallpaper nonetheless.

Unfortunately both touch controls and menu flourishes are betrayed a little by the Torch’s processor, which is just a pinch too slow for the new operating system. At times the system hesitates as you try to scroll through a page, tap return on a search, or launch an application.

BlackBerry OS 6

Although Universal Search is now a feature you’ll find on most smartphone brands, I’ve never used it as much as I have on the BlackBerry. Of the different phones on the market, BlackBerry has by far the most extensive range of menu commands and contextual options and I find it can be a sea of text to navigate through when I’m searching for something. With a handy search icon on the home screen, this feature delivers quick results from the entire system.

Web browsing is easily the biggest improvement. Most web pages display quickly and exactly as intended, although an option to avoid the “mobile” version of some websites is missing. You can easily switch between different open windows and use the trackpad to select and copy web urls. Tabbed browsing is easy to activate and use, although again the Torch’s processor can struggle at times to switch between them.

The updated Twitter and Facebook applications continue to be breath of fresh air on the BlackBerry, but are now supported by a Social Feeds app that integrates them all into one, simple display. I’ve tested a number of different approaches from all the big companies and the simple approach is easily the best. It’s one waterfall-like feed containing all your messages that you can filter by instant message, update, chat, or tweet, however you like.

Research In Motion has always been great at displaying simple, graphical information. Think of the clock that switches on during charging. So it’s nice that they’ve finally applied some of that styling to their media applications. Album art and track lists now have an attractive jukebox format and with touch controls it’s easy to scrub with precision through music tracks and videos during playback. Media applications are at their best when you can flip through content and now that’s exactly what RIM can offer.

BlackBerry DNA

Like the Bold and Storm it draws heavily upon, the Torch is a fully featured smartphone with both Wi-Fi and 3G, quad-band support, GPS and bluetooth, built-in speakerphone and support for tethering, plus accelerometer and proximity sensors, and of course, the ability to download and install apps. If it’s lacking anything, it’s a digital compass, but that’s not a deal breaker.

Despite all those features, the removable battery lasts well past a day in use and certainly the five and a half hours of talk time RIM advertises.

Camera

5 megapixels is a reasonable cameraphone today and the Torch’s includes a flash, 2x digital zoom, auto focus, image stabilization, face detection and a selection of scene and video recording modes. It has a nice, wide-angle lens that works well in low light conditions and uses both on-screen controls and a physical side-button for snapping pics. You can use the built-in GPS to geotag your photos and MicroSD cards to easily transfer them to your computer if needed. It can fill in quite well for a dedicated digital camera if you need it to.

Keep The Tuxedo, Lose The Gorilla

Looking through my review there’s a clear division between software and hardware. BlackBerry OS 6 is a refreshing step forward for RIM in the areas of touch, web browsing, and multimedia while the experimental slider design they’ve chosen to launch it with is simply too cumbersome to do it justice. There’s nothing wrong with combining a physical keyboard with touch controls, other smartphones like the Motorola Milestone and Palm Pre have done it well, but it has to be balanced. My theory is that once you get to a larger size phone, the keyboard needs to slide out horizontally instead of vertically. No matter what the case, the new software bodes well for a future TouchBerry and I’m excited by that.