Back in 2010, the mobile world was basically on fire. Apple had just dropped the iPhone 4 with its high-resolution Retina Display, and Android was starting to grow teeth with the Motorola Droid. Meanwhile, Research In Motion (RIM) was sweating. They needed a win. They needed something that kept the corporate suits happy but also stopped the cool kids from jumping ship. That "win" was supposed to be the rim blackberry torch 9800.
It was a weird, chunky hybrid. A slider.
The Torch 9800 was the first time RIM tried to mash their legendary physical keyboard together with a capacitive touchscreen. If you remember the BlackBerry Storm, you know RIM’s first attempt at touch was a total disaster—that "clickable" screen felt like poking a piece of loose plastic. The Torch was meant to fix that. It was the "best of both worlds" flagship. But honestly? It was a device caught between two eras, trying to please everyone and ending up with some pretty weird compromises.
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The Hardware: A Tank with a Keyboard
Let’s talk about that slide mechanism. It was solid. Like, really solid. Unlike some of the flimsy sliders from Samsung or LG back then, the Torch felt like a piece of industrial equipment. You’d flick that screen up, and it would reveal the classic, "waterfall" sculpted BlackBerry keyboard.
If you were a thumb-typer, this was heaven.
But there was a catch. To keep the phone from being three inches thick, the keys had to be flatter than the ones on the Bold 9700. It still felt good, but it lacked that deep, clicky tactile response that hardcore BlackBerry addicts craved. And it was heavy. At 161 grams, you definitely felt it in your pocket. It felt "premium," sure, but it also felt a bit dated compared to the razor-thin iPhone 4.
The Screen Problem
This is where things got dicey. RIM gave the rim blackberry torch 9800 a 3.2-inch screen. That sounds tiny today, but even in 2010, it was underwhelming. The resolution was 360x480.
That’s it.
While Apple was boasting about pixels so small you couldn't see them, BlackBerry was giving us a display that looked a little... gritty. Photos were okay, but if you tried to read a full desktop webpage, you were doing a lot of squinting. It just wasn't a "media" phone, no matter how much the marketing team tried to say it was.
Why the BlackBerry Torch 9800 Mattered (BlackBerry 6 OS)
The hardware might have been a bit of a mixed bag, but the real story was the software. This phone launched BlackBerry 6 OS. This was a massive deal at the time because it introduced the first actually usable web browser on a BlackBerry.
Before this, browsing the web on a 'Berry was like trying to look through a keyhole. It was slow, it broke half the time, and it couldn't handle complex layouts. The Torch brought in a WebKit-based browser—the same engine powering Safari and Chrome. Suddenly, you had:
- Pinch-to-zoom (yes, it was a novelty for BlackBerry users).
- Tabbed browsing with actual thumbnail previews.
- A "Universal Search" that worked surprisingly well—you just started typing on the keyboard from the home screen, and it would find apps, contacts, or messages instantly.
It felt fast. Or at least, it felt fast for a minute. The problem was that RIM decided to use an aging 624 MHz processor. Even at launch, critics like Ginny Mies from PC World were calling it out for being underpowered. When you had 1GHz processors hitting the market in the Droid X and the iPhone, RIM’s choice to stick with older silicon felt like they were bringing a knife to a gunfight.
The 5MP Camera: Better Than Expected?
Actually, yeah. The 5-megapixel camera on the rim blackberry torch 9800 was arguably the best camera RIM had ever put in a phone up to that point. It had a dedicated flash, continuous autofocus, and image stabilization.
It wasn't going to win any photography awards, but for a business phone, it was solid. It even had a "Face Detection" mode, which felt very futuristic for a device mostly used for sending spreadsheets. The biggest letdown was the video. It only shot in 640x480 VGA. In a year where everyone else was moving to 720p HD, it was another sign that RIM was lagging behind the curve.
Real-World Use: The BBM Glory Days
If you used a Torch 9800 in 2010, you weren't using it for the apps. Let's be real—App World was a ghost town compared to the Apple App Store. You used it for BBM (BlackBerry Messenger).
There was something about that physical keyboard and the "D" delivered/ "R" read receipts that made BBM addictive. The Torch was the ultimate BBM machine because you could use the touchscreen to scroll through your feed and then slide it open the second a message popped up to fire back a reply. It was the peak of the "CrackBerry" era.
But the cracks were showing. Battery life, which used to be BlackBerry's superpower, was just "okay" on the Torch. You’d get through a full day, but you weren't getting the legendary two-to-three-day stretch that older models provided. The 1300 mAh battery had to work a lot harder to power that touchscreen and the new 3G radios.
Was it a Failure?
It depends on who you ask.
If you were an AT&T customer who loved your BlackBerry but wanted to see what this "touchscreen" fuss was about, the Torch was a fantastic upgrade. It was familiar but fresh. However, if RIM's goal was to steal customers back from the iPhone, it failed miserably. It was too slow, the screen was too low-res, and the ecosystem was already dying.
What You Should Know If You Find One Today
Maybe you've found an old rim blackberry torch 9800 in a drawer and want to fire it up. Here is the reality of using one in the mid-2020s:
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- Network Issues: Most 3G networks are shut down. Unless you're on a specific legacy carrier or using Wi-Fi, it’s basically a paperweight for calls and data.
- The "BlackBerry Infrastructure": RIM (now BlackBerry Ltd) shut down the servers that ran the core services. This means no native email, no BBM, and no App World.
- Media Player: It still makes a decent, albeit bulky, MP3 player. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack and supports microSD cards up to 32GB.
- The Battery: Old lithium-ion batteries from 2010 are likely swollen or dead. If you’re going to play with one, buy a fresh replacement first for safety.
Actionable Steps for Tech Historians and Collectors
If you're looking to pick up a Torch 9800 for a collection or just for nostalgia, don't just grab the first one on eBay.
- Check the Ribbon Cable: The most common failure point on any slider is the flex cable connecting the screen to the motherboard. If the screen flickers when you slide it, walk away.
- Look for the 9810 Instead: A year after the 9800, RIM released the Torch 9810. It looks identical but has a much better 1.2GHz processor and a high-res "Liquid Graphics" display. It’s a significantly better experience.
- Software Bypass: Since the official setup servers are gone, you might get stuck on the "Activation" screen. You can usually bypass this by tapping the four corners of the screen in a specific sequence (Top-Left, Top-Right, Bottom-Right, Bottom-Left) or using desktop software like BlackBerry Desktop Manager (if you can find an old PC to run it).
The rim blackberry torch 9800 was a transitional device. It was the bridge between the old-school button-mashing world and the glass-slab future. It wasn't perfect, and it certainly didn't save the company, but for a brief moment in 2010, it was the coolest thing in the boardroom.