Tech Blog

[#1]

Being at the BlackBerry Fan Night in downtown Toronto earlier, I got up close and personal with all three new phones the company unveiled. Though no official release dates were announced, the devices on hand paint a pretty clear picture of what you can expect.

Five phones — BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930, BlackBerry Torch 9810 and BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860 — were the players, but the star the event seemed to be pointing at was the BlackBerry 7 operating system. The 9930 and the 9900 are basically the same handset, but the 9930 is a CDMA version, while the 9900 is a GSM one. The same is true of the 9850 (CDMA) and 9860 (GSM). Apparently, Rogers, Bell and Telus will carry the 9810 and 9850/9860, but I didn’t get confirmation on the new Bold (though I do believe Bell will be one of them).

While RIM has considered this its most important global launch (the phones will be launching worldwide simultaneously), BlackBerry 7 is really not a great leap forward. At first glance and first touch, it comes across as an update to what OS 6 was offering. It looks very much the same, and though it’s considerably more responsive and intuitive, it doesn’t appear to do anything radically different.

One immediate gripe I have, personally, is that the new operating system still doesn’t allow users to use the 3G data connection to turn their BlackBerrys into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots. This is already an existing feature in iOS and Android devices, so for a launch meant to close the gap, this sort of omission is mind-boggling. The phones should play nice with the PlayBook, though I didn’t see this marriage in practice at the event.

The phones also won’t play Flash video, as RIM turns its focus onto HTML5. This may seem like a drawback, and maybe it is in the immediate sense, but it’s the right move to make long-term. Web browsing is definitely smoother — RIM says it’s also 40 per cent faster — and the pinch to zoom is easily better than before.

Corporate users will love that BlackBerry Balance is integrated here, which will allow them to separate their corporate and personal profiles.

The Torch 9810 is almost a carbon copy of the previous Torch, complete with the sliding keyboard. RIM says it has a faster processor and a better screen. The resolution (800x480) is higher and the touch features are definitely more responsive. But aside from that, I’m not sure there was anything all that different here. Without a lot of time to play with it, it’s hard to tell if there’s anything else.

The Torch 9860/9850 is the full touchscreen model with a 3.7-inch display. There are no dual-core processors in any of these phones, ostensibly because RIM believes that most users would be willing to take the extra horsepower at the expense of battery life. It’s a gamble, but they’re not entirely wrong. How many people do you think make full use of the processing power of a Samsung Galaxy S II?

Still, something ground-breaking would’ve been perfect here, but the QNX-based BlackBerrys will have to wait till 2012.

Meanwhile, the new Bold is a nice throwback to the 9000 model that debuted in 2008. The wider design has been complemented by a thinner form factor and a return of the vaunted keyboard that BB users love so much. The big addition here is the touchscreen that pretty much lets you navigate everything the same way you would with the Torch, only to type away on the keyboard when necessary. Purists can still make use of the trackpad in the middle.

After all is said and done, these are mainly observations I saw earlier tonight, so without actually being able to test one for a longer period, it’s hard to fully gauge. That said, I would’ve much preferred that RIM had taken the plunge and gone with QNX-based phones now, rather than make customers wait longer for them. The step in that direction that they showed tonight isn’t a bad one, but it’s also not the leap it could’ve been.

[#2]

Too bad you got this post up before mine Teddy as I could have addressed a lot of the questions you had.

But here are a few points that might answer people's questions:

Expect to see the Bold 9900, Torch 9810 and the Torch 9860 on all three major carriers.  Telus and Bell are moving to HSPA so we won't be seeing the CDMA variants here (99% guarantee - the CDMA variants are for the US).   All three devices also use a 1.2GHz processor, which will be a considerable improvement from the previous generations of BlackBerry devices.  While there may be multiple reasons not to go with a dual core processor, the biggest reason here is likely battery life.

These devices will also work with the BlackBerry PlayBook through the BlackBerry Bridge.  In fact, I know people who have been using the pairing for some time.

And RIM didn't go with QNX for a very good reason - its not ready yet.  

All of that said, you also missed some really neat features.  Did you try the Wikitude app?  And how about NFC?

Alas, I wish I had been able to use my invite to the event as well.  I would have loved to be there.  When I tested the 9900 in Orlando, it seemed like a really good device and it would have been fun to see how it had improved.

[#3]

So I've been seeing reports that maybe the mobile WiFi Hotspot capabilities might actually be present in the new devices afterall as at least two carriers (one in Canada, the other in the US) have now suggested that this capability will be present in a future OS update.  So this isn't to say that it's guaranteed, but it may still come.  In addition, it won't be present at launch, but hopefully we'll see something shortly thereafter (likely once carrier agreements have been sorted out).