When we first got our hands on the new Torch 9860 by BlackBerry, we had to compare it to an Android phone. The device has the typical candy bar long rectangular shape of most Android devices and looks great for it, though is very different from most BlackBerrys and is without the usual QWERTY keyboard they have.

The phone is quite slim at 9.3mm, not Samsung Galaxy slim but a lot tidier than the sliding keyboard BlackBerry Torch 2. This means it looks neater and fits a lot tidier into pockets – which is a plus, and is quite a bit cheaper than most Android phone deals.

The phone felt quite solid, though we wouldn’t like to drop it on a hard surface – not that we like dropping most of our phones onto hard places anyhow. The 15:9 ratio 3.7 inch screen looks very good. It shows colours quite brightly and has a reasonable amount of tones and is good for contrast. We were also surprised with the difference in the touch screen which felt very responsive and accurate.

This is probably down to a doubling of size in the processing power on the sometimes dire Torch 1. The new one feels lovely and the on screen keyboard accurate and precise and not the nightmare we envisaged.

The phone also comes with the usual number of BlackBerry business applications and obviously BBM. The new OS7 is nice, not amazing nor massively intuitive but it is an improvement. It doesn’t offer much of the things Android phones do such as Wi-Fi hotspots and the like, but it is better than OS6.

We were also impressed with the browsing on the device. The larger screen makes it a lot easier to look at the Internet and the device has an optical pad for those that don’t wish to take the leap completely to touch screen.

We also enjoyed the multimedia experience on the phone and the business applications were great. The camera also took better snaps than the previous BlackBerry Torch did and they were much better in colour accuracy and shutter speed is notably better.

The device felt like a very complete phone. It is perhaps not just up to speed with the likes of the iPhone 4S or the Samsung Galaxy SII, though it is a competent effort from RIM and BlackBerry