BlackBerry Torch Philippines : Price, Specs, Photos, Officially Launched!

Just arrived home from BlackBerry Torch 9800's Philippine launch held at the Fort. Yup, RIM's flagship phone is now officially here.



BlackBerry Torch is a slider phone that dons a chrome-fretted full QWERTY keypad and a 3.2" capacitive touchscreen that supports multi-touch gestures. The smartphone runs RIM's latest BlackBerry 6 Operating System with its 624 MHz processor.



I'll just rest for a while before I post videos and photos that I took. In the meantime, you might want to read the official press release courtesy of RIM and VirtusioPR --

RIM Launches the BlackBerry Torch Smartphone in the Philippines

Highly anticipated BlackBerry Torch, featuring BlackBerry 6, combines touch screen and easy-to-use keyboard plus rich new browsing experience

19 November 2010 – Manila, The Philippines – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today introduced the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone in The Philippines. The BlackBerry Torch is the world’s first smartphone to combine a BlackBerry® keyboard with a full touch screen experience and the first to include the new BlackBerry® 6 OS.

“The new BlackBerry Torch smartphone builds on the familiar and powerful capabilities of the BlackBerry platform to provide the features that are ideal for socially connected consumers while also providing the tools that business customers trust,” said Gregory Wade, Managing Director, Southeast Asia at RIM. “The new BlackBerry 6 operating system includes many new features that users will enjoy, including Universal Search, Social Feeds and a fast WebKit browser,” added Wade.



The new BlackBerry Torch features an exciting combination of a large touch screen, optical trackpad and backlit slide-out BlackBerry keyboard. It offers support for high-speed 3G (UMTS/HSDPA) networks around the world, includes the latest generation in Wi-Fi® (b/g/n) connectivity and features built-in GPS for location-based applications and geo-tagging. Its 5 MP camera takes exceptional pictures with continuous auto focus, image stabilization, scene modes and zoom, and it also supports video recording. In addition, it comes with a combined 8 GB of media storage out-of-the-box and includes a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that can bring the total storage memory to 36 GB for customers who want more.

BlackBerry Torch 9800 Philippines : Full Specifications

BlackBerry 6

The BlackBerry Torch is the first BlackBerry smartphone to launch with BlackBerry 6, a new operating system that retains the trusted features of the BlackBerry brand while delivering a rich experience that’s powerful and easy to use. It has a redesigned interface and includes expanded messaging capabilities with intuitive features to simplify the management of social networking and RSS feeds (Social Feeds), and provides integrated access to BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger), Facebook®, Twitter™, MySpace™ and various messaging applications available on the BlackBerry Torch smartphone. Its enhanced multimedia experience rivals the best in the industry and includes a dedicated YouTube app.



BlackBerry 6 integrates a new and rich WebKit-based browser that renders HTML web pages (as well as HTML email) quickly and beautifully for a great browsing experience. It features tabs for accessing multiple sites simultaneously, pinch to zoom for easy navigation and a zoom feature that can intelligently wrap text in a column while maintaining the placement of a page's key elements (simply double-tap on the BlackBerry Torch).

Pricing and Availability

The new BlackBerry Torch smartphone is expected to be available in The Philippines in late November 2010. Please check with your local carrier or authorized reseller for in-store dates and pricing. (TP Note: I'll update this post as soon as we get word on Torch pricing from its official carriers in the country.)