I used a retro slider phone for a week, and the learning curve was steep

Back before Apple and Google conquered the entirety of the mobile phone space in the 2010s, there was a brief period of time in which BlackBerry was an industry juggernaut. The Canadian-based company earned a reputation for offering phones that were excellent business companion devices — their physical keyboards and the built-in

BlackBerry Messenger
(BBM) texting service were undoubtedly the focal points of the overarching experience.

Over the course of several years,

BlackBerry
released a number of notable smartphones. Well-known lines include the Bold, the Pearl, the Curve, the Tour, and the Storm. When I was younger, I was personally most interested in the Torch, which was BlackBerry’s slider-style series of phones.

Unfortunately, I never owned a Torch during its heyday. In fact, until recently, I’d never experienced using a slider phone of any kind, nor had I used a phone with a dedicated physical keyboard. By the time I got my first phone,

an HTC Android device
, the era of virtual keyboards and slidable gadgets was already drawing to a close.

After all these years, I’ve finally gotten my hands on a

BlackBerry Torch
— specifically, the 9800 model from 2010. The phone comes with a 3.2-inch 360 x 380 resolution touch screen display, 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, a single 5-megapixel rear camera, and an ARM-based processor known as the Marvell Tavor PXA940. After nestling through my junk drawer to find a micro-USB cable, I then charged up the Torch and powered it on — here are my thoughts after using the device for about a week.

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Slider phones are undeniably charming

The Torch’s sliding mechanism is ideal for use as a fidget toy

I have a love-hate relationship with the BlackBerry Torch 9800 from an external hardware perspective. I love the aesthetics of the device, which I find to be elegant, confident, and mature. That being said, the plastic chassis is undeniably cheap, and I’m not a fan of the ribbed rubber rear panel, which collects dust at an alarming rate. The main front-facing buttons have a mushy feeling to them, too, which brings down the experience a bit for me.

Thankfully, the Torch delivers where it actually matters: its sliding mechanism is tactile and satisfying, and it’s easy to flick up and down with only one hand. I was initially concerned that the unit would feel top-heavy when in its extended position, but Blackberry did a great job of balancing the 5.68oz (161.1g) weight of the device. At 0.57-inches (14.6mm), the device is thick by today’s standards, but it’s easy to look past this when taking into account the keyboard hidden beneath the display.

Speaking of the display, the Torch’s touch screen is fairly responsive, but it does feel a bit clunky to navigate through

BlackBerry OS
6 using it. I get the impression that capacitive touch technology was a stapled-on inclusion, and that it’s only really here to satiate the iPhone crowd of the day.

Thankfully, the device includes an optical trackpad as an alternative method of interacting with the software, and it’s rather excellent. The sensor itself is small but perfectly accurate, making it easy to whizz around the Torch’s interface. Unlike a trackball, the trackpad isn’t at risk of mechanically wearing down or getting gunked up with debris over time.

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Typing on a physical keyboard is an acquired taste

I still haven’t mastered the art of typing on a physical phone keyboard

Of course, the real centerpiece of the Torch experience is its physical keyboard. Despite being housed within the confines of a small space, each individual button is clicky and tactile. I was surprised to learn that the letters even light up in the dark — a very welcome quality of life inclusion.

Despite all this, actually typing on the Torch’s keyboard proved to be a difficult task. I’ve only ever interacted with software keyboards, and so switching to a hardware setup was quite the culture shock. Even a week later, I haven’t fully acclimated to writing out messages one physical click at a time.

I have friends that swear up and down that they used to type faster with their BlackBerry phones back in the day — a claim that continues to bewilder me. I reckon that, for me personally, I’d need several weeks at minimum to reach parity with my existing Android and iPhone texting speed.

I’d love to continue using the Torch for a longer period of time, but its BlackBerry OS software is woefully outdated, and there’s next to no access to modern apps, websites, and services. BlackBerry, for its part, hasn’t released a new slider-style smartphone since the

Android-based Priv
in 2014; above all else, I’d be very interested to see what the company (or another tech company via the BlackBerry brand) could come up with if they were to take a stab at a premium slider-style phone in 2025.

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