The BlackBerry Torch 9800 is nice and all but I’m underwhelmed

Research in Motion (RIM) is trying to stay in the game, and announced their new BlackBerry 9800, dubbed the BlackBerry Torch. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the Storm 2 with a built-in keyboard, and will be available on the AT&T network beginning August 12th.

BlackBerry Torch 9800

Here’s the thing. I’m a tech head, and I loves me a good phone. No, not a good phone. An awesome phone. I moved to AT&T for the RIM BlackBerry Curve so I could get a smarter phone that would allow me to synch my contacts and calendar data to my MS Outlook on the home PC. I’d tried Motorola’s Phone Tools application years ago to synch their Motorola flip phones (the v710 and E815), but Motorola’s app left much to be desired. Using RIM’s Desktop Manager software, synching is a breeze. The two BlackBerrys that I’ve owned so far — the Curve and the Bold, are great phones. They’re really good. So why am I underwhelmed?

Three words: iPhone and Android. The iPhone 4 came out a few months ago, and despite Antenna-gate, it’s a beautiful phone. I still have my Apple iPod Touch from a few years ago, and the I still think the form-factor is fantastic. I like the few apps installed so far, but it’d be so much better to have access to those apps outside of my Wi-Fi home network.

More importantly, Google’s Android. After much prompting for me, my wife recently moved to her first smartphone, the HTC Droid Incredible. I checked out her phone during our recent road trip, and it’s an amazing phone. Absolutely amazing. It’s beautiful, it’s useful, it’s smooth, it’s polished. It’s so well done, it’s awe-inspiring. It’s truly lust-worthy. While there is technically nothing wrong with the current slate of BlackBerries on the market, they don’t quite compare to the Android models on the scene and the new iPhone 4.

My next opportunity to upgrade is November 2010, but I’m considering either upgrading to the iPhone 4 in November, or waiting until March 2011 to move back to Verizon.