It combines a physical QWERTY keyboard with a sliding multi-touch screen display and runs on BlackBerry OS 6.

[7] Speculation of the Torch began in April 2010 when RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis introduced the BlackBerry 6 operating system during his keynote address at WES 2010.

Images of a BlackBerry device prototype with a touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard started emerging in late spring and early summer of 2010.

It can be assumed that the device name was derived from Torch Mobile, the company that RIM purchased in 2009 in aid with their development of a WebKit based browser.

[15] UBM techinsite has confirmed the claims of Research in Motion, by performing a "tear down" and making a hardware analysis, discovering a PXA940 Processor.

The 45 nm process keeps heat production and power usage down, and the processor as previously stated in this article brings significant performance gains.

Anandtech praised the screen of the phone as being: "one of the most readable outside that I've encountered in a while, with text and webpages being easy to make out even in intense daylight.

[18] However, sales reportedly improved in the months following the release and RIM shipped a record amount of smart phones in the final quarter of 2010.

The touchscreen display, keyboard, camera, battery, microSD slot and overall design of the phone remain unchanged from the 9800, as is the cellular, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity support.

[22][23] The BlackBerry Torch 9860 is a full touchscreen smartphone developed by Research In Motion (RIM) also announced on August 3, 2011.

In many ways the 9850/60 is very similar to its sister model the 9810 including chipset, battery power, browser capability and liquid graphics technology.