OS 6.0.0.161(Beta) Review

IMG00049-20100820-1647-300x225

Earlier this week (Monday to be exact) an unofficial version of OS 6 was leaked on to the net for the Torch 9800. Out of the box the 9800 came with version OS 6.0.0.141. Only 3 days after the device’s launch the beta started hitting thousands of 9800 devices. Personally I had very high hopes for this unofficial update, because I thought it would be a patch to fix the voice echo during calls that so many consumers have been reporting as well as increase the webkit’s web page rendering speed.
Upon putting the update on my device (which only took ten minutes) I immediately made a phone call to see if the “voice echo” was gone. To my surprise it had vanished and now my calls are echo free and clear as polished glass. The second command I gave the phone was to load a few web pages. Of course the first one I went to was BlackBerryEmpire and the loading speed was blazing fast! In fact every single web page I have visited since adding the update has loaded faster compared to 6.0.0.141. If you experienced lag when using the tool tray, you no longer will. I have not experienced any lag what so ever since using .161.
Now with every release of an update for an OS whether it be official or not will have some draw backs. On my device I experienced a few. The first being a lag of the “social feeds” drop down menu. When you first click on it, it will drop down at normal speed but once you select an item in the list, it will take a moment for it to be selected. Secondly if you notice that you aren’t receiving SMS’s go to your firewall and unclick the SMS box. The last con that caught my eye is that a lot of the pre loaded apps that came with the original OS are missing, the most influential being the social feeds app. Other apps that you will find missing are Twitter, Facebook, Espn, Fandango and Bloomberg.
Over all I feel this update did more good than bad in regards to the device functioning well. Remember to always back up your device on to BlackBerry Desktop Manager before adding a newer version of OS just in case you “brick” your phone rendering it useless!