Smartphones running Android and iOS currently have “swipe to unlock” or “slide to unlock” features when locked.  For a while now, BlackBerry has depended strictly on password protection or a lock button located on the top of the device.  There are third party apps such as PatternLock where you customize a pattern to draw out and the BlackBerry then unlocks.  There’s also BerrySlider that gives you a replica of what the swiping to unlock is like on the iPhone, but it’s still not the same and annoying to be an add-on application.  Let’s face it – apps running in the background can tend to slow your BlackBerry down, especially with the low speed processors we have going now.

On the BlackBerry Torch 9800, I’m very disappointed with how easy it is to lock and unlock.  I’m not a fan of belt clips or holsters, so the Torch is always unlocking in my pocket.  With that said, I’m forced to password protect my BlackBerry so that it doesn’t unlock automatically and start dialing.  It sounds like a simple solution but it really isn’t.  With later versions of OS 5.0 and BlackBerry 6, you can have the password screen come up no sooner than a minute after the screen is dimmed which isn’t convenient.  So that means I have to hit the lock button, hold the BlackBerry in my hand for 60 seconds, the put it into my pocket.

If we had a swipe to unlock feature, life would be a lot easier- for me at least.  I can hit the lock button up top and no matter what buttons get pushed in my pocket, the BlackBerry won’t unlock until it gets my finger swiping across the screen.

So as I mentioned before there are third party applications to download, but I’m honestly not fond of them at all.  BerrySlider is an exact replica of the iPhone swipe, and has been killing my battery life (pretty sure it’s the app as I haven’t experienced the issue before installing it).

On non-touchscreen devices I can certainly understand having no need for the swipe to unlock feature.  Devices such as the Bold and Curve have pretty firm lock buttons up top that don’t necessarily engage on their own when in the pocket.  For some reason it’s real weak on the Torch which makes me rant about a swipe to unlock feature.  Maybe a firmer lock button would do the trick for me too, but a stock swipe to unlock like Android and iOS would be an easy quick fix for us Torch owners now.

What do you guys think? Swipe to unlock feature on the BlackBerry or what?

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