Rating: 
Review Conditions
PhoneTorch 2.0 was installed in a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS 9.4.
Installation
Installation is imply via the Nokia Application Installer available in the Nokia PC Suite. You can also transfer the .sis file to the mobile’s memory card and start installation directly from the phone.
First View
I always thought flashlight applications for the mobile phone were overrated. There is a wow factor and the first impression is always good but I wondered if they’d be really useful when you really need a flashlight to search a car key dropped on the road at night or finding your seat in a movie theater. Read on.
Main Review
PhoneTorch uses 2 light sources on your phone – the LED flash and the LCD display. The LED flash of the Nokia 5800 is quite bright and I found that it functions truly as a low intensity flashlight and is very useful. I used it in both the use cases I mentioned above and it proved useful. The LED can be turned on and off from within the application.
The LCD display lights up the entire 3.2″ display with the color you want. You can change the color of the display too. The light intensity of the display can be reduced or increased.
PhoneTorch also lets you send out Morse code using the LCD display. You just have to type the text, like SOS, and it send out dots and dashes by short and long bursts of LED light.
PhoneTorch can be configured to autostart on your phone. The hardware Camera key can be configured to be a shortcut key and can be used to turn on / off the LED flash.
You can set the application resume the light state when you last quit it. Which means if you quit the app with the LED on, the next time you restart it, the LED comes back on, without you having to turn it on. That reduces the number of taps you have to make when you badly need some light.
Handling
PI found PhoneTorch to quite fast showing now latency when I opened it to start the flash light. When the app goes to the background, you can use the hardware Camera key to turn on and off the LED. This is thoughtfully done so that once again, key presses or taps are reduced. But you cannot open the camera when PhoneTorch is running, because it hijacks the hardware Camera key.
But I found that ScreenSnap, the screen capture application overrides PhoneTorch too! So when you have ScreenSnap and PhoneTorch open, pressing the Camera key
Weaknesses
Obviously, keeping the LED flash or the display turned on for many seconds will drain the battery in a flash. Its not really a weakness, but something one should remember when keeping the LED flash turned on for many minutes and complaining that the battery on the device is poor. Notice the power spike in the image below, when LED flash is turned on.
Conclusion
I found that the design of PhoneTorch was well thought out. Quick access to open the application and toggle the flashlight easily are two use cases which have been given paramount importance and implemented perfectly. With simple controls, great ease of use, PhoneTorch is good stuff and can be purchased here for $2.99.
PhoneTorch is one application that silently stays in a corner and shows its value at the most important moment.
PhoneTorch with all its functionality is supported in Nokia S60 5th edition, 3rd edition FP2 and Sony Ericsson Vivaz, Vivaz Pro and Satio. Older vesions like N95 are also supported, but with limited features. Its a truly useful application and I’ll give it 4 of 5.
You must log in to post a comment.