Review: BlackBerry Storm
Nov 20, 2008, 12:00 AM by Eric M. Zeman
updated Nov 30, 2012, 8:28 AM
RIM's first touch-screen BlackBerry finally hits the market. Find out if RIM's Storm lives up to the hype.
Form
Is It Your Type?
Research In Motion has finally been caught in the whirlwind mobile phone fad of the day and conjured up a Storm of its own to combat the headwinds. The Storm is the first BlackBerry to use a touch screen for input. RIM has done some really innovative things with the Storm, but sticks to its roots with the business-friendly underpinnings that anchor the Storm. If you're a business user who needs a BlackBerry for its tight integration with business software and services, but are longing for something a little more nontraditional than the usual BlackBerry QWERTY slab phone, the Storm could be the phone for you.
Body
From a distance, there is little to set the Storm apart from the increasingly crowded field of touch-based devices. It's black and has gray and silver accents. RIM did not stretch any design boundaries here. It is sophisticated and elegant, but not unique.
Though the width is nearly identical to that of devices such as the iPhone, the added girth around the waist makes it feel way bigger in your hand. It fills your palm completely. Because the Storm is shaped a bit like a trapezoid (when viewed from the side); the front surface is actually larger than the back surface. You can feel this when you try to wrap your hands all the way around the Storm. It feels big. Darned big. It is solid, but not overly weighty. You're going to notice it in your pocket.
There are five buttons on the front of the Storm. The first is the screen itself. Yes, it's one big-ass button. The screen has just about the same travel and feedback over its entire surface, though the corners have a bit more flex to them. There is a very satisfying click when you press the screen...most of the time.
Below the screen are four more buttons: the send key, BlackBerry key, Back key and End key. All four have good travel and feedback. Sliding your thumb from the screen down to these four buttons makes them easy to find. It is a bit difficult to differentiate between the keys as you slide your thumb across the four buttons from side to side, though.
Along the top edge of the phone are two keys. On the left is the lock/unlock key and on the right is the mute/silence key. These keys are pretty well hidden, and you may not notice them at first. They are built into the plastics of the Storm, so there is no way to tell that your thumb is on them. Thankfully, they are all the way up against the Storm's outer edge, so find the edge with your thumb, and you've found the button.
On the left side of the phone is the voice-command key. I'll be darned if I wasn't pressing it every five seconds and accidentally starting the voice-command application. This really ticked me off. It's just too easy to press. It has three little bumps on it that make it very findable. Just below it is the microUSB port for charging and data transfer.
The right side holds the 3.5mm headset jack at the very top. Just below it is the volume toggle / camera zoom key. The key is very easy to find, but travel and feedback are a bit mushy. Last up is the two-stage camera key. This button sticks up a bit more, and has two distinct clicks as you press to focus the camera and take a picture.
The back surface of the Storm is brushed metal, which I have to say I really like. In order to remove it, you have to press two clasps on either side of it simultaneously. Only then will it come off. Under it is the battery, microSD slot (hot swapping is possible) and the Verizon Wireless SIM card.
The Three S's
Screen
The Storm's display is frickin' gorgeous. It simply looks fantastic. Indoors, outdoors, wherever you happen to be, it is beautiful. The icons and graphics are razor sharp. Everything is very bright and clean. Even in direct sunlight, you can see all the graphics and read all of the text. This is truly one of the better displays I've ever seen on a mobile phone. Yes, I am gushing about it, it is that good.
Signal
I received my Storm review unit at an event in NYC yesterday. Taking the bus home, I watched the signal indicator the whole ride home. Signal strength varied, as you might expect. Traveling past Giant Stadium, the Storm had five full bars. Further out it was down to one bar. Sitting in my home in northern New Jersey, the Storm is pulling in three bars of EVDO signal from Verizon's network. Another Verizon phone I have on hand has five bars here in my office compared to the Storm's three. Phone calls I made were not dropped, and the Storm was able to make and receive calls in our "vault" test.
Sound
RIM knows how to make a phone ring so you will hear it. My favorite BlackBerry ringer is the "Classic Phone" one. Use that one, and set the Storm's volume all the way up and you'll never miss a call. The sound pierces your skull and makes you want to scream, "For the love of all that's holy STOP RINGING!" Other ringers can be just as loud, but don't have the same cut-through-the-crowd effect. The earpiece was loud enough for me. I set it to about 60% of the way up and had no problems hearing the people with whom I was speaking. I imagine that if you put it all the way up, you'll be able to hear people in coffee shops, airports, bus stations and other noisy places just fine.
Call quality was better than average. I didn't hear any hissing, crackling, popping or other crazy noises. I didn't hear any complaints with the few people I called about how I sounded, either.
One thing I notice, though, was that Amtrak's automated attendant had a hard time hearing ME through the Storm. Good old Julie (that's the software's name) said to me "Sorry, I didn't get that, would you mind repeating?" more than usual.
Battery
I've only had the Storm for about 24 hours. The phone came with a 25% charge that I ate through quickly by the time I went to bed. I left it plugged in all night. After seven hours unplugged, the battery is drained by 20%. I've been using it heavily to send emails, browse the web, testing the messaging service, Bluetooth, camera and more. After eleven hours unplugged, the battery was drained by 40%. We'll offer a final report on battery life after we spend more time with it.
Touch
Perhaps the Storm's most appealing feature is that it uses a touch screen for user input rather than a trackball and keyboard, as most other 'Berries do. Rather than use a touch screen similar to the iPhone's or Samsung Instinct's, RIM went in a different direction.
Because typing and composing emails is so important to BlackBerry users, RIM wanted to impart haptic feedback on the Storm. Haptic feedback typically lets a user know they've pressed the phone by buzzing or vibrating. That's not what the Storm does. The entire display is one large button. That means in order to select anything on the screen you have to press it. Not lightly touch it as on a touch capacitive screen, nor press it a little bit as on a touch resistive screen. You need to physically press the Storm's screen down to open applications or folders.
This takes a lot of getting used to. I don't care for the way it feels at all, but I am sure plenty of others will love it. I found that after a few moments of composing emails, my thumbs were very tired.
If you want to swipe through menus, slide an email up and down or pan across a Web site, you can certainly do that. RIM decided that touching the screen would be for highlighting things, panning, zooming, etc. We're talking a "light touch" here. Brushing your finger across the screen, or just barely making contact. If you want to open and application, you have to press down on the screen. When I say press, I mean push down until the screen clicks. This means that you won't accidentally open up a program by touching it when you meant to swipe up or down. This also means that you can't double-tap on stuff to open it like you might be used to with other touch-based phones.
It's a novel concept, and I totally understand why RIM chose to go this way. It just takes some getting used to.
Basics
Menus
The Storm uses pretty much the same menu that's seen on the BlackBerry Bold and Pearl Flip. That is to say that all the graphics and icons have been refreshed compared to the Curve and 8800 series BlackBerries.
The home screen of the Storm has a large view of status indicators at the top. Below it about one-third of the screen is blank, allowing you to see your wallpaper. Below that are 8 icons to get to your messages, contacts, calendar, browser and several other things. This is pretty much in line what what we've seen on other BlackBerries.
Pressing the BlackBerry key or tapping in the black section of the home page opens the full menu which is really just a more fleshed out set of icons appearing in grid fashion. This menu includes the 8 items from the home screen and many more. You can swipe up and down to scroll through all the selections. Once you see what you want, press it firmly and away you go.
Drilling down beyond this set of icons, though, and things start to look more familiar. The underlying architecture of the BlackBerry OS is the same, which mean menus, menus, and more menus. If you want to do anything, hit the BlackBerry key, and a long list of action items appears. Most often, RIM's software automatically highlights the selection you're probably most interested in. For example, if your looking at an email and you tap the BB key, it will open the menu and highlight "reply". If you've already typed an email and hit the BB key, it will highlight "send".
My Storm review unit had a very noticeable lag. You'd press the screen to access an application or menu, and there would be a delay before that app or menu opened or loaded. Sometimes the delay was short, sometimes the delay was lengthy.
My review unit also had a lot of problems with the "Back" key. It refused to recognize that the back key had been pressed fully 50% of the time. This meant I had to re-press the key. Some times I had to press the back key a lot to get it to do what I wanted.
The lag was apparent in every menu and every application. I was told that these review units are literally the first ones to come from the factory floor. Read into that what you will.
In all, though, the menu system isn't all that hard to figure out.
Calls/Contacts
The Storm performs similar to most other BlackBerries when it comes to the phone features. Press the green send key and the Storm defaults to the software dialpad. There are three tabs along the top that let you select from a list of recent calls or your contacts. With the dialpad showing, if you start typing a number, that's all you are going to get, a number. On other 'Berries, typing a number will cause the phone to begin sorting through your contacts. Not so with the Storm. You have to select the contacts application if you want to search through your contacts.
With your call logs showing, you can select any of them by tapping gently on the screen. Pressing the screen with a call highlighted brings up basic info about the call. Press the BlackBerry button to bring up the full calling options menu. Pressing the send key while a call is highlighted calls the number.
The in-call menu has four basic selections that are always visible. They are speaker, mute, add a call and flash for call waiting. Along the bottom of the in-call screen are a number of other options, such as opening up a notes program, your calendar, contacts and so on.
Speaking of contacts...
The contacts application is not changed much compared to other BlackBerries. If you open the address book from the home screen, there is a search function built into the top of the app, and is the default action. Start typing a name, and the app sorts until you find the contact you want. You can also scroll down using your finger on the screen. If you have a large contact list, this can be time consuming. Once you've found the contact you want, hitting the BB key again opens up a magical, extensive list of actions you can take concerning that contact, including dialing them, sending them an SMS, or editing their information. Each contact can hold a wealth of information about that person, including far more phone numbers and email addresses than any normal human being should have. You can also choose to save them directly to your SIM card.
The integration between the calling features and the contacts program is designed around one-handed ease-of-use and minimizes typing to almost zero.
Messaging
As with all other BlackBerries, the Storm is a messaging powerhouse. The messaging center is the best yet from RIM, and it is tightly entwined with the calling and contacts applications. These three together create a strong triad of connectivity and communications options.
The Storm works with POP3, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes and pretty much any other email system and/or software you can think of.
The main inbox holds every email, SMS, or MMS sent to the phone in one gigantic list. This can be a boon or a bane, depending on your style. If you like everything in one spot, it is quick and easy to access everything. If you have multiple email accounts tied to the Storm, and prefer to see the emails sorted into their respective in-boxes, this view may not be for you. Luckily, you can sort out each inbox so they are in fact separate and you don't confuse which email account you are in. (The Storm supports up to 10 email accounts.)
Probably the most powerful aspect of the messaging app is the search function. Because BlackBerries keep messages stored for 30 days (unless you delete them more often), searching your inbox might be a painful prospect for that one email or SMS you know contains vital information. With the search function, you can find practically anything in your inbox as long as it is still stored on the device.
When viewing emails, the BlackBerry software recognizes phone numbers and email addresses. When you scroll down a page, they are auto-highlighted, allowing you to email people or call them without having to type anything. Simply scroll over the name or email to highlight it, press the screen, and bingo. Hitting the BB key opens up the options list for the emails or numbers found in your inbox.
My favorite new feature is how the Storm sorts through emails. Let's say you're in the Storm's inbox. Swiping sideways across the email address of a message in your inbox will sort all emails by that name. Same goes for subject lines. Want to see all the emails from a certain thread? Swipe the subject line and all the emails with the same subject line will appear in a list. Nice!
While viewing a message, swiping to the left or to the right will let you jump to the next or previous message without having to go to the inbox first.
There are some software buttons running along the bottom of the screen for replying, forwarding, or deleting the current message.
SMS messages are threaded into a single conversation (similar to a Treo or iPhone) as long as you and the contact continue to reply to messages already sent and not type a brand new message.
New messages of any sort are easy to initiate by simply typing in the contact's name. If you begin typing a contact's name in the address field, it will auto sort your contacts in that field and let you select from that list. Same goes for SMS or MMS messages.
Speaking of files, the BlackBerry inbox lets you view most attachments, including images and Microsoft Word documents.
The Storm is also preloaded with BlackBerry Messenger, AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Yahoo and Windows Live instant messaging programs. Any way you want to get your IM on, the Storm lets you do it.
Extras
Music
The Storm's music player is nearly identical to that found on the Bold and the Pearl Flip, save for the integration of touch. Tap the Media icon in the main menu to open the gateway to all the Storm's media.
The basic music menu is unchanged from other 'Berries. It lets you select from the songs, artists, genres, albums, playlists, etc. For the first time in recent memory, there is actually an equalizer available for users to alter the sound, You have to hit the BlackBerry key to find it, under the options selection. It offers 12 equalizer pre-sets to adjust the sound a little bit better to your tastes. You can also turn an audio boost function on and off. This raises the maximum volume of playback.
The player is no more impressive than the Curve's. You can play or pause/stop the music with the touch screen, as well as skip forward and backward tracks. As with most media players, a progress bar shows you how much of the song remains, and album art is displayed if it is tagged to the song. Again, the BlackBerry key pulls up a big menu of options that can be altered during playback, such as sending the music to a Bluetooth headset, setting the current song as a ringtone, and others.
Music played back through the speaker sounds okay, but not great. You can make it insanely loud if you want, but the quality of the sound suffers a bit if you do. Music sounds pretty good through either regular headphones or stereo Bluetooth headphones. The EQ and audio boost function both go a long way to making the Storm one of the best-sounding 'Berries I've reviewed.
Music can be sideloaded directly onto a microSD card. It can also be drag-and-dropped through mass storage mode. Lastly, it can be synced with the Roxio music software (which comes with the device), or an as-yet-unreleased piece of software that will allow direct syncing with iTunes.
Camera
Camera
The Storm has a 3.2 megapixel camera. The software controlling it isn't changed all that much compared to other BlackBerries. Launching the camera (with the dedicated button or via the menu) takes about 3 seconds.
The screen shows you your subject and there is a bar along the bottom that shows you what the camera's settings are at a glance. The volume toggle lets you zoom in and out, and you can also use pinching — yes, that means "multi-touch" — gestures on the screen itself to zoom the camera in and out. It doesn't work great, though, and I found it to be somewhat awkward.
I dislike that you can't change any of the settings (except zoom) directly from the viewfinder view. You have to press the BlackBerry key to open up the options list. You can only alter the basics: resolution, quality, the flash and white balance settings. No fancy-schmancy editing functions or other controls.
The flash is insanely bright. You could strap it to the front of a car if you wanted to and use it as a headlight (OK, not really, but almost). The flash fires to help the camera focus. Don't be surprised if your friends complain about being blinded. The camera takes up to two seconds to focus, and then another two seconds to take the picture and bring you to the review screen.
You can take pictures in either landscape or portrait mode. The phone takes the picture in whichever mode you're holding the phone, so if you shoot the phone holding it in landscape mode, it will take a landscape picture.
After you take a picture and it is saved, you have 5 immediate options to choose from. The default is to take another picture, but you can also choose to send the image (as an email or MMS), rename it, set as desktop/caller ID, or trash it.
Gallery
The gallery app is accessible from the Media icon or from the camera application. In the gallery, if you hit the BB key you get a long list of options. With this list, you can basically take any action imaginable, including setting the selected image as your home screen, emailing it, renaming it, moving it and many more. After you have a picture open, hitting the BB key brings up another list of actions, including zooming in and out and some of the options of the aforementioned menu. There may not be advanced editing capabilities, but you can send picture files just about anywhere via multiple methods.
You can view the gallery in a grid or a list. With pictures open, you can swipe from side to side to scroll through the image library.
One thing to note, the Storm has the slowest galley application ever. Loading images takes literally 30 seconds each. It was absolutely painful to use the gallery application. Swiping form side-to-side was an exercise in futility. The Storm barely responded and the picture would often "freeze" with half of one picture and half of another on the screen. Really, really, annoying.
Photos/Video
Photos
Despite some of the goofiness of the camera application, pictures looked pretty good. Some close-up shots I took of my keyboard were sharp, clear and free of any grain or noise. Outdoor shots were also clean and clear. Blowing images up to full size on a computer monitor showed that they were in focus and true-to-life. In the short time I played with the Storm's camera and the small number of images I was able to capture, I was pleased with what I saw.
Video
Video can be recorded at an MMS-friendly resolution/length and at a slightly higher resolution and at longer lengths depending on what you want. Videos shot indoors were better than average. You can turn image stabilization on or off, and having it on helps a lot to create less jittery videos. Images were smooth, free of ghosting and digital artifacts, and the video recorder responded well to drastic changes in light. I'd say the Storm is the best 'Berry there is when it comes to capturing still images and video.
3GPP / MPEG-4 format (viewable with QuickTime)
Browse/Customize
Browser
The Storm has a full HTML browser that is matched to Verizon's EVDO 3G network. The pair is a winning combination. The browser opens Verizon's home page quickly. You can choose to consume the content offered by Verizon, or jump to the open Web.
There are five buttons running along the bottom of the screen. The first brings you to a navigation page. The nav page has an address bar at the top, followed by a search bar, your bookmarks and history. I really like how this page is organized. It makes navigating to what you want quick, because everything is rolled into one page.
There is also a button that lets you view the page in a single column or in standard mode. With full HTML browsing, the standard view really looks good. The column view makes a mess of some Web pages.
The third button opens a cursor for browsing. Rather than pan around with your finger, the cursor can be used to click on links that might be too small for your finger. I didn't really see much point in it, but I am sure others may find it useful.
You also have the ability to easily zoom in and out with the "+" and "-" keys.
Browsing speeds were great. Full HTML Web pages loaded in a snap. This is best browsing experience I've had on a BlackBerry. This is a change from when we saw the demo units of the Storm in October. RIM and Verizon have sped up the Storm's browsing speeds a bit.
Customize
The Storm can be customized about as much as any of its BlackBerry predecessors. It lets you re-arrange the main menu as you see fit. You can hide applications, stuff them in folders, or move them anywhere on the screen. You can set pictures as wallpapers, music as ringtones, and customize when the phone goes on/off, turns the radios on/off and so on.
You can add words to the dictionary at will, you can tell the dictionary which word to pick more often when you type a key combination that could be two or more words, and make adjustments to how the spell check app functions.
Both application keys on the left and right side of the Storm can be customized as short cuts to your favorite or most used applications or settings menu.
The options menu lets you alter the phone as you would expect most phones for personalization. You can change the fonts, the size of the fonts, whether or not they are bold and more. This alters the view of your inbox and the majority of the text-only menus you interact with on the Storm a great deal.
Because BlackBerries typically targets business users, there are literally hundreds of ways to configure the phone, set limits, and so on. Most of these will be completely unused by normal people.
Other
Accelerometer
So the Storm has an accelerometer and can automatically switch between portrait and landscape views. The accelerometer on my review unit was buggy. It would rotate views even though I hadn't rotated the phone. If I did rotate the phone, it would often get stuck, and there would be a delay before it switched. This was extremely annoying. What's worse, I'd often place the phone flat on my desk and the screen would rotate sideways. This means that if the phone rang, or I received a new message, I couldn't read it because the screen would be facing the wrong way.
What is neat is that almost every application, menu or screen on the Storm can be viewed in either landscape or portrait mode. Some devices with accelerometers only let you use the device in landscape mode within certain applications or screens. The Storm lets you do everything in either mode no matter how you're holding the phone.
Apps
The Storm will have access to the BlackBerry Apps Store and a Verizon Wireless apps store when they launch. We were informed that neither store will be ready when the device goes on sale November 21. They are are a few weeks out. Still, Verizon did load a few applications on the Storm to check out. I used the Facebook application and a few others. Many more will become available over time.
Bluetooth
The Storm supports many different Bluetooth profiles, including for mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets. Pairing each kind of headset with the Storm was easy, and sound quality was excellent. I was especially pleased with how the music sounded through stereo Bluetooth headphones.
I was also able to pair it with Windows and Apple PCs easily, and perform actions such as transferring files back and forth.
Clock
The clock is always visible when the Storm's display is on. Click anywhere on the screen when it is locked, and the clock sits brightly at the top of the screen. The clock is in the same place once the screen is unlocked. Checking the time is as easy as pressing the screen.
You can also turn on a HUGE clock if you wish by opening the clock application. The clock app has a timer, stopwatch, alarm, all the usual stuff. One interesting feature is "bedside mode". RIM knows that business people will likely place their Storm on the bed-side table at night. Bedside mode shows the large clock all the time so if you get up in the middle of the night, you can always check the time simply by looking at your phone. Nice touch, RIM, nice touch.
GPS
The Storm has GPS and comes pre-loaded with Verizon's Navigator service. I didn't have a chance to test this, but I did download Google Maps and give that a try. Using Google Maps' "my location" feature showed the worst accuracy I have seen yet on a mobile device. It was way off, I tell ya, way off. Most of the time, GPS locks onto my location within feet of where I am. With the Storm, it placed the little "you are here" bubble miles away from where I was. This could be a review unit issue, though.
Visual Voicemail
The Storm also has visual voicemail. Visual voicemail is a great feature. All of your voice mails are visible in a list. You can choose which ones you want to listen to first. This is simply the way voicemail should be. I asked Verizon, and they said visual voicemail will work both in the U.S., and if you choose to roam overseas. As long as you have an active network connection, you'll have visual voicemail.
Video
Here is a lengthy video review of the BlackBerry Storm. You can watch it here:
Or visit YouTube for more viewing and sharing options.
Wrap-Up
The BlackBerry Storm is not perfect, but, in my humble opinion, it is the best BlackBerry yet.
The media features are much improved compared to other BlackBerries. The music player is more robust, offers more features, and sounds better than the Pearl Flip.
The camera outperforms every BlackBerry I've ever tested. The resulting images and videos surpass those taken with other BlackBerries as well.
It is the same robust messaging powerhouse that every other BlackBerry is, but the touch interface leads to some great innovations, especially with the added sorting capabilities in the mail application.
While I didn't initially care for the way the touch screen works, I'll allow that many will be fine with it, and even I could come to like it over time. The SurePress (as it is called by RIM) touch technology is an interesting way for RIM to give users the touch experience and still have the actual feedback of pressing a physical button when typing.
There were definitely some bugs with my review unit. Lag was a recurring issue all over the place. Perhaps Verizon Wireless and RIM will be able to fix the lag with a firmware update, but perhaps not. That's something you might want to ask of your local Verizon retailer.
In the end, if you're a Verizon customer in the market for a better BlackBerry, the Storm is for you.
UPDATE:
To be fair, we gave RIM/Verizon a second chance. They shipped us a second review unit. Unfortunately, it experienced ALL THE SAME PROBLEMS that the first review unit did. Obviously, then, the Storm's problems were not device specific. There is an issue with the actual software/hardware. If you check other reviews on the web today, you'll see similar reports if bugginess.
Both of our review units were running system software 4.7.0.65. To the best of our knowledge, the latest build is 4.7.0.80, which is much improved. If/when that build will become available to handsets is unknown. We're checking with Verizon to get an answer.
Until we know that, you may want to wait a few weeks before buying a Storm.
About the author, Eric M. Zeman:Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.
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Comments
So not happy with this phone
The phone itself looks cool, it has cool applications, a clean screen....looks cool...oh wait I already said that.
The touch screen is TERRIBLE! It's almost impossible to hit just one key on a menu or keyboard. I've tried different keyboards, landscape, portrait etc. and each one will not register the key I want it to. I can't even get through the setup process because the keys won't register correctly. I don't have big fingers so I thought I'd be ok. I even tried using my finegr nails - I've become so adpet at typing on my older blackberry - to no avail.
Lik...
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Screen flip
Big turn out for the Storm :lol:
I guess all their customers are at at&t stores buying iPhones!!!
They actually thought people would line up for it lol, sorry its no iphone haha
[click link for pic]
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v104/Mystik19/veri ... »
go to bgr, there were lines at just about all the major corporate stores.
now, before everyone startes hatin,i never sai...
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the phone sold out at nearly every corporate store in under an hour and orders placed over the phone are not going to ship until 12/5. and there was ALOT on stock.
your picture/store there not wit...
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But the Storm is no iphone killer and is really no big improvement for BB phones. T...
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For everyone Worried/Complaining about LAG and DELAYS on the Storm should know
That OS is the latest and was already working with much faster and smoother performance. RIM has said a free OTA software update (presumably the secure corrected 4.7.0.82) which should fix the issue.
Source:
the Verizon Storm was set to launch with an OS higher than 4.7.0.65. The boxes handed out at the Verizon media event on Tuesday in NYC (where all those reviewers picked theirs up) actually have stickers on them that show 4.7.0.82. Yet the devices were actually loaded with the .65 OS. Did you purchase a Storm toda...
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http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/24/rim-clears-up-bla ... »
Storm Shipped Today
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i told you this phone is trash
Wait to review the Storm until AFTER the update!
Guys am I missing something? I swapped last night
Moreso, it feels like a Blackberry "trying to be an iPhone" , which really gets on my nerves. I just really really mis...
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Voice Dial - Speech to Text?
Like GSM where you have to train the phone to know the sounds, CDMA you dont.
BB Storm Not here where I am
I'm not bashing either, but the demos I tried out were really bad and someone who responded to my earlier post said his was just ...
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Does any know about syncing pdcasts from Itunes to this
Free OTA Software update for the Storm is due in 1-2 weeks
those not happy with the performance now should wait for that upgrade and hopefully it will be much better.
SPRINT CURVE
GO WITH THE BOLD
1. Send/Recieve email or surf the net while on a conference call.
2. WIFI (free AT&T wifi)
GO WITH A BOLD
Better luck next time RIM
There are things I like. I like how the click screen prevents me from accidently hitting links when enlarging wep pages. I love the screen transitions. I love the big colorful screen. I even like the new menus.
The problem is that the phone is just not up to par when it comes to software and I do not think the click screen will hold up.
The software is slow, buggy, and unpredictable. If I have to see that darn spinning clock anymore I am going to throw this thing out the window. It also freezes up ever hour or so.
The screen itself is clever but not that great for use. It slows my typing down considerably and is already getting lint lodges ...
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Why are you making excuses?
If you claim that your phone works everywhere... your an idiot. If you claim that your network is better, your an idiot...
Find a network that works for you in your area and the places you go. Then go and get a phone that you like on that network. Anyone that switches carriers to get the latest phone deserves to have their calls dropped.
How many touch screen blackberry phones are there? Lets be honest... touchscreen is not a feature... it is just a "cool" fa...
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Navigation via GPS and Itunes Music
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I've got mine, and to answer my own question...
I haven't checked to update the firmware yet, and I've just now gotten time to mess with it.
The UI is slow and the touch scrolling is underwhelming. It's way more responsive than any other VZW touch screen phone (Dare, Voyager, Glyde), but even in scrolling through the main menu it is tedious and not very fun.
The UI also looks good in pictures but it's herky-jerky in person. The In-store display was just as bad, but I'd figured it had too many processes running or had a memory leak. NOPE.
My biggest gripe with the UI is though it is a solid UI with the thumb wheel or trackball, it is garbage with a touch screen. Anyone who has gotten a good case of Blackberry thumb is going to hate having to mov...
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if it makes you feel better RIM has stated a free over the air software upgrade for the storm is due out in a week or two. it is supposed to address nearly all issues with speed/delay/performance of the OS.
if thats fixed the only...
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Anyone get one yet? Please share thoughts.
I have read practically every review from all of the major websites, as well as many of the minor sites too (this one, phonearena, engadget, pcmag, crackberry, etc.) and some have said tha...
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