Blackberry Storm Review

It’s been a long stereotype that Blackberry’s are only for the professional and government. But thanks to the recent success of Smartphone’s in the consumer market, Blackberry has been trying to redo its image with such phones as the Pearl, Curve and most recently the Blackberry Storm.

The Design

The design of the Blackberry Storm is one that doesn’t stray too far from the current form factor of today’s touch screen phones. Yet it has some distinguished features that makes it…well a Blackberry.

The phone has a nice 3.5 inch touch screen that is actually “clicky.” There is a simple way to describe the technology behind the click screen though; RIM has placed a spring behind the screen that allows it to be pressed so it gives a more natural feel than the iPhone. While this is good it does require a little learning curve. I found it hard to remember that I had to actually click the screen to make a selection although this did not last too long and within minutes I was happily typing away a dummy email on the screen.

The Blackberry has dropped the famous trackball that is found in every other Blackberry phone. While it is understandable why this has been done, it leaves a little to be desired as the Blackberry OS is not optimized for touch screen and most users will find that many of the applications that they have come to like from third party venders will be a little harder to use on the new screen (classic example is Opera Mini).

The processor is another part of the phone that has been updated from most of the other Blackberry phones. While the upgrade is much needed, it should be pointed out that it still does not match the processing power of the iPhone. Scrolling on web pages can be choppy depending on the graphics and sometimes the phone can be a little none responsive although most of these issues have been cleared up with the latest updates to the phones OS.

Performance

If you are familiar with the Blackberry OS than I’m glad to say that you won’t find yourself struggling to learn this phone. While this OS has a few tweaks to accommodate the touch screen, the OS has still remained true to what we have come to love from Blackberry. The email support is strong and multimedia on the phone is a cast improvement from that of the Curve or Pearl although it still leaves a little to be desired.

Cal quality is good though there were a few problems especially when using the phone in areas where digital service was either weak or unavailable. 3G speeds are also good and are a lot better than that of the iPhone 3G which has been plagued with such problems.

The phones battery also performed very well and was a little better than that found in the iPhone. Best of all it is removable unlike that in the iPhone.

Conclusion

So you might be wondering if you should decide to sign yourself to a contract to this phone. Well if you’re bent on getting a Blackberry and want something that has a touch screen than this phone is for you. On the other hand if your Blackberry is primarily for work and you find yourself writing 3,000 word emails or documents on your Blackberry than it would be a better idea for you to leave all touch screen phones alone and go with the Blackberry Bold which carries everything the Storm carries minus the touch screen.