It ’s hard to overstate how important the BlackBerry Storm is to RIM and Verizon . It ’s RIM ’s bluff elbow grease to fend off the iPhone and Verizon ’s best hope for a star handset that draws masses in , or at least keep them from bailing . The Storm ’s major innovation is what RIM calls SurePress — the integral touchscreen is fat , honkin ’ button — which has been paired with a redesign , finger - favorable BlackBerry OS . We ’ve alreadyshowed you a lot ofwhat the hassle is all about , but now that we ’ve expend some quality , continuous time with the Storm , here ’s why we think it falls short of its hope .
https://gizmodo.com/blackberry-storm-first-hands-on-5060378
The Hardware
The trunk
It ’s amazingly big . Like , heavy than RIM ’s manly slab of smartphone , the Bold , at 5.47 oz to the Bold ’s 4.7 oz . It feels thick , too , thick than it in reality is , because of its squarish pattern . It looks good , it feel okay in your mitt . It ’s just kind of clunky at the same fourth dimension . On the other hand though , all this subject matter also makes the Storm find really robust . You ’ll never finger like you ’re belong to break it .
That Button Screen
When you push the sieve and it clicks , it ’s a authentically satisfying tactile superstar that , as I said in my hands on , is understandably a fine tuned experience . You wo n’t accidentally compact it when you do n’t think to , but you do n’t have to drop a maul on it , either . Like the quietus of the torso , it ’s a stout objet d’art of hardware that seems like it will maintain up over the many , many thousands of click it will weather in its life time . The only concern is that it seems like the chasm between the screen and rest of the consistence is a lint nest waiting to happen . But the gap is big enough you should be able-bodied to clean your sack gunk out with the bound of a toothpick .
The Other button
For a touchscreen phone , the Storm has a lot of blasted buttons . Nine , to be exact : The four standard BlackBerry button , one side button , a volume rock ‘n’ roll musician , and dedicated ignition lock and dumb keys . I would n’t get rid of any of them . The BlackBerry button is still your best friend , since you ’ll still need to bring up the menu in much every site .
projection screen
The Storm has the biggest , highest resolution screen RIM has ever produced with a 480×360 res . It ’s brilliant and beautiful , though not quite as stunning as the Bold ’s since it has a lower pixel density . Still , the OS and television look rattling on it , with plenty of pop . The capacitive touchscreen is fairly responsive — on par with the T - Mobile G1 — though sometimes the OS remand behind you .
barrage
We have n’t full tested the barrage fire life on the violent storm yet , but it seems to be respectable . The battery is n’t quite as buirdly as the beast powering the Bold , but you should n’t have a huge trouble getting through the day on one charge or anything .
web
No Wi - Fi is a bummer , even with Verizon ’s grand 3 G web , ’cause not even it penetrates everywhere . That say , one of the Storm ’s big force is Verizon ’s meshing , with its essentially unvanquishable coverage , and you ’ll get a signaling most everywhere that ’s not a underground , aeroplane or supervillian secret lair . 3 G is plenty fast and more reliable than AT&T , so it ’s been sunshine . Any pokiness in WWW browsing is the software program ’s shift . call go nifty to the other party , though they sounded kind of muffled to me on the default mass compared to the Bold .
tv camera
The photographic camera is 3.2MP of noisy noise , like most cellphone cameras . The camera is tarted up with some introductory photo edit feature film and a dedicated flash , but it ’s nothing incredible .
GPS
The GPS seems to provide a passably accurate localization with a sensible amount of speed , though you ’re stuck with Verizon ’s VZ Navigator as the independent navigation app ( no BlackBerry mathematical function ) . Some people really hate Verizon ’s programme , so you might be less than stoke here .
OS and Usability
Interface
RIM ’s first touchscreen BlackBerry does n’t toss the old babe out with the buttons ( or something like that ) . It ’s very much the intimate BlackBerry OS , just with a UI that ’s been optimized for your fat fingers . It ’s pretty , with big , easy - to - imperativeness icon , lots of disappearance transition as you move from screen to screenland , and standard highlight motive of illume up a Dr. Manhattan shade of blue whenever you select something . It does take a piddling getting used to the idea of highlighting something being distinguishable from in reality pushing it , but it ’s no biggie .
The list menus — like the carte pop up when you press the BlackBerry button or lists of substance — are just spaced-out enough to be touchable without pressing the wrong thing very often . The accelerometer is pretty enough at keeping up with you and will rotate the silver screen in all four orientations , letting you prefer to the have the four chief buttons on the left or right in portrait modality . It got stand by in the untimely orientation less often than the iPhone does ( to me anyway ) , which is good , since the only style to employ the full QWERTY keyboard is in landscape . In portrait style , the only keyboard is the SureType — a virtual interpretation of the Pearl ’s foul number / letter pad .
The major upshot with the interface , at least in the master computer menu area , is that it lags . Like , enough to be annoying . Scrolling through the independent carte du jour , for instance , it seems like part of the scroll retardation is deliberate ( I do n’t know why ) but the phlegm turned to choppiness more often than at times . The transition languish from screen to screen , besides being discrepant ( sometimes you get ’em , sometimes you do n’t ) , make the OS actually find slower . And when it does lag , it ’s somehow more frustrating because it makes you distrust and pissed off at the SurePress feedback — not good for your major selling point .
Stability
The Storm needed a footling morsel longer in the oven — I had lotsa lock - ups and crash over the last two days with it . Lag was all over the place , which is a cardinal sinfulness with a touch - based UI . It really need to be more stable . I inquire how long before there ’s a software program update , ’cause it needs one badly .
The Keyboard
The keyboard layouts themselves are spacious and perfect , with the QWERTY subtly divide into two half . Which actually makes for a dependable guideline — keep your pollex on their several incline of the divide and you ’ll be a much happier camping bus when it descend to typing , since you have to consciously allow the screen pop back up between every letter press . bear a true alternating rhythm between your thumbs create it much easier to utilize , so you ’re not seek to press a key with your other ovolo while the CRT screen ’s already pushed in .
RIM makes a swelled hatful out of the fact they ’ve separate navigation from ratification with their SurePress thing . That , hypothetically , is a mean value to an terminal , the end being more precise typewriting than a standard , feedbackless jot keyboard . In that regard , it fail . Even after two day , with the keyboard ’s keen layout and gross size , I was tip just as difficult on the autocorrect on the violent storm as I ever did on the iPhone . Here ’s why : Confirming I ’ve drive a key does n’t actually enjoin me whether I ’ve pushed the ripe one . Which makes the feedback , as far as typing on a keyboard go away , basically useless . It ’s made bad by the fact that RIM ’s glowing spicy highlights also are far less effective than pop up letters at signal what key you ’re promote .
I detest to say this , but I kind of came to hate type on it . drive the screen in over and over requires so much more effort than simply glide my fingers around a good touching keyboard . It was tiring . SurePress is a bit less vexatious with the onscreen SureType keyboard in portrait mood though . One other kick is that you ca n’t get a QWERTY keyboard in portrait , even though its screen is as wide as the iPhone ’s .
Other testiness
re-create and library paste ! Yeah , Storm ’s got it . You foreground schoolbook by putting your finger on either side of the text edition you want to spotlight , then you ’ve get a little menu that pops up below asking what you want to do with it . Your fingers are credibly too large to do it correctly every time , but once you ’ve learned the procedure of how to swim the pointer with a long speck , it ’s easy and it works most of the time . Moving the pointer around within text is n’t quite as intuitive as the iPhone ’s magnifying chalk , but once you hover to take it into cursor style , the whole screen acts like a trackpad , so you could move anywhere around it . It works . There are some other cool UI thing here — in your inbox , hovering over an electronic mail will lend up every one in that train of thought .
Email and Texting
It ’s a BlackBerry , so yes , the Storm is everything you ’d carry from one in the e-mail section , like search , push , the works , just touched up with a touch UI . For representative , the aforementioned loose search feature film , which also work a carte when you hover over a person ’s name to do things like send out them an MMS ( take that iPhone ! ) or append to contact that works really well with touch . Thankfully , I saw lag in the email app far less than anywhere else in the earpiece — it was always snappy , and put to work really with the touch UI . It ’s also got a few subtle aesthetic enhancements over the email client in the Bold . I ’d like threaded text messaging , but it ’s the standard BlackBerry apparatus here that search just like email .
career and Visual Voicemail
The headphone UI is pretty peachy , with giant buttons all around and well-heeled access to logs , impinging , and striking search . striking is a fairly received list matter with search . Visual voicemail though , that is a snazzy look app . It ’s kind of busy , but I recall it ’s one seat I wish the UI well than the iPhone .
internet browser
The first affair I asked the RIM rep was how much good the Storm ’s browser app was than the Bold , which sort of eats it when it occur to scripts . He said it was improved “ but do n’t have a bun in the oven a miracle . ” That ’s a skilful appraisal . It ’s fast , faster than the Bold whenever I put them side by side , but not quite the fastest web browser app on the satellite . It ’s also smart than the Bold , rendering Page more accurately where the Bold slip . public presentation once Page loaded was effective . I ’ll be doing some more formal bench mark , like with our web internet browser Battlemodo in the first place today , shortly .
One thing RIM gets really correct is the web browser UI . You have lots of of options for get around — two prominent rapid climb in and out buttons , plus you’re able to zoom by snap . Very easy . You ’ve got two main piloting musical mode though — pan musical mode , where your fingerbreadth swipe zoom around the Thomas Nelson Page , and cursor mode , where the whole screen acts like a trackpad . I mostly stuck with pan mode . SurePress come in handy when scroll , because you ’ll never unexpectedly press a link again . One matter I ’d like is multitouch zooming ( sorry , got ta say it ) and a way to quickly get to the bottom of the page , since a hard flick does n’t transmit you fly like on mobile Safari . Overall though , RIM delivers pretty big here .
Multimedia
The biggest advance over the Bold , medium wise , is that the Storm comes with an 8 GB microSD card . regrettably , everywhere else , it ’s mostly the same . The media player UI is fundamentally monovular , with minimum tweak to make it touchable . On the real playback screen , it ’s fine , and record album art look dandy . However , the list organisation it use is moderately tired and directly out of the old BlackBerry playbook essentially . The bigger infliction point , if you ’re equate it to the iPhone ’s multimedia muscle , is the stinking Roxio Media Manager . unexampled telephone set , same crap . Please please please get better media software , RIM — this poppycock is beneath you . telecasting looks really majuscule on that filmdom though !
Apps
Okay , so you ’ve get Verizon ’s Navigator as the main sailing master app . It ’s okay and has some solid feature , but not as well-heeled to use as Google Maps . I have n’t roadtested it , but it ’s more responsive than on other phones I ’ve used it on , and benefits from the Storm ’s big projection screen .
You ’ll credibly be turn on when you see an picture in the main menu for the program Center . The Storm ’s App Store it is not . It ’s just where you could download Verizon and RIM ’s pre - approved apps like Google Talk , AOL Instant Messenger , Flickr , Facebook and the like ( there are a batch of IM clients ) . It ’s where you ’ll grab software updates for the speech sound , but do n’t expect to be using it frequently since update will be few and far between . It ’s browser app found , which is annoying . The real app memory , the one you require , wo n’t hit until next year , and we ’re await impatiently for it . In the lag , you may find BlackBerry apps the sure-enough fashioned way , on the internets .
Verdict
The Storm is a strong effort from RIM , but it ’s not quite the killer whale phone that they or Verizon need it to be . It ’s good — RIM clearly put a bunch of opinion into the figure . But I think it fall brusque of what they were calculate for , and ultimately what all the hype is driving people to expect . Some of this is fixable : The damned affair require to crash less often . But SurePress is not the terminal - all , be - all of touchscreen engineering — it ’s not really an evolutionary step forward , even . The experience may be moderately refined , but more culture is still take . Had this Storm been left to brew a moment longer , it would ’ve been much more powerful .
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