The Blackberry Storm Cell Phone Review

The first Blackberry came onto the scene in 1999, heralding the dawn of increasingly convergent devices. The Blackberry (before Blackberry Phones was originaly intended as a complicated pager. But its local messaging system was so effective that it quickly earned a cult following of such magnitude that Webster’s New World School Compendium recognized “crackberry” as the “New Word of the Year”. RIM’s newest release of the BlackBerry Storm, is trying to un-king the mighty iPhone, which appears to have a lock on being the #1 selling mobile phone. The Storm’s partner on this is Verizon, as it is being offered as part of Verizon Cell Phones, who is still reeling from its mistake of turning down Steve Jobs’ iPhone (Verizon as a carrier). If Verizon means to make up for missing out on the iPhone, at least it’s heading in the right direction. The Storm has a widescreen touchscreen graphical user interface that provides much of the same features as the iPhone, but with some enhancements for the touchscreen display. The results of these enhancements are mixed. Unlike with a real keyboard, simulated keys onscreen are not able to keep up with any fast typing. Those used to the classic Blackberry “thumbing” may not be in a position to send off messages with equal speed or accuracy.

The clickthrough interface requires a fair amount of practice if you want to get used to pushing the touch-sensitive screen down until there’s a click, in sheer contrast to the seamless interactivity available with the iPhone.

Likewise, since your finger is on it, the blue highlight that displays to confirm the active status of a given button is active is hard to see.

So if it is or is not to go down in history as a minor design issue or an all out error, is still to be determined. Last and maybe least of all, this Blackberry also doesn’t have the predictive spelling aid functions that the iPhone does. If you are a lazy speller, the Blackberry doesn’t offer you much of a safety net. The browser renders HTML quickly and thoroughly, with context-sensitive page-dragging features allowing you to move around any given webpage. The only complaint here is that form fields are a little bothersome to fill out. Though the browser earned high praise, the absence of Wi-Fi on the telephone is quite the mystery. While Verizon’s EV-DO coverage is wonderful, there are many circumstances under which Wi-Fi would have been very useful. As for the sturdy, commercial design, Blackberry is given the thumbs up.

The benefit of discarding the tactile keyboard and trademarked trackball behind is a faster, flatter, three.25 in. glass front. 4 familiar Blackberry keys lie at the base of the telephone, they are: Telephone , Menu, Back, and End / Power. The cellular device also comes provided with a mini USB key and 3.5 millimeter head phone jack. One possible drawback of the design – is the issue of whether metal construction is superior to plastic. The phone is matched with the even more wonderful Verizon (for cellular service coverage) that should keep the Storm well positioned in the race to become cell phone king.