Review: BlackBerry Storm from Verizon

by Steve Ragan - Nov 20 2008, 04:22

With only five units in the Midwest for review, The Tech Herald jumped at the chance to be one of the first sites to bring you the click-by-click touch screen action by taking a look at one of the holiday season’s biggest geek toys and the device that has people talking, the BlackBerry Storm.

Buzz surrounding the BlackBerry Storm started gathering pace late this summer, building into a media blitz by October. That buzz saw Verizon PR agents even sending out yellow boots -- rain boots -- to various media departments across the U.S., warning that 'The Storm' was coming.

There was also a seriously funny promo video, which drew its low-budget inspiration from the movie Twister and saw 'Storm' chasers heading to the Verizon store. Finally, there was the news and rumor cycle that added a staggering level of suspense for those prospective buyers waiting for RIM’s newest offering.

The Screen:

Most of the buzz centered on the Storm has been placed on its screen, which feels like a semi-hard plastic, yet flexes when you push it. Whether using two hands and thumbs or single-finger touch, the Storm offers by far the most reactive touch screen tested to date by The Tech Herald.

RIM calls the technology SurePress, and what it consists of is something that sits behind the semi-hard plastic screen that gives users the same direct feedback they'd get when pushing a button on their regular BlackBerry. It’s a funny feeling at first, but will soon become familiar because it feels like RIM has turned the screen into a giant BlackBerry button.

The screen is reactive, so you will feel it when pressing down to enter a menu option or press a key corresponding to a letter as you type a message, or a number when you call someone.

Unlike most touch screens, there is little learning to do here. During testing, using only one hand and a thumb, the menu options, various screens, and even surfing the Internet posed no real challenge. Likewise, using two hands, and typing out an e-mail by using only the thumbs allowed for fast typing. An on-screen correction program is also on show to catch the most common typing mistakes.

While the screen is the Storm’s killer feature, there are some down sides. One of them is that it will take some getting used to when the Storm rests in your hands. It isn’t that it's awkward; it just doesn't feel like the other BlackBerry devices, so you notice this right from the start. The other problem can be summed up in two words: thumb prints. Be prepared to clean the screen often.

The next thing you notice, after getting past the wow factor associated with the screen, is that the Storm is slightly lighter than the BlackBerry 8830, but there is some bulk to the handset. It also comes packed with a ton of features.

Internet

Surfing the Internet via the Storm is great. The only negative would be you have to learn to zoom and pan on a page. When viewing any Web page, no matter if it's formatted for mobile devices or not, you will need to zoom in on some of the content if you plan on reading anything.

Because the screen is touch sensitive, a simple tap is all that's needed to accomplish this. If you've ever used an Apple iPhone, then the general mechanics of navigating the Web will come to you with ease on the Storm.

 

At the recent launch party, when The Tech Herald got to use the Storm for the first time, there were some issues with browsing. Specifically, the on-board browser would tend to lock up on JavaScript-heavy sites, although the problem now appears to have been resolved.

All of the pages visited loaded cleanly, with no errors. Pages that were made for mobile devices loaded quick and easy, while normal pages loaded rather fast as well considering the different coding structures.

Music and Movies

The Storm has a killer display and the highest resolution ever been seen on a BlackBerry device, which only means we can expect bigger and better in future developments. This high resolution means that images are crisp, clear and sharp. The contrast is that of a high-end portable DVD player.

 

Because the Storm can sync with iTunes and Rhapsody, you will have an excellent chance to take your music or movies anywhere you want. Space will not be an issue either, because the Storm comes with an 8GB microSD card, and has 1GB of internal storage.

The only problem with the Storm's multimedia capabilities resides with its sound. The Storm has small speakers, which makes listening to some movies a royal pain -- music as well. The sound is decent on lower volumes but, if you plan to watch a lot of movies or TV shows, or use the handset as an MP3 player, you should use the included headset, which makes things sound much better.

Pictures and Video

The Storm's built-in camera offers up 3.2 mega pixels of performance, which provides excellent images and delivers a quick way to snap pictures on-the-go. Augmenting the camera is support for both Flickr and Facebook, so that you take pictures and upload them instantly.

During testing, uploading to Flickr worked well with the built-in application. Facebook as well, but, depending on the size of the file, sending a video message took a little longer than normal.

The camera also doubles as a video recorder. The video quality is decent, but when you're recording make sure you are in a steady position or all of the movies will look like remakes of The Blair Witch Project.

Applications

The biggest applications on the Storm are Flickr and Facebook. However, it also comes with a few other handy items.

Starting with e-mail, it was surprising to learn that not only was there support for AOL (aim.com or aol.com addresses), MSN (Hotmail or Live), and Yahoo, but Google as well. If you want to cover other e-mail accounts, as long as they are POP or IMAP based, the Storm will work with them too.

During testing, a POP account and a test account for each of the webmail providers were put through their paces. Each one worked as expected. You can also create a Verizon e-mail account (@vzw.blackberry.net) if you want, as all of the e-mail options are configured in the same area.

Access to the e-mail accounts is instant, with them appearing on the home menu as little icons, granting quick access to them.

Each of the major IM clients are available too; including, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and Google Talk. These worked as normal during testing and, if you've experience using them on prior mobile devices, you'll have no problems using them on the Storm.

 

For business users, a few other applications stood out. The first being the loyal and trusty calendar, which any BlackBerry user will tell you they simply can’t live without. On the Storm it is a little more visually appealing, as well as being simple to access and navigate.

 

Like other business applications, including e-mail, the calendar will sync with all of the normal vendors including Novell, IBM, and Microsoft. All you need is the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Another nifty application, new from RIM, is Documents2Go. This allows you to view and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. You can also read, but not edit, PDF files.

 

Thanks to the easy touch screen, editing and creating Excel and Word files takes no time at all. When you move to save the file, you have the option to e-mail it off to someone. Editing PowerPoint files takes a little longer, but the process is simple to figure out without using any of the help files.

If you want to record a reminder, there is a great little application that does this. The Voice recorder took clear recordings when tested. You can play them back within the media center.

Application Store

By the time the Storm is released, the application store should be functional; however, it was unavailable at the time of testing. What is known is that the store will be a link within the Storm, and it is designed for carriers to streamline the process of making various applications available to customers. Just remember that you need version 4.7 of the BlackBerry OS to take advantage of the application store service.

For Verizon users, the application store will offer various items that the company plans to roll out over time. The biggest expectation is the inclusion of developments from the OPEN project, where Verizon will allow third-party developers to make gadgets and other software available for sale or, in some cases, completely free.

If you want some cool applications in the meantime, head over to the mobile BlackBerry Web site, where you can download some extras for the Storm.

During testing, gadgets from The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and CNN were downloaded and installed. What you get with these gadgets is a direct link to mobile content, which, like the iPhone, can be added to your home menu for fast access.

Battery Life

Battery life on the Storm will vary depending on how you use it. Specs tell you that you will get about 15 days worth of standby, and about 6 hours of talk time. All of this goes out the window the second you start to play movies or surf the Web religiously.

The best gauge of how long the battery will last is to use the Storm however you want, and simply keep track. Some of the features and items offered on the device will surely drain the life from a full charge but, depending on how it's used, there will be various levels of uptime.

The one constant is that, during testing, the Storm ran non-stop using both Internet applications, browsing, calling, music and video and went 12 hours before it was plugged in for a charge. So, looking at that as a gauge of how sturdy the battery is, we can honestly tell you it isn't bad at all -- although you'll probably want to judge for yourself.

Conclusion

The BlackBerry Storm truly lives up to the hype. The SurePress technology has the excitement behind it that was seen when RIM brought out the trackball, which beat the scroll wheel to death.

It’s loaded with features that make it ideal for both business users and the casual consumer. Intentional or not, this places it in direct competition with the Apple iPhone, perhaps kick starting a bit of holiday competition between AT&T and Verizon.

As mentioned before, the Storm adds a wow factor that's more than just glitz and glam, it honestly takes the best RIM has to offer and presents it in an appealing and easy-to-use package.

BlackBerry users will almost certainly upgrade as soon as they can. However, for those new to the BlackBerry addiction, the Storm will certainly catch your attention. Yet, after you use it, the touch factor will give way to the fact that this is a well-rounded phone that can do just about anything you'd expect it to do.

Overall, the Storm did not fail once to live up to the marketing and hype.

Assessing its usability, features, cool-factor, and design, the final review score for the BlackBerry Storm is an easy 9.5/10.

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