Blackberry Storm

The mobile industry is heading towards touch screen enabled phones, in this year we had two major manufacturers releasing their first touch enabled phone. From RIM we had a 3.2” 360×480 display phone with the first ”Clickable Touch Screen” ever on a touch screen phone, the Blackberry Storm. By introducing the Blackberry Storm to the market RIM and Verizon wanted to attempt two things, one of them is competing with the popular Iphone and AT&T and the second one is opening a door towards the future, touch screen enabled phones. As most of the first generation devices have a bad reputation, we at the Storm blog wanted to bring you a full review about the first touch screen phone from Blackberry. In this review we will expose the Storm and see how well it performs.

When I first held the Blackberry Storm in my hand I noticed that the phone is wider than most of the touch screen phones available. I also noticed that the Storm is a very well built device, all back part is solid metal and front part is made out of high quality plastic. The device is simple, just four buttons on the front side and two side buttons that can be configured as shortcuts. The touch screen is big, a 3.2” 360×480 resolution screen which shows high quality images. The interesting aspect about the Storm is that the touchscreen is like they like to call it ”Clickable”. To select something the user puts its finger over and then the user actually ”Clicks” the screen to confirm the selection.

On the back of the device we have a 3.2 Megapixel camera with Auto-Focus and Flash, a mono speaker with two side rubbers that hold the device steady when its over a table etc… and of course the battery cover which is made out of solid metal and the Verizon branding, fortunatelt Verizon did not put the Verizon branding on the front were it looks ugly. On the right side there is a standard 3.5mm jack, a VolumeUp and VolumeDown button and a customizable shortcut key. This key can be configured to do almost anything, from opening the browser to showing the Virtual Keyboard. On the top there is two soft keys, the left one locks the device and the right one toggles between the available profiles. The upper and lower part of the Storm have a curvature so the device is comfortable when using in landscape mode, this design adapts to the shape of the hand and makes the user feel comfortable when typing with the virtual keyboard or any other general use.

The Storm has as operating system the OS 4.7. The OS 4.7 is a clean and powerful OS, the home screen has 8 shortcuts and 8 more appear if the superior part is clicked. Then four physical buttons complete the interface of the Storm, a green/call button handles all that is related to calls/phonebook/log, the BB button shows a menu on every open window and the button with an arrow takes the user one step back. Naturally the red button is to end calls and end programs.

In terms of specifications the Storm is a rich device, with GPS and 3G on board as well as a 3.2 Megapixel camera the Blackberry Storm is definitevely on the high-end segment of the market. The problem with handhelds and smartphones is that they not always perform good even if they have a rich specification sheet. So stay tuned for out next chapter in which we will continue reviewing and exposing the Blackberry Storm.