Blackberry Storm Cell Phone Review - Intro
Research in Motion has finally joined in on the touchscreen fray with the Blackberry Storm, the first Blackberry ever without some sort of physical keyboard. Offered by Verizon at $199 with a 2-year contract, it boasts almost all the top features competing smartphones have: GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, a 3.2-megapixel camera with an auto-focus lens, a large and bright screen with half-VGA resolution, and 3G connectivity on both CDMA and GSM networks outside of the U.S. Unfortunately, it's missing Wi-Fi, but it still has the world-renowned Blackberry messaging and organizer capabilities any business user wants and needs. But does the touchscreen still make the Storm an effective tool, or does it ruin that Blackberry legacy that business users rely on? Read our full review to find out...
A quick note on the Storm's software - an update to version 4.7.0.75 was released by Verizon just as we were about to publish this review, and since this update promised to address some interface issues, we waited to update our Storm with the new software and re-ran our timing tests and updated the scoring appropriately. This update yielded mixed results - the Storm's performance improved in some areas, decreased in others, and remained the same in some.
| Section |
The Good |
The Bad |
| Tour & Design |
The Blackberry professional look you expect |
Heavy enough to be a workout tool |
| Audio Quality |
Sound received is pretty good |
Side tone is horrendously low
|
| Imaging |
Decent video resolution
|
Poorer-than-expected still image resolution |
| Making/Receiving Calls |
Incredibly fast to make a call after start-up |
Spectacularly weak vibrate function |
| Messaging |
All the usual Blackberry email goodness is there |
No way to switch between SMS and MMS during composition |
| Organizer |
Robust functionality to suit busy users |
Calendar views could use enhancement to be more useful |
| Multimedia |
Music & video playback: check! |
No-frills player applications and organization |
| Software |
Feature-packed web browser |
Tragically glitchy and unresponsive OS for a Blackberry |
| Battery Life |
Good call time and music playback battery life |
Web browsing battery life is the weak spot |
| Connectivity |
CDMA and GSM network compatibility |
No Wi-fi. We know, we can't believe it either. |
| Hardware |
The virtual keyboard does pretty well |
The virtual keyboard may not be for everyone |
| Other Features |
Tethering via Bluetooth and USB are great options |
Turn-by-turn GPS navigation requires extra $ |
| Value & Comparisons |
A full complement of accessories and not a bad price for a smartphone |
Still a novelty for a Blackberry, die-hards beware |
