Blackberry Storm Cell Phone Review - Software
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Marianne Schultz Published on December 08, 2008 Comment on this |
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| The Storm's interface was often slow and glitchy, and it was quite sad to see a normally rock- solid OS perform this poorly. The browser is better than we've seen on past Blackberrys and included software to edit Microsoft Office documents is a great addition. | |
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OS (8.0)
The Storm runs a special version of the Blackberry OS version customized for the Storm's touchscreen interface, a first on a Blackberry device. The Blackberry platform is well-established in general and we've found it to be stable in previous Blackberrys we've reviewed. Unfortunately, we can't say the same for the Storm with numerous crashes and hangs throughout our time with it during the review and testing process, even after the 4.7.0.75 update that was just released. It is still a powerful OS, however, and future updates could improve its stability and speed.
The Storm's main menu
Home Screen Score (5.5)
The Storm's home screen provides good information overall, though there is a little room for improvement. At the top of the screen are the status indicators you'd expect on any cell phone to show battery level, signal strength, time and date. Additionally, indicators for waiting messages, missed calls, and Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi status appear here as well. Like previous Blackberrys, application and folder icons appear on the home screen, though the Storm only shows 2 rows of 4 at the bottom of the screen by default, and pressing the Menu button adds 2 more rows to this view and the ability to scroll down and up through all of the available icons.
The Storm's default home screen
As with previous Blackberrys, it's possible to re-arrange icons and change the home screen background. The only thing a hard-at-work business user will probably miss is a view of upcoming tasks and appointments, as is possible on Windows Mobile devices like the HTC Touch Diamond. The Storm has a solid home screen though the larger screen real estate could be better utilized and thus offers no distinct improvement over previous Blackberrys.
Extensibility (7.0)
The Blackberry OS is pretty extensible, with ability to use native 3rd-party and Java-based applications. At the time of this review, Blackberry has announced that they will be rolling out an application store in March 2009, the Blackberry Application Storefront, much like Apple's App Store for the iPhone and the Android Market for the T-Mobile G1, for users to find and download 3rd-party applications right on the device. Additionally, an Application Center is already present on the Storm for users to find and download applications carrier-specific applications.
The Application Center
Also, applications are available at the mobile.blackberry.com web site for direct download to the device. While its 3rd-party application inventory isn't as extensive as those for the Palm and Windows Mobile operating systems, there are still many options for Blackberry users to extend the functionality of their devices.
Customizability (6.0)
As with previous Blackberrys, many aspects of the Storm's interface are customizable. Though it comes with only one theme installed and there aren't many yet available online, the Storm can use different themes. Themes change the icon and font sets used throughout the interface. Additionally, the system fonts can be changed universally through the main Options menu in the Screen/Keyboard menu. Of course, the home screen wallpaper can be changed as well, and icons can be rearranged and organized into folders. Overall, the Storm's interface is pretty customizable, like other Blackberry models.
OS Responsiveness (2.0)
The Storm crashed multiple times during our review process and was periodically glitchy, showing only partial icons at times, or displaying things in the wrong orientation relative to the position of the phone. We had particular problems with the on-screen controls during video playback, as mentioned in the Multimedia section of our review, which were somewhat mitigated by the 4.7.0.75 software update. We also experienced frequent lags and misses where the touchscreen did not register presses even when fully clicked, which were somewhat mitigated by the 4.7.0.75 update. It was a shame to see the historically-responsive Blackberry operating system reduced to this state and we can only hope that RIM will continue to address these issues quickly.
Browser Features (10.0)
The Storm's marketing materials describe the browser as an enhanced one compared to other Blackberry models. It handles WAP and HTML pages easily, though you are often re-directed to mobile versions of some sites automatically when you're trying to get to the full site. It is possible to change the browser's mode so it operates like Internet Explorer or Firefox to avoid this issue. Javascript is disabled by default but can be enabled via the menu. It's not capable of showing Flash or Java elements, though it shows frames and images with no problems at all.
The browser's configuration menu
Images on web pages can be saved to memory, Atom and RSS feeds can be viewed and subcribed to through the menu and auto-synchronization is even available. The Storm's browser can handle encryption and cookies as well. All in all, the Storm's browser offers features on par with competitors like the HTC Touch Diamond.
Entering a URL
Browsing Interface (8.0)
The Storm's browser uses the large screen well, showing entire pages in portrait or landscape orientation, which changes automatically as you move the phone. You can change the view mode between Column or Page modes depending on your preferences. Zooming can be done easily by double-tapping on the screen or using the on-screen zooming tools.
A page viewed in the Storm's browser
The browser history is very robust, going back several days with the ability to delete individual items or sort them alphabetically by name to better search through them, though it's not searchable. Bookmark functions are quite strong as well, with the ability to create sub-folders and organize them to your heart's content.
Bookmarks
The browser's cache and history can be manually cleared. The Storm is missing the ability to have multiple pages open at once, as can be done at the HTC Touch Diamond, T-Mobile G1, and the iPhone 3G, but otherwise compares pretty well with other browsers on competing devices.
Browser Access (8.0)
For this test, we time how many steps it takes to navigate from the home screen in the unlocked state to navigate to a web page. We do this instead of timing how long it takes takes to get to a web page since this is largely dependent on network connectivity and speed. This goes pretty quickly on the Storm with a shortcut to the Browser on the home page. The entering of a web address is counted only as one step, for a total of 5 steps on the Storm.
Gaming (5.33)
The Storm comes with 2 games pre-installed out of the box, the old stand-by Brickbreaker and Word Mole. These are not horribly exciting games, but can help pass the time in a pinch. With its touchscreen, the Storm's gaming interface has changed significantly compared to previous Blackberry models. We found Brickbreaker to work fairly decently, but not as well as on previous Blackberry's with the scroll ball or jog dial.
Brickbreaker
At the moment, there aren't a plethora games available for the Storm yet, unlike previous Blackberrys running different versions of the Blackberry OS. There are no games that can be downloaded from Verizon via the Application Center, and the blackberry.mobile.com site offers nothing yet for the Storm, though there are 3rd-party developers offering games through online stores like Handango. The Storm is capable of running native and Java games.
Calculator (7.0)
The Storm comes with a calculator that offers memory, 1/x, percentage, and square root functions. It's also easy to do metric conversions using the menu. It's essentially the same calculator as found on the Blackberry Curve 8320 with a prettier interface.
The calculator
Alarm (2.0)
The Clock application offers alarm functionality, plus it can act as a stopwatch and countdown timer. There's only one alarm that can be set, and it can only be set to go off daily or on weekdays. You can, however, choose the alarm sound, the length of the snooze, volume level, and vibrate mode. While the Clock offers some nice functions, we do miss options for more than just one alarm and flexibility in scheduling them.
Setting the alarm
Document Software (7.0)
The Storm comes pre-loaded with the DataViz Documents To Go suite which allows the editing of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents right on the device. While this suite doesn't allow the creation of new documents on the Storm, the ability to edit documents on the go is key functionality most business users want and need. PDF files can be viewed but not edited.
Other Software (0.0)
The Storm is capable of visual voicemail where your voicemail messages appear in a list and you can selectively listen to them in any order you want immediately instead of needing to place a call to the voicemail system. This voicemail capability made its biggest debut on the iPhone, though it should be noted that Verizon charges $2.99 per month for this service whereas it's included at no extra charge with any iPhone plan with AT&T. Due to this additional cost, we do not award any points to the Storm for it, but felt it was worth mentioning.
Visual voicemail
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