Digital Trends

Blackberry Storm November 21st, 2008 | by John Brandon

Extra Features and Functions

There’s just no excuse for such a poor software keyboard, and any diehard BlackBerry users will be seriously disappointed by the Storm and its sub-quality touchscreen control. But as for the rest of the world? You’re in for a treat, as the Storm is a very capable smartphone – one of the best ever made, in fact.

Network

It runs on the EV-Do Rev A network, which means (at least in the areas we tested the device) speeds approached 1 Mbps for Internet browsing and e-mail. We pulled up a YouTube video (at m.youtube.com) and had one playing in seconds, albeit in low-resolution, though, in a sweet turn, there were no pauses or annoying stutters. Other sites such as ESPN.com and IGN.com loaded lightning-fast as well, even though the Storm (unlike the iPhone) does not support Adobe Flash. No matter – text and graphics still loaded quickly and accurately in the fully HTML-aware browser, even for rich content sites and video sites like YouTube.

Image Courtesy of RIM

Camera

Also bear in mind that the phone’s camera is a major plus. We took a series of pictures inside and out and were impressed with the results. The Storm goes into a quick auto-focus mode that helps make sure images are clear, and for inside shots, there’s even a handy light that illuminates the subject matter. Whereas the iPhone and even the Nokia N96’s photos look muddy and dull, shots on the Storm looked bright and clear. Videos also appeared bright and crisp, and it was great recording them to the handset’s spacious 1GB internal memory.

GPS

GPS capability worked perfectly during a long road trip too. The voice prompts were clear and accurate, utilizing Verizon’s VZ Navigator program. You can even look up nearby movies, find routes and look at maps, avoid traffic delays, and send a message from the GPS client with an automatic note stating when you will arrive at a meeting. We also liked that, when you click up or down on the volume buttons, the GPS client changes the voice by gradation – dwindling from loud voice to medium voice and so on.

Call Quality

More importantly, calls on the Storm sounded very clear and tonally rich from our perspective. The receiving end – e.g. the person we were talking to – said the call sounded a bit digital or robotic. That’s typical of BlackBerry devices though, which use a high-quality speaker and an average-quality microphone for talking. Talk time lasted for two days of casual use, and about six hours of near-constant use. Honestly, it’s an amazing feat, because the iPhone and G1 will die if you use them consistently for just a few hours in one sitting. By comparison, we used the Storm all morning to talk to friends, browse the Web and even get driving directions and only one bar on the battery icon was gone. Hey, if you can’t type like a frantic chimp here, at least you can chatter on like one… 

Media Capabilities

As a media phone, the Storm beats the G1 by far, but of course can’t (ahem) touch the iPhone’s celebrated multimedia capabilities. On the plus side, you can quickly load music and movies onto the device using BlackBerry media management software – it even supports file conversion from iTunes. We loaded 200 music files onto a MicroSD card and they sounded clear and crisp using the included earbud headphones. Even the external speaker on the Storm is not very “BlackBerry-ish” in that it is actually worth using. (Note that the G1 doesn’t even have a video player and is somewhat limited for music as well, although it is very easy to buy Amazon MP3 files.) What we didn’t like about the Storm for media, however, is that there is no Apple iTunes equivalent – a really powerful music and movie organizer that would let you dump tracks onto the device with ease.

Of course, Verizon gives it their best shot with music services such as VCast Music. But such options are a far cry from the ease and simplicity of using iTunes. It’s easy to record your own media – photos, video, and voice annotations here, for example – but not as easy to load up the device with your favorite Kanye West or Bruce Springsteen tracks.

So, what else do you get with the smartphone? There’s push e-mail using a client that works quite well. You can also load the brand new version of Gmail for Mobile, compatible with BlackBerry devices. RIM is additionally well-regarded for their security features, a boon for those who work at a large company. But we didn’t like the fact that this is yet another BlackBerry phone with no WiFi. And, even when we had the touchscreen working semi-reliably and could type up a coherent e-mail using the software keyboard, we were disappointed at how the BlackBerry OS would still play catch-up, lagging behind our key presses. As a side note, the Storm is a GSM device, which means you can use it in foreign countries (but not for high-speed data service).

Worth keeping in mind too – the Storm is, like every other BlackBerry, highly extensible. We loaded a Yahoo! IM client, a Facebook app and MSN Messenger – download times were almost instantaneous. The iPhone and G1 do have the Storm beat in this regard, however, offering a wider, way more bountiful selection of apps for every purpose. Even the Palm Treo Pro seems to have more going for it in terms of the variety of available programs.

Conclusion

There’s a lot more we could say about the touch interface – RIM has quite a few things to learn here, and the manufacturer seems to be unaware that the hover-and-click approach is very awkward. (For two days, we tried to get used to the capacitive screen and soft keyboard, but couldn’t convince ourselves it was anything but a pain in the rump.) As is, if the user front-end worked, the Storm would be winning awards for call quality, media support, miscellaneous extras, a high-quality camera and built-in GPS – after all, it is an uber-phone at a decently low price. But know this before taking the plunge: Thumb-punching typists and those expecting an iPhone-caliber experience won’t be pleased, and may decide to accidentally run over it with their Hummer.


Pros:

• Good call quality
• High quality camera
• Built-in GPS
• Good media support
• Lots of extras


Cons: 

• Cramped keyboard
• Typing is difficult
• Interface is slow at times