The Verizon Blackberry Storm and Blackberry App World

Now, a Blackberry with a touch screen. The Blackberry Storm is not only a gorgeous piece of hardware but is also impressive with its 3.2 megapixel camera and a 1 GB onboard memory storage and a microSD(TM)/SDHD memory card slot for up to 16 GB of additional storage. The Media player can smoothly play movies in full screen mode, display pictures and slideshows quickly and manage an entire music collection. Yes, the Blackberry Storm has a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, Bluetooth(R) stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP) and dedicated volume controls. Playlists can be created directly on the handset and an equalizer with 11 preset filters for customized audio ranges when using wired headphones or external speakers. It also has a removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery that provides approximately six hours of talk time on 3G networks and 15 days of standby time. It measures 4.43 x 2.45 x 0.55 inches, slightly bulky and heavy (at 5.47oz) but it must be with all those features inside.

The first thing that would strike you about the Blackberry Storm is its vibrant 3.25in screen. The touch screen features a 360 x 480-pixel 65, 535 colors full touch screen TFT-LCD display. The Blackberry Storm screen uses the SurePress technology such that you can press the whole screen like a mouse. The tactile feel of pressing actual keys is replaced with clicks to ensure accuracy of pressing. The whole screen is a button so you need to have it physically pop back up before the next command or key. It’s like a mouse or a trackball that let’s you navigate through the menu and then click to confirm. The BlackBerry Storm also allows multi-touches, taps, slides and other touch-screen gestures, so customers can easily highlight, scroll, pan and zoom for smooth navigation. As a whole, the touch screen does take some time to get used to even if you’ve tried your hand at other touch screens before.

For typing on the Blackberry Storm, a full QWERTY pad is shown when it is in the landscape mode and the SureType in portrait. Thanks to the accelerometer which tells the phone in which orientation you are holding it so the right display is shown properly. But somehow, you will feel like it has some kind of cyber vertigo or something because when you tmobile blackberry curve 8900 camera1 The Verizon Blackberry Storm and Blackberry App World accidentally move it slightly from landscape to portrait, it will go straight to portrait and then there’s a lag when switching it back to landscape.
The Blackberry Storm without Wi-Fi is a bummer. What’s great though is that Verizon offers a fantastic 3G network – the 3G Evolution-Data Optimized Revision A (EV-DO Rev. A/CDMA Technology). The Blackberry Storm also has quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks offered by Verizon Wireless to make it a truly global phone. But we still want some WiFi. What good is a smart phone without WiFi?

That’s where the Blackberry App World comes in handy. Using Research in Motion’s (RIM) application distribution service, you can load up with games, social networking, online shopping, organization tools and other fun and functional apps from one convenient location – and you can jazz up and personalize your Blackberry’s software. Both free and paid applications are available in the U.S and paid through a PayPal® account. Downloading the BlackBerry App World from your desktop computer or your BlackBerry smart phone is free.

The Blackberry Storm is still a Blackberry anyway so it still holds its e-mail and messaging solution advantage. It supports personal and corporate e-mail SMS, MMS and IM, as well as access to popular social network sites. verizon blackberry storm side view The Verizon Blackberry Storm and Blackberry App World

RIM did put a lot of thought on the Blackberry Storm but it somehow feels half-baked as to what RIM and Verizon were aiming for. The SurePress technology is a nice adlib to the touch screen but it somehow takes too much effort to learn and to get the hang of. Also, the phone just freezes too much and it responds too slowly to every command, even loading websites you finally accessed. However, given more time on the drawing boards the Blackberry Storm could be as powerful as the hype it generated – unfortunately, it just falls short this time.

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