| 04 Dec 2008 - The Long Awaited Blackberry Storm - Hand's On | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I've been mentioning now for many months, at least 5 or 6 months, the pending arrival of a Full Touch-Screen Blackberry. The Internet is full of hype and exclusive look's at the new Blackberry Storm. Problem is, they are mainly from Blackberry Addicts, and people who are completely wedded to the Blackberry Concept, hoping to see Apple crushed in the race to dominate the 'Smartphone' market. I Said On the 21st July that a touch Blackberry would NOT be the same, and I couldn't see how it could act the same or be as good. Now is the time to see. The Storm hit my desk two days ago. It is due in stores at Vodafone later this week, and for those who pre-ordered it should be with you today. Taking a look at the device from the first moment out of the box I was its WEIGHT. At 154grams or there about, I was amazed at how much heavier this device felt compared to the BOLD and iPhone (both around 133grams). Passing it around the office and the same thing was found. But remove those plastic stickers from the screen and the back and you're presented with a nice looking device. First up, I do like having the buttons on the device for Pickup/Hang Up/Menu/Back. The iPhone really lacks those stable buttons, and often you just want to use a button to make/take or break a call. Turn it over and the sleek metal back is perhaps the best looking Blackberry 'back' yet. As is the camera enclosure - no more gap in the back, its fully enclosed behind a transparent panel, so no more dust directly on the lens. Left and right convenience keys are still in place, as are the volume control buttons. Before turning it on, time to charge. As always, I leave the box of goodies in place and head to one of my many trusty blackberry chargers to juice it up. PROBLEM - the USB connection is DIFFERENT USB connection. It's MINI USB (Same it turns out as the new Pearl Flip). That really frustrated me at first, but in the end, I will learn to live with that if they maintain that across all new models. Perhaps the BOLD is the last of the old style USB connection. And let’s face it, most of us have one charger, sit it by the bedside and that's that. After a charge, I touched the screen. I knew what to expect having read plenty of advance reviews from the US, the screen would CLICK and press down, not just respond to the gentle touch of my finger. A bright red VODAFONE wallpaper showed itself, and at a glance the screen is bright, and the icons are huge. Leaving aside the network, battery and profile section at the top of screen, the 'plain space' between that and the icons is at face value the same size as the screen on the BOLD. With the 'keyboard area' taken up with 8 'desktop icons' The number of icons jumps to 16 if you press the menu key to view all icons. They are clear and easy to read. Touch and icon like any 'traditional touch' device and the item is highlighted, in the same way it would be if you ROLLED the trackball over it. Instead of pressing in on the trackball, on the storm you PRESS IN on the screen. Not just touch, PRESS. You can of course do both in one gesture - pressing IN on the screen on the icon of choice. Into the mailbox and having setup my BIS account I’ve got a bit of mail here to play with. Scrolling up and down is very iPhone like, and makes navigating through vast messages a simple task. Press in on an email and I instantly notice that it doesn't seem as fast in response time to previous Blackberries. This was my biggest problem with the iPhone, and I'm instantly worried. After checking a few emails, it appears more a delay in the EFFECT which when pressing an email creates a SWIPE on screen to view the email, a transition effect if you like. Pressing the menu KEY and the menu appears, taking up a lot of the screen BUT it is spaced out a LOT to allow for my fat fingers to choose the right item, problem is, that means I need now to scroll for a lot of menu items. In saying that, I've also experienced several incorrect menu selections, despite the extensive spacing. Before venturing into the virtual keyboard, I had a quick look at the APPLICATION CENTRE - Blackberry's answer to the Apple App Store. Flickr, Facebook, AOL IM, ICQ (wow is that still around!), Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Vodafone Compass, Vodafone MusicStation, Windows Live Messenger, Google Maps and MySpace are the applications listed. Each one shows the version number, publisher and 'Not Installed' or 'Installed'. Downloading Facebook was easy; problem was every time I choose Google Talk I was taken to the Facebook application. A little buggy, but it is in its infancy. Now to type an email. Holding the device 'traditionally' - long ways UP, the keyboard I am presented with is the PEARL style two letter per key keyboard. Right from the start I will tell you I've never liked that style of keyboard. I have too many problems trying to do multiple capitals, or words which Blackberry clearly doesn’t think are common or exist at all. So I swing the Storm around to be long ways ACROSS, and they keyboard turns full QWERTY. Perfect. Thank you. BUT, by gosh it's uncomfortable to hold this way. After a few moments, I work out the grip, and start typing. Slow and tentative, it seems to go ok. A very weird sensation with the whole screen acting as a single button. Each button you press highlights in blue as you do, and you are still prompted on screen for spelling and word help. Problem is, I simply CANNOT see how anyone can type with any speed on this device. I’ve tried over and over and over again, giving me more and more time to get used to it. Moving from Curve to Bold took a little time, but nothing like this. Despite the innovative CLICK screen, I think it would be faster if it just let you choose to ‘touch type’ then it would be simply a matter of adjusting your type-spacing for the new keyboard. The QWERTY keyboard takes up so much of the screen that there is barely any room to see what you have written. 10 Lines maximum from what I can tell. That seems a lot I know, but honestly the screen is 50mm tall (or wide depending on how you look at it), and 28mm is taken up by the keyboard. It’s likely a perception thing, but it really is off-putting. Holding it traditionally, the screen is around 66mm tall, with the keyboard taking up around 32mm at my measure. If you are an existing Blackberry user who types more than one message a day – this is not for you. If you are an existing iPhone user – this is not for you. If you are new to the ‘Smartphone’ concept, this would be worth playing with in a store. If you are into Mobile TV (I’m yet to find a soul who is) this is ok! You can do that!, but it’s no replacement PDA for those looking to enter the Smartphone market for the first time. Quite frankly, I don’t know who this is for. RIM (Research in Motion), have created an amazing concept in touch screen technology, the touch and click – BUT, why not focus that brilliance we’ve seen so many times before into the existing range. Am I the only one who sees a BOLD with a touch screen to activate applications or for navigation like scrolling and panning around photos or websites, or contact lists – being the ultimate Blackberry? The STORM is a 3G device. It has GPS, but lacks WiFi. It seems to fall short of the mark in a few key areas, while attracting a large amount of interest as the battle between Apple and RIM hots up for market share. For me, the Storm is a real disappointment. I am a Blackberry user of over 6 years, and I’ve had just about every Blackberry variation in that time. This one though, goes back to its maker with no regrets. I saw it, I touched it, and I used it. I didn’t like it – at all. I am just one person, so if the STORM is for you, check it out today at VODAFONE for $0 with unlimited BlackBerry email and internet from as little as $69 per month. All I ask is that you TRY before you BUY. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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