A Tale of two keyboards
The Storm has two useful keyboards (standard in landscape or SureType in portrait). SureType is a welcome relief from the iPhone. I use the SureType because it is easy and accurate. The standard keyboard is less accurate and does not attempt to guess what you wanted to type based on proximity of your clicks like the iPhone. Typing is by far more accurate and enjoyable on the Storm as compared to its competition. The click screen took 10 minutes to get used to (remember I came from the iPhone). Typing on glass took no adjustment, in fact, going to the iPhone initially took 2-4 weeks to get used to.
Going back to physical keys will be like going from today’s digital phones to a rotary phone. I used the BlackBerry 8830 for 2 weeks the biggest pain was reading the letters on the keyboard, what’s funny is that I have 20/20 eye sight but was spoiled by the large and clear keyboard on a screen. That was a HARD step back. The Storm is amazingly easy to type on and I have typed this entire brief on the SureType keyboard.
Call Management or Lack of Management
Call management on the BlackBerry is bad. My 8 year old Nokia had better call management. If you are a long time Blackberry user you may be use to this but DEAR god WTF. Say you’re talking to a friend Jerry Smith and then you receive a call from Angela Jones, when you answer the new call it still reads you’re talking to Jerry Smith. If you terminate the call with Jerry your phone still reads your in call with Jerry. (When you have multiple users on a call you have no visual indicator who is on which line, unlike any modern phone including the iPhone).
Looking at the call display when you know you have multiple calls you question, did I switch over…did you conference the calls. Imagine you’re on an important business call with Angela, no Jerry, no wait…I think you get the picture, that is how blackberry handles calls. I called customer service thinking surely this is a bug. They laughed and acknowledged the ‘feature’. If you’re cheating on your significant and both happen to call just pull the battery and save yourself a world o pain. I am not speaking from experience here.
Digital Voicemail or visual for marketing people
Overall it works very well nothing major over what Apple provides. You can forward voice messages but there is a catch. The file format forwarded is not mp3, wma, aac, or any other common standard. The lucky recipient will have to download a player from Qualcomm as the attached file in an email is .qcp. Forwarding of messages is a huge missing feature for the iPhone/ATT and Storm/ Verizon blew it as well. Blackberry and Verizon messages to be forwarded in a non industry standard for audio files, brilliant.
Many of the noted items are network specific and are not tied to the iPhone nor Storm. May be deceiving for some readers.
Although he seems a bit biased towards the iPhone I can a agree with a few of the things that he says.
The Media Player on the BlackBerry Storm not only sucks compared to the iPhone or the iPod, it sucks when compared to cheap $30 MP3 players that you can pick up at Wal-Greens. Hopefully someone will comeout with a good Media Application for the Storm casue the one built in truly is bad.
I have to completely disagree when it comes to Apples Crap Store I mean App Store. 95% of what is on there is useless. There are plenty of free weather applications for the BlackBerry and the BlackBerry App Store is supposed to be coming at the beginning of the year.
An excellent comparison that opened up my eyes, and it sounds like this guy’s trying hard to remain neutral.
“I like the way the phone handles SMS/MMS but there is no quick way to call a contact from the SMS.”
This is not true… At least not with the 4.7.0.75.
If someone sends you an SMS all you have to do to call them his click on their callback number or name, then press the menu button and hit send.
I can see his point on most of the other stuff… Long read but you can tell that they put the Storm through the paces.
I am sorry… I meant to say press the menu button and hit CALL
(Completely off topic, but I think that this is a WordPress plugin that allows you to edit your own comments for a short time after you post them…)
Hey Kells,
I updated to the latest OS, but I still don’t seem to be able call someone that has sent me an SMS. When I hit the menu button from the SMS message screen, Call isn’t one of the options.
RIM really needs to focus on multimedia. I expected them to be a lot further with this (Storm) than they are right now. Windows Media Player (WM) and iTunes (iPhone) completely blow this out of the water still.
Think I’ll be waiting for the Storm 2, one thing I’ve had to learn with Verizon and RIM working relationship is patience.
@ Norman
You can do it but RIM really needs to improve the interface.
If the callback number is an actual number just highlight it and hit the menu button. You will see Call as an option.
If the Callback number is an actual contact name from your address book, well, this is where the interface breaks down.
You still need to select the name, however, it will not highlight as does a number. Click on the contact name in the callback number field and then hit the menu button.
You should still see Call as an option…
I’ve been running both the iPhone and Storm, and to this point I enjoy both devices, but for different reasons. While I’d love to give a review and give my 2 cents, with the upcoming update soon to be released ‘officially’…I’m holding off. There’s an obvious gap between the devices, and it’s just a matter of who closes that gap the quickest and more importantly, the best. I didn’t expect the Storm to be the multimedia device that the iPhone is, but I didn’t expect the iPhone to be a strong email device either. I’ve even been using MobileMe to gain the full experience on the iPhone as I beat up the Storm for emails and data to see if it even compares to my usage on a BB device prior to getting this model. I’m eager to see the updates from RIM/VZW and how often they come out as feedback is given.
Having myself defected from the iPhone to a BlackBerry I can tell you that there is a simple solution might make you happy. Use your BlackBerry Storm for messaging and email. Use your iPhone as an iPod.
I didn’t switch from the iPhone to the BlackBerry because I had to, but because I have fat fingers and couldn’t type effectively plus I listen to music all day and was running my battery down.
I got a BlackBerry for work and kept my iPhone for play but what I noticed was that over time I started giving out my BlackBerry number more and more because it was easier to text on and it got really confusing telling people to call me on one number but to text me on the other.
I killed the plan on my iPhone a few months ago and really just use it like as an iPod Touch. I’ve got the best of both worlds.
I have being using an iPhone for a long period , but change to LG Dare a few days back. I am glad to tell you that with the features available in LG Dare it definately wins the race amongst the two. You can also check a video review of the phone at cellphones84.com
I had the Storm for a week now and so far i liked it. I’ve used Blackberry devices for over 4 years now and i cant say theres much that i dont have. I found out the shortcuts for music (side keys, volume keys), after customizing it i am pretty happy with the results. I can’t say that i miss the physical keyboard now, it took a few days but im liking the touch feature. I upgraded to .75 version and my problems have gone away. I’m an easy person to please so for me this phone does it all.
I agree that the multimedia application needs much improvement. I also think that RIM to listen to your comments and make adjustments.
I had absolutely NO problems with syncing. If iTunes wasn’t so “protective” then ANY song I have could be transferred to the BB. BUT since there are certain “protective” features that iTunes have put on their music I am FORCED to play it only on Apple products. This I think is kinda crappy. I paid for the song, hence I own it and should be able to play it on any medium I wish. Since you already have an iPhone I don’t see why you would go and purchase yourself an iPod Touch or Zune….that makes absolutely NO sense.
As far as weather and stock apps they are available on the BB. They may not be initially installed, but if you do a search for them online you’ll find they are available and free. I use The Weather Channel app.
Google Maps is available and works great on the Storm.
Favorites on the contact list is available – just create a list called favorites OR you can set up your call log to list by most called, txt, etc.
The more you play around with the Storm you’ll find tips/tricks that you didn’t know were available. I just recently learned that if I hold my finger over a contact name OR subject it will do a search for those terms and list all conversations (e-mail, txt, etc) that fit the search.
Overall I appreciated this review and agree was as unbiased as possible.
Well the both phones have their pros and cons but for me I prefare the Storm..
Google Maps works well for me but I would agree the GPS features is not functioning.
I love my storm but this article highlights some of the pains of being an early adopter.
If anyone develops applications just write a music management application.
The storm seems to require extra clicks here and there where other devices just have the options available on the main screen. I think the model is different. Blackberry wants you to read the users guide to learn. Apple wants it to be obvious so no users guide is necessary. Simple is nice but Blackberry is more robust for all users with a bit of effort
Norman, you can make calls from a received SMS. When you open the message just hit the “call” button. It dials instantly. If you have any text selected it will not work though. Tap the users name at the top of the screen to deselect all text and try the “call” button again.
Using the green “call” button negates having to hit the menu and then touch “call contact”. Just another way to avoid using the touchscreen when you don’t have to.
I thought the Bold and storm were great devices when used in a business environment. not sure how many people feel podcasts or music are a determining factor when buying a business device. If we wanted to give out I-Pod’s and cameras to our employees then we should do just that.
RIM dont change a thing on these devices…. perfect…..
or you could just hit menu and go to call right under delete dam its not that hard learn your phone and plus you cna get e mails while on the phone and it has gsm but in the states its pointless to run should out it on xev thats why sometimes your bars go to 0 and then back up realy fast its searching for the other sats.
The issue is (if you use the SMS enough) that the CALL feature (green button) only works if you have a single SMS message, not a string of them. It’s not easy to be on the run and scroll down all the way to “call contact” – either that or I have a different upgrade than everyone else (yes, I did the update). The “CALL” option is way down the list and takes three scrolls. Most phones, even the cheapies, allow you to just hit SEND to call when in SMS mode. The Storm doesn’t. It’s really the only feature I hate about the storm, as it’s so cool in other ways – but it’s a HUGE drawback for me and very frustrating.