It looks like Verizon has moved their “shipped by” disclaimer on the BlackBerry Storm from December 15th up one week to December 8th. I have recieved dozens and dozens of emails from readers who say that their BlackBerry Storm will arrive much sooner than even the eigth.
The Storm that I was (finally) able to order on Friday, at 2:30pm, still does not have a tracking number. They did charge my credit card though. The order status still says that my order was processed and that I would receive it in 2-3 business days. Is that 2-3 business days from the day I ordered it or 2-3 business days from the last time I looked at the order tracking? 😉
I ordered mine last Thursday evening before release. Arrived today at 10:59 although its sitting at home waiting for me.
Ordered mine on Friday @ 8am CDT and got it yesterday. So far, so good. Hammering away…no crashes. Looks as if they are getting many of these set up quicker than expected after the debacle.
I guess after the iPhone releases, nobody learned. I’m sure someone is looking for a job that worked at VZW.
What are the reports from people who have gotten theirs. Give us the run down. Hows the build quality? The Click Screen after using it for a while? Same with the OS?
I played with one at circuit city. The OS felt Choppy. Does this hold true, or was that just do to and over used demo that hadn’t been turned off in days?
The Storm is coming. It will be interesting to see how well the click screen holds up.
@ TB
So far, so good. I haven’t had any issues, crashes, etc. Heavy usage. OS is a bit slow, but that can be cured via a OTA update (interestingly, no longer than the time it took me to roll the ball onto the icon and then tap, which in some cases I selected the wrong icon when going too fast). The build (hardware wise) in my opinion is solid…you can tell by the weight too. Seems many of the stores have models that are not up to snuff regarding which OS version is on, missing applications like the browser (when I was at a VZW store), etc. I’m still playing with mine, doing a comprehensive breakdown and comparison between the Storm, the iPhone 3G (it’s direct competitor in the consumer market), and the Pearl (my previous phone from everyday usage…a good benchmark to determine if I’ve noticed an immediate increase in productivity, something we all like to see when thinking about ROI).
Thanks for the early review, bhs…it will be interesting to read your feedback as you familiarize yourself with the device.
I don’t yet have a Storm but have played around with one and yes, the main downside I experienced was the slow, kind of laggy performance in the software. Other than that it was great, and the virtual keyboard is easily best in class. That click screen trick really works well.
If RIM can just update the software so that it feels quick and responsive, they will have a clear winner on their hands.
I have played with it several time at my Verizon store. It was a little choppy as people have mentioned but overall I think I was happy with it. If I remember correct the os it was running when I looked in the system was .61 not .65 like they shipped out with. Regardless what from what I have read and seen on youtube it seems like an OTA update would I’d necessary and the sooner the better.
Via my trusty 8330
Well, I’ll help you guys out.. I am sending mine back. I ordered on Friday, received it yesterday, and after only a day I am shipping it back. I’ve had my BB 8130 for a year now, and I love it. Decided I wanted something new, and the big screen and HTML browser on the Storm got me excited. I’ve read through dismal reviews the past 2 weeks, and I took them all with a grain of salt, and I’ve now determined that they all pretty much ring true – BlackBerry came up way short on this one. After only a day I have experienced many glitches. Performance is also painfully slow, and the screen rotation sometimes took 7-8 seconds to kick in (and yes, mine had the .65 OS). The SurePress screen is ok – it does what it is supposed to, but it limits your typing speed, and the landscape QWERTY buttons are too small and lead to spelling errors unless you really take your time. As far as build, the fact that the screen moves around and back lighting leaks from EVERYWHERE on the front of the phone makes me wonder how they thought it would be acceptable to ship it out as it is, because it makes the phone seem incredibly cheap. I do like the screen resolution, HTML browser, and visual voicemail, but that is about it. The performance, OS, and accelerometer issues (in that order) trump all good aspects of the device for me. As a BB fan, I was really hoping that all of the bad reviews were written by iPhone fanboys, but having had the device I now agree with them and even feel that some were too gracious. I will be perfectly content with my 8130, and probably won’t put it down until the Bold comes out for Verizon.
Well, here’s two issues that I’ve found so far from personal use…
1. When using Visual Voice Mail, I can barely hear the message with the volume all the way up. Then when I go to speed dial, the sound is way down and I can’t tell if it’s actually dialing or not (only after VVM). I’ve also heard the same is true when listening to music based on other posts I’ve seen. Right now the Visual Voice Mail is useless to me, except I can see who called.
2. Memory leaks. If you thought previous devices had issues, wait until you see this one. I’m testing out all 4 major IM’s running in the background…Yahoo Messenger, Windows Messenger, AOL IM, and Google Talk. I went from 37 to 5 in 24 hours. Pulled the battery, and got back to 37. Everything set up the same again, and in two hours I’m down to 20, and in four hours down to 17. This was one of my big concerns going into the purchase of this device. RIM should have put a decent amount of Flash Memory in there to eliminate this concern if they don’t have a fix. An option to store contacts and mail on the storage card or even on board memory would be nice, but I realize it’s not part of the security they offer. Still, the option would be nice.
PS – Using VZW Navigator. I like it. Worth the $10 p/m and is the most accurate navigator I’ve used on a phone so far (I’ve used AT&T’s and Sprints…AT&T sometimes drops the feed, and Sprint twice veered me off in all sorts of directions away from my destination…good thing I knew where I was going). VZW Navigator looks very nice in landscape mode, and I was listening to directions clearly via my bluetooth headset while blasting a little Metallica in the car. Was nice to actually see a navigation screen tilted in landscape mode in my Charger near the stick rather than squint at my Pearl from afar…no hiccups, system crashes, etc. Very accurate and gives you ample time before you need to make a turn, etc. I travel a bit, so it’s a nice portable feature. Also, the VZW Access Manager worked out well. More to come…
I’ve been playing with my Storm for a couple of days now. I will hold of on my review, however, until after the Thanksgiving holiday.
I want to let the newness and the fact that I’ve finally gotten it to wear off a bit so that I am completely objective. I will say that they OS version that is shipping on the Storm as compared to the version seen on display models is much more refined.
Looking forward to reading your feedback. Let me know if you see the same issues I listed above…I’d be curious. You can email me directly instead of posting on the site.
I’ve actually been doing a full review and breaking everything down by importance/points system for client recommendations on the small to mid size level. Comparing it to the iPhone is certainly interesting. And I’ll also say this…the Pearl, in my opinion, is the most…for the lack of a better word…’powerful’ little phone I’ve ever personally used. I’ve grown an appreciation for how much a small little device can do.
Here’s another issue, but not actually the phone. Verizon had to recall the plastic belt clip holsters because they were not putting the phone into sleep mode. Classic. Found this after they sent out the email for accessories. They advertise it, but not ready for prime time. Not sure how that one slipped past QA.
I played with two different display model Storms at the Verizon store a couple of days ago and experienced two different sets of issues.
Starting with the positive: the web browser is quite good. I thought the screen click was actually kind of cool. Unique for sure. I like the “feedback” from pressing it.
I agree with others who say that pressing a particular part of the screen for a function can easily bring you the one next to it. You will either get use to that and learn where to press… or you won’t. That is odd. That is just a mapping issue on the screen and I wonder why RIM didn’t clear that up prior to launch.
I thought rotating the screen worked fast enough. Users complaining about the lag seems odd. It doesn’t rotate in an instant, but it seems to rotate fast enough for me. Maybe not as fast as my second generation iPod Touch, but it isn’t unreasonably slow.
Some issues I had that I am sure I could clear up on the manual:
the clock kept popping up on the screen and then I would have to press a button to get back to the main screen. That got annoying pretty quickly and I wish I knew how to disable it. On the other unit I tried I could not get the keyboard to display. I looked at the options and there was one for hide keyboard, but the keyboard was already hidden.
My Blackberry Storm shipped on Wednesday, but I had it shipped to my work (thinking it would be shipped on a day that I was there). I probably won’t pick it up until I go in on Monday. I will try it out for a couple of days (with a manual) and see how I feel about it.
Ordered mine last Friday and got it today!
The clock stays on whiles its plugged into a charger. So far I haven’t had too many complaints. I’m really enjoying the phone.
Hi Rich,
That makes complete sense. I actually wondered about that. Obviously everything in the VZW store would be plugged in 24/7.
I will have mine on Monday and will report more after a day or two of hands-on. I am hoping that I like it! 🙂 Sure wish it had WiFi though.
Eric
How can they build a tool like this and not offer wifi? Maybe Blackberry made it with wifi and Verizon said “no way.” The Verizon model of hammering the customer for every last cent of revenue sure gets old.
The independence that Apple had to build their iphone and then sell marketing rights to ATT is better because they made the tool to be as useful as possible and then made it a phone.
I ordered it the night of the release date and they said it would ship by 12/5. Should I expect an earlier ship date with the news of the 8th now for those that expected the 15th?
How can they make it without WiFi? It is Verizon… it is to be expected that it would not have WiFi.
I will grant that, in my area, Verizon coverage is awesome. It is not better than the WiFi in my house though. If I like this phone, I will sure miss the WiFi I get with my TMO Curve.
I guess with this one I will be changing my phone.
One wonders how many Storms Verizon could have sold this past weekend had they been in stock…
They will still sell a lot, and some will order or wait to buy the phone anyway, but missed opportunities are still missed…
My storm just shipped today as it was scheduled to ship by 12/8. Good news for anyone waiting.
I ordered a Storm for myself at 6am on the release date. The payment came out 12/09 and I probably will not get it until the 15th. It is hard to ask you Blackberry fan’s to be patient as I am on pins and needles as well, waiting to recieve mine. The ship date is 2-3 days from the date that the payment was processed, not ordered. That’s where the confusion lies. If it makes you feel any better, we employees are put on the back burner for orders so that you guys get yours first! When the original Voyager came out we weren’t even able to begin ordering them until about 4mos after the release date!
OH and there has been one software upgrade released since the BB Storm has been released so you may want to look into this and make sure you are up to snuff so to speak.