Thursday, January 22, 2009

A BlackBerry with a Touch Screen - the BlackBerry Storm

By Matt Ryan

BlackBerry is a very well known name when it comes to cell phones. BlackBerry has always been a dependable name, one who had phones that consumers could rely on - the BlackBerry Storm is no different. This is Blackberry's very first phone with a touch screen, and it happens to be a full screen phone as well.

Your new phone is ready to use, out-of-the-box, as it comes with a travel charger with an assortment of adapters, a USB cable, an 8GB microSD card, a SIM card, a wired headset, a software CD, and user manual. The features, available on this phone, are amazing. You have a 3.2 megapixel camera, built-in GPS, media player, video recording, email, organizer, phone, browser, corporate data access, and SMS / MMS.

The Storm comes with BlackBerry's standard operating system - BlackBerry OS 4.7. DataViz Documents - standard edition - also comes with the phone. This application allows you to modify documents, such as word and excel, right from your phone. If you are looking to create new documents, as well, you will need to upgrade to the Premium Edition of DataViz.

The Storm is one of the first smart phones to take advantage of SurePress. This technology changes the way users interact with the touch screen; SurePress makes the screen clickable. While it takes a bit to get used to, if you are used to other touch screens, it is a nice bonus to the phone.

The Storms 3.25-inch TFT LCD 480 x 360 resolution 65,000 color display is one of the most beautifully crisp displays available on a smart phone.

BlackBerry decided to allow their customers to customize their experiences with the Storm. Backlight brightness, font size, and font type, are all adjustable by you - set them to whatever you are most comfortable with. Additionally, the display rotates from portrait to landscape based on how you are holding the phone. This is all possible through a little mechanism called accelerometer.

There is, obviously, no keyboard on this phone. The keyboard is accessible via the display. There are two types of keyboards available on this phone, QWERTY and SureType. The type of keyboard available is 100% dependant on whether you are in portrait or landscape mode. (SureType - Landscape; QWERTY - Portrait)

Both keyboards are functional, yet small. The size does make it a bit difficult to type long messages and makes for numerous typos.

The phone itself is about the same size as other smart phones on the market, measuring around 4.43 x 2.45 x 0.55 inches, and weighing 5.5 ounces. The overall design provides a sturdy frame and easy to grip edges.

One of the advantages, to the BlackBerry Storm, is the battery life - with 15 days of standby time and 6 hours of talk time - this smart phone lasts longer than many others do. On the other hand, overall performance, from this unit, has been disappointing. Firmware upgrades have not even been able to fix all of the performance issues.

Looking at the big picture, the BlackBerry Storm is a functional phone. Its features and what it offers are a little above standard. If you can put aside slight performance glitches, this just might be the right smart phone for you. - 20896

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