Living In The Storm

Posted on 05. Mar, 2009 by Rob in BlackBerry, Tech

Last week my wife and I both upgraded to BlackBerry Storms. I was hesitant to move to the Storm at first. When they first came out I tested a few devices at VZW stores and found them to be slow, unresponsive, and buggy. After hearing so many complaints from testers I was sure I didn’t want one of these “disaster” BlackBerries. News started to trickle in of bug fixes and OS improvements and my interest started to wax again. I started to realize that many of the bad reviews were done by people who had received the device as a test review and were going by their initial impressions instead of actual usage. I knew many standard users were unlikely to upgrade their OS as they were released as it is not heavily publicized and often somewhat difficult for new BB owners to do.

My upgrade time came last week and since it is still months from the VZW Niagara release I took the plunge and bought a Storm. Luckily we were able to get a buy one, get one deal from Verizon and my wife joined the BlackBerry community as well with her own Storm.

Upon first using the device I found it to still be somewhat slow and buggy so I decided to quickly upgrade the OS (.109) as quickly as possible. Most of the issues I had with the Storm were fixed with this release and I found myself truly falling in love with this touch screen BB. First off, the screen is phenomenal! I’ve used a few high res devices before and they have nothing on the resolution and contrast of the Storm screen. Viewing apps and media are wonderful on this 360×480 screen. The build quality of the device itself is well above par and feels solid and sturdy in your hand. I have listed a few pros and cons I have found with the Storm:

Pros:

Amazing screen

Simply beautiful. Apps to media all look awesome on the huge, high resolution screen.

Solid build quality

It’s a heavier device than other BBs but the device feels solid and exudes quality.

Familiar UI

Coming from past BB devices, I found the familiar UI a pleasant feature.

Transitions

Screen transitions are simple and effective, while still giving a slick feel.

Apps

Most of my favorite apps (Viigo, TwitterBerry, Facebook) are already available on the Storm and many more to come.

SurePress

The award winning SurePress (click to press) interface is incredibly useful as miss-clicks are a thing of the past for me. This is a feature many have complained about but I think it is a great innovation and improves productivity. My typing is already at 90% what it was on my Pearl and that’s within a week.

Storage

With support up to 16GB MicroSD cards I can always have everything I need on my phone and easily swap cards for even more.

Camera

The latest OS updates have greatly improved the camera’s speed and quality. Coming from a 2.0MP Pearl I find the 3.2MP, auto zoom, flash Storm a huge improvement.

GPS

Verizon is renowned for crippling the GPS on their phones so users are forced to use their VZ Navigator app.  The Storm is unlocked and able to use GPS on third party apps like Google Maps, Poynt, and Where.

Go Anywhere

Verizon’s network is everywhere.  I’ve been with quite a few carriers and none have had the absolute coverage as Verizon has.  With the Storm you also have access to a SIM card for use out of country on GSM networks as well.

iPhone Sass

BlackBerry users are often the butt of iPhone users jokes but showing them innovative features like MMS, Video, having a signal, and removable batteries usually shut them up (taste the sarcasm?)

Cons:

OS Improvements

The latest updates have improved the device 100% but there are a few things yet to improve and I hope RIM listens to the complaints and fixes some of the issues quickly.

Accelerometer

One of the more useful features of the phone that has been greatly improved with recent updates. I don’t understand why it can’t be deactivated on the home screen though. It’s pointless on there and just annoys the hell out of Storm owners. Come on RIM, this needs to be fixed quickly.

Apps

Yes, I know this was also on my Pros section but what I speak of is the BlackBerry App Store. They announced it would be coming out in March and I’m still waiting.

Profiles

With past BB devices (and other current ones) you can customize each ring profile to your hearts content. This has been changed to a one size fits all approach to preset profiles. You can set up the normal profile and create custom ones, but all others are preset by RIM and can not be changed. I’m not sure why they went with this new model but it’s dumb and pointless and needs to be changed back.

Battery Life

Bright, beautiful screen?  Check.  Interactive interface?  Check.  Loads of options including Bluetooth, GPS, Quad band?  Check.  Battery that can handle it all?  Nope.  I highly recommend picking up a secondary battery as I have found actual battery life to be only 4-5 hours without a charge.  I use my BB a LOT though so you may get a little more.  Once again though, a huge plus for the removable battery!

I can’t express just how important it is to update the OS on your Storm.  So many horrible experiences can be chalked up to the standard .75 OS found on new Storms.  It doesn’t give you a true experience until upgraded.  You can easily find tutorials and links for OS udates on the web.  I recommend checking out CrackBerry.com first and go from there.

RIM has built quite a few shortcuts into the OS as well to help with productivity.  Make sure to check out my BlackBerry Storm Tricks post to find some fun and unique ways to use your Storm.

The big question for many people is, “Should I choose the Storm or get another BB or iPhone?”.  I’ll try and answer that question as unbiased as possible by asking a few simple questions:

Q: Do I need a physical keyboard?

While the SurePress keyboard on the Storm is an amazing breakthrough, there will always be slightly slower times on any virtual keyboard versus a physical one.  I found that after taking some time to get used to it, the Storm’s keyboard is fast and efficient (especially when combined with Auto Text).  I find the iPhone keyboard to be harder to use and slower for me (again, Auto Text on BB devices is a life saver) but that may be due to time spent on the devices.  If your needing maximum speed and willing to sacrifice some eye candy for it, you may want to look into one of the many physical keyboard devices on the market.

Q: Do I use a lot of media?

I love media.  I stream quite a bit and love being able to flip on some music when I want.  The iPhone is clearly the leader when it comes to music as the iPod interface is hands down the best choice.  The Storm offers a very competent media player as well and with the better screen it offers video at higher quality.  You can get some decent media choices as well on other BB phones (especially the Bold) but it will be restricted by the smaller screen.  I also find Verizon service to be FAR superior to AT&T service here so streaming and online media often work much better on my Storm than iPhones.  This is location limited though so you should test both services in your area.

Q: Do I need business tools?

When it comes to business tools like push services, Outlook integration, BES service, and document handling, BlackBerry is still (and will likely continue to be) the clear leader.  I do quite a bit of business on my BB so this is a very important feature to me.  I simply couldn’t do without the BB services and even though the iPhone has better media options, I wouldn’t trade them.

Q: Do I need MMS, video camera, removable media, and a removable battery?

I use my phone constantly.  I send MMS messages a lot and often need to recharge.  Not having these basic features would be a deal breaker for me.  You simply do not find these basics on the iPhone.  All BBs come with these features so you are not limited to the Storm.

I personally find the Storm to be a great blend of familiar BlackBerry business tools and quite a few media extras.  It is definitely not the phone for everyone though.  It is quite a bit heavier than other BB devices and has some UI quirks.  I think RIM has done a great job moving into the touch screen market and a phenominal job for their first device.  I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the Storm 2.