As the search continues for an iPhone killer, the ball is in Blackberry’s court. The Storm has made a valiant effort, and once again, it’s a solution that’s just not as good as the iPhone.

The Blackberry Storm has implemented a new type of touchscreen. To beat the problems of a lack of accuracy that have faced other touchscreen phones, the Storm touchscreen is a two-step process. First, an item can be selected on the screen by placing a finger over it. The item will be highlighted to ensure that it is in fact the user meant to select. Then, the user presses down on the screen over the selected area and voila, item selected. While it works the majority of the time, but is a real pain and takes too much time and effort.

Blackberry phones are above all work phones, so the cross over to a fun, application based toy like the iPhone felt a bit awkward. Instead of being all work or all play, the Storm lost itself somewhere in the middle, making it a bit of a pain to access e-mails and the business functions, but equally as uninteresting to play games and use the other fun-based apps.

Typing on the Storm’s touch keypad is fairly simple, the implemented touch-and-tap system making accuracy all the easier. However, there are three types of messaging styles: the vertical QWERTY keyboard similar to the one used for the Blackberry Pearl can either be set to auto-text or normal and a horizontal full QWERTY keyboard. The problem with the three types of keypads is they are not universally implemented on the phone, and it is hard to be sure which type is being used.

The Storm is heavier than the other touchscreen phones out there, weighing in at 5.5 ounces. For someone used to the tiny Krazor, its 4.43″ by 2.45″ body was too awkward to hold comfortably.

The Storm’s 3.25 in. screen plays video and displays pictures beautifully, it’s auto-focus feature on its 3.2 mega pixel camera makes taking photos far easier than your standard camera phone fare and its music player booms sound out sufficiently. Verizon’s great VZ Navigator GPS feature tends to be a little laggy on the Storm, stating after a street is passed that it was the proper one to turn down. Blackberry’s venture into the touch screen is valiant and solid, it just doesn’t have anything unique to set it apart from the competition.

Clock but no iPhone

Close but no iPhone

Technically speaking, the Storm is a great phone. It doesn’t have any major flaws, and is sufficient for any phone users daily needs. However, that is as far as it goes. It does not have any stand-out features to set it above the rest of the touch screen phones out there. It certainly is not the best, though it weighs in about second in the race for the best touch phone on the market.

For Verizon customers, the Storm is better than the LG Dare, but no one has yet to come close to topping Apple and its iPhone.

About The Author

Terri Schwartz was a Blast Contributing Editor from 2008-2009.

3 Responses

  1. Jason

    SO MANY REASON BB STORM IS BETTER THAN IPHONE –
    The people that say different are so mad that iphone is no longer the best selling smart phone, or the best smart phone any more…

    Poor Mac babys – – And this is just a couple reasons why:

    The STORM is…..
    1 Better for typists
    2 Better for business
    3 Better memory
    4 Better screen
    5 Better compatibility
    6 It’ll works with iTunes (and Windows Media Player)
    7 It has MMS features
    8 It has Copy Paste
    9 It has a Video Camera
    10 IT has a REAL NETWORK – VERIZON.
    11 ATT is the wost network around.

    I would write more, but i am running out of room on the commment.

    Reply
  2. daveythejuniorpro

    I think your missing 1 key element as to why the Storm is superior to the iphone……

    ITS A BLACKBERRY! A LITTLE THING CALLED ‘PUSH TECHNOLOGY’!

    Reply
  3. Ibiy

    Yo, I totally agree with u two guys. The blackberry is an amazing phone. But I have to say, when you get it out of the package it does suck ass. But you have to realize that the Iphone has been out 4 about 2 years I think, maybe more or less. If we could compare the older Iphone and the Storm and if they came out at the same time. The Storm would have easily won no doubt. It’s blackberry and RIM have been in this business much longer. Both phones are uber in their own ways, but we all know that LG’s, HTC’s, Moto’s and Samsung’s(Omnia) attempts to make a nice touch screen failed.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.