RIM BlackBerry Storm 9530 Review
It's been a little over a month since I received my BlackBerry Storm review unit, and I have to say, it's been a lukewarm experience. With the world's first "clickable" touch screen display, does it offer a similar experience to the heavyweight champion, the iPhone 3G? How about the other competitors using Windows Mobile? Find out after the jump.
Before we delve into the review and my thoughts on the product, I've decided not to highlight the features that make a BlackBerry, such as push email, contacts, calendaring, and other PIM-like features.
It's obvious that Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the BlackBerry, spent their time designing this product (but not eliminating bugs, we'll talk about this later!) and getting it right unlike other competitors to the iPhone such as LG and HTC. The Storm 9530 has a 3.25" glass touch screen display, with SurePress technology. Effectively, the SurePress technology makes the entire display a button, giving the user feedback with the selection of an on-screen interface item. At first I was just tapping the display to navigate through the phone, forgetting to actually push down on the display, but after the first week or so, I was comfortable enough and found myself getting used to it.
Unlike the iPhone, there is more than one button (in addition to the touch screen) including talk/end, menu, and back navigation buttons along the bottom of the device.
The Storm uses the fast EVDO Rev. A network along with support for HSDPA/UMTS networks.
The entire unit weighs 5.46 ounces and measures 4.4" x 2.4" x 0.55", a tad smaller than the iPhone. Being both an original iPhone, and an iPhone 3G user, it was hard for me to get used to the SurePress keyboard. For first-timers, it should work without a hitch after typing on it for a few days. Something that I missed personally from the Storm was the trackball that users are now accustomed to on the Pearl, Curve, and Bold. It would have been a nice touch for easier one-hand use and selecting specific items on a web page with tons of links.
Unlike some smartphones, the Storm 9530 has a standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack, making it easy to plug in your favorite headphones along with support for A2DP stereo Bluetooth headsets, bridging the gap between a business-oriented and a music-oriented phone.
Compared to the iPhone 3G, the 9530 has a 3.2 megapixel camera with video capabilities, autofocus, and a flash. Image quality was disappointing: colors were washed out and objects looked soft. The autofocus is an improvement over the lack of one on the iPhone and iPhone 3G however, making it easy to get a closeup shot on small objects.
Having a large touch screen display has it's advantages, including viewing large webpages with loads of content. It's probably the best BlackBerry browser I've come across, but it doesn't come close to the power of the WebKit-based Safari mobile browser on the iPhone. It was awkward especially for me when I tried to pinch the screen and nothing happened.
Overall performance of the smartphone's software was sluggish and laggy when switching the phone from landscape to portrait mode or while navigating menus and launching applications. The BlackBerry Application Center (clearly a rival towards the iPhone's App Store) only offers a handful of applications, but that number should increase when the full offering launches later this year.
Call quality was quite good and there was no sign of background noise or distorted audio. On the contrary, using the speakerphone yielded completely different results. Uneven and rough call quality was experienced on both ends of the call with words cut off abruptly. Battery life was excellent and during our tests, received approximately 6 to 7 hours of talk time on a single charge.
The BlackBerry Storm 9530 is a nice competitor against the venerable Apple iPhone 3G, but it's software flaws hold it back from being one of the best touch screen smartphones available today. It may be a good choice for Verizon Wireless users, but those with other carriers and more time to research should look elsewhere.
If you're a Verizon Wireless subscriber and have no other choice than the Storm, it's available today from Amazon.com for just $99.99 when purchased with a new service plan and free two-day shipping.
Pros
- Innovative "clickable" touch screen.
- High-speed EVDO Rev. A network.
Cons
- Touch keyboard takes some getting used to.
- Sluggish software.
- Speakerphone quality needs improvement.
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don't like this phone, got one from gsmallover.com and returned it. went with a htc touch pro 2 instead and it's a lot more responsive. this one has the surepress, sucks. anyays like my new one. has anybody gotten the storm 2 yet is the screen better?