Camera Phones Plaza

The launch of Storm radically changes the design we have been used from the BlackBerry's. Enough with the QWERTY keyboard hardware, we will now use a virtual one. The full touchscreen phones is one promising field. While the iPhone remains the phone with the best graphical interface, it is not so unique as it was at its release. All important manufacturers have released or announced iPhone competitors.

RIMs move is among the most surprising. So far, they have kept the design that made them famous, rarely emerge from these patterns. I think the only exception from its typical design was the Pearl Flip 8220 model.

BlackBerry Storm comes in a black box, of medium size, with a very simplistic design. In the box are all the accessories you need for such a smartphone. Besides the charger, the software CD and the manual, we find a microUSB cable, a cover and stereo headphones.

The phone has a nice design and looks very solid. All materials are quality materials, although the plastic dominates. Apparently, it is pretty heavy, it has 155 grams, but it's a smartphone, so I did not expect less. The thickness has only 14 mm, so the phone feels great in hand.

The front side is dominated by a 3.25 inch screen. Under the screen are four buttons of any BlackBerry standard: the response or finish calls buttons, the menu key and the Back key. Under these four keys is an empty piece of about half a centimeter. Although apparently it has no role, this area is very useful. If the four buttons were exactly on the bottom edge it would have been very hard to click on them without dropping the phone. On both sides there is one button to open the battery cover. You need to simultaneously press both buttons so you can remove the cover. On the left side, we find the microUSB port. BlackBerry used the miniUSB port until recently, but it seems to have abandoned this in favor of the newest port. On the right side, there are the volume keys, camera key and a 3.5 mm audio jack. On the back, the phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera and its related flash. The battery cover is made of aluminum, which contributes to a solid feeling of the phone.

Storm has a graphical interface optimized for finger use. It does not come with a stylus. Although the Blackberry is new in this field (because until now Blackberry had no touch screen phones), they did a good job, I did not felt the need to use a stylus. Most buttons are large enough not to press wrong. However, there are situations when certain buttons are closer, and you can possibly make a mistake when you type something.

The new function of this phone is the SurePress function. This function wants to solve one problem, namely pressing the wrong keys on touch screens. On Blackberry Storm, if you touch a button on the screen, it will illuminate, and if what you wanted to type is correct, you must click on the screen. The entire full screen is actually a button. This function has good sides and bad sides. Indeed, the probability you will press something wrong is reduced, but it's also tiring to write on this screen than on a normal touchscreen. I prefer the classical touchscreen, even if sometimes we do wrong, it is easier to delete and correct. Storm's hardly attracts you to write long texts, so people that are used to their full QWERTY keyboards will remain at Bold. The good thing is that we have copy / paste in all places where text appears.

The screen is 3.25 inches wide and the resolution is 360 x 480 pixels. The colors are very vivid and the contrast is good. You can watch movies in landscape mode in very good conditions. The plastic from which the screen is made seems very durable, do not think it will scratch too easily.

On the big, high quality screen is a pleasure to look at both pictures and movies. Images appear clearly and vividly colored. Landscape mode is ideal to go through pictures taken with the phone or taken from elsewhere.

When it comes to music, things are better. Besides the included 1 GB of memory, you can put an 8 GB microSD card (or even 16 GB if the phone supports). You will then have enough memory for your favorite MP3s. The phone has a 3.5 mm audio jack, so you will be able to connect your headphones. RIM has made some excellent headphones in the box. If you get bored of the music on memory cards, you will have to download something new from the Internet or listen to something in streaming mode, because the phone does not have FM radio.

The camera is quite good, although it has only 3.2 megapixels. Most competitors make room for 5 or 8 megapixels, but Storm it is not quite the phone for pictures, so the 3.2 megapixel is enough. The pictures come out really well but only those made on the natural light. The flash is quite weak, and the darkness will not get good photos. The camera can also film, but films are very weak. Resolution is only 320 x 240 pixels.

Storm can connect to the Internet via GPRS, EDGE, 3G or HSDPA. Therefore, if you have a good network coverage, you can surf the Internet at a good speed. A big and unexpected minus on Storm's is the lack of WiFi connection. For a business phone, which would rival other super equipped phones, this minus is simply not acceptable. Why RIM chose not to equip this phone with WiFi is hard to say. The phone can connect to the computer using the microUSB cable or Bluetooth.

RIM has a application store comparable with Apple's AppStore, where you can download applications that are approved by RIM. There are lots of interesting and useful programs there, including instant messaging (Yahoo, Google, Facebook, etc.).

Storm has GPS, which you can use with its own navigation application made by BlackBerry, or you can install Google Maps. See what you like best. The BlackBerry has an advantage over Google Maps, because it also has voice navigation, so you can use it in your car.

BlackBerry Storm is a good phone, but not a revolutionary one.  Overall, Storm is not going to disappoint you, it's a good phone if you want something simultaneously suitable for business and multimedia. Unfortunately, it is only a medium on both.