BlackBerry Storm Improvements

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There are certainly improvements that need to go into this phone to make it an iPhone killer. There are two that come to mind for me. The first is the OS. There is no doubt that the OS is slow and buggy. I had to remove the battery today to fix a scrolling issue. This needs to be fixed with an update ASAP. It’s easy to do though and I expect to see an update within the next few weeks.

The second is an addition that BlackBerry need to consider. The user should be able to type without having to press the button down. Pressing the button/screen should be for selection only. The ability to type by just touching the screen would sort out the typing speed issues and I would be confident in saying would bring users from other touch screen smartphones over to the Storm. I’s guessing it would also be an easy addition considering the menu navigation is done by light touch. Even putting this as a keyboard option would be great, for each of the keyboards of course. So please RIM implement these two suggestions. I really want to love this phone.

Updated: The Blackberry Storm Reviewed

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  The Blackberry Storm is RIM’s first attempt at a touch screen mobile and they’ve done an excellent job with it. I’ve been using the Storm constantly for a few days now and while it isn’t perfect it’s certainly a worthy competitor for the iPhone and a great addition to the Smartphone market.

The first thing I’m going to get out of the way is the screen. There has been a lot of talk about the Storm’s touch screen and the fact that you must click the screen down to make a selection or to type. This is a departure away from the light touch the iPhone needs but it is one I in particular favour. It does take some getting used to at the start but it grows on you very quickly. The biggest benefit of this new technology is the removal of accidental selections. It gives you confidence when navigating the menu or web. You move around using a light touch and when you find something you want you press down.

It does have a disadvantage though. You see the screen on the Storm is basically a big button. This can lead to slower typing speeds because you have to let the button come back up before you press down on the next key. It’s not massively slower but it does slow you down a bit. Also I’ve heard people saying that it takes some effort to push it down. I personally haven’t found this to be the case and using my thumbs to navigate and type is a breeze.

The next thing to look at is the internet experience. The Storm performs extremely well in this field and I found that it performs well on both the GPRS network and 3G network. The lack of Wi-Fi does strike me as a big mistake by RIM but since I didn’t use it often with my N95 I don’t miss it. For those people who make use of Wi-Fi or who live in areas with bad signal strength this is something you should bare in mind. The big screen displays web pages very clearly and it does load quickly. There is no multi-touch pinching in the Storm though so to zoom in on a piece of screen you double tap lightly, not press down, on the screen and the browser zooms in. I find the experience equals the iPhone browsing experience.

The Storm’s UI is easy to navigate and, while I’ve never had a Blackberry before, I’ve heard that this is pretty standard Blackberry fare. It’s easy to add and navigate new applications such as Facebook and Windows Live Messenger. As you would expect it’s also easy to add Gmail, Windows Live mail and Yahoo mail accounts and get push e-mail setup. In fact the wizard that launches from the setup menu means you should be getting your e-mail in a matter of minutes.

However the UI does suffer from some lagging. There are times that it can take a second for the UI to respond to a key press. I’m assuming this is something RIM will fix with later updates but it’s still a slight annoyance at the moment. The other bug I’ve noticed is the accelerometer, the device that tells the phone if it’s in landscape or portrait mode. Switching between these modes is certainly not as quick as with the iPhone and on three occasions it didn’t switch at all. Again I’d imagine this will be fixed in due course in an update but I’ve taken a point off the Storm for these UI glitches.

Finally the most important part of a mobile phone, battery life and call quality. The battery life has been impressive so far and while constant use will drain the battery it should get you through the day. The call quality seems to be good with no dropping of calls and the people I contacted had no problem hearing me and visa-versa.

In conclusion with the Storm RIM is making a big move to block the iPhones path to the Enterprise. Any Blackberry customers who have been looking forward to the first touch screen from RIM will not be disappointed. Consumers should also give the Storm a look thanks to it’s media capability, it can sync non-DRMed music from iTunes, camera which at 3.2 MP is better than the iPhone’s and even the built in YouTube application. The only thing the Storm really lacks at the moment is third-party application support but if the sales figures are as impressive as they look like they could be RIM should have no problems getting more developers on board.

Updated: I had to update this review to say that after using the Storm for a week it’s gone back to the store. The phone starting slowing and crashing with too much regularity. The screen made typing slow and at the edges of the screen clicks were no longer registering. I’m afraid I can no longer recommend the Storm until BlackBerry have fixed the flaws with this beautiful but imperfect device.

SCORE: 2.5/5

Images from Blackberry.com

Windows 8 Is A Failure!

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I understand the desire to get headlines in media land and beating on Microsoft seems to be regarded as easy headlines at the moment but I couldn’t believe that I was seeing reviews of Windows 7 appearing across the net. We’re talking about an Operating System that isn’t even in beta yet. This is the same as reviewing Android based on the first simulator and not the phone itself. To hear negative reviews of Windows 7 at this stage borders on a joke.

In the interest of getting a good headline therefore I’m going to review Windows 8 now. I’m thinking it’s going to be based on the Windows Vista architecture and therefore it’s going to be a total disaster. In fact based on this one thought alone the whole Windows line is probably doomed, Apple will capture the desktop market and Microsoft will be out of business within the next ten years.

Well that should have the anti-Microsoft crowd happy. For everyone else I would tell you to look forward to the upcoming Windows 7 release. The Vista architecture gives stability and security while the Redmond team are obviously listening to users and have massively improved the UI and usability of 7. Microsoft are moving in the right direction and with the Windows Live platform to go along with it I can see Microsoft holding onto it’s crown for many years to come.