[CTBBFAN]

So I have had a Blackberry since the beginning of time and always felt a little left behind by all the "sleek" media friendly devices out there, but would never switch due to the optimal business application of great email.

I suspect that there are quite a few out there, like me, that wanted to not have to carry their bb, their Ipod, their disposable camera (just in case), etc. I truly believe that we have a device that is 90% optimal for my needs.

I intentionally waited 48 hours to post for the same reason that I would not review an album........sorry cd, after only listening to it once. Had I reviewed this Friday afternoon, I would have had some of the same issues posted here, especially with the typing aspect. The 48 hours has given me a chance to review in a holistic sense and not have some issues color the entire review.

OK then, here is what I think:

It flat out looks great
Email is exactly what you would expect
bluetooth modem tethering is great (cant do it on iphone)
Media capabilities not as robust as some, but works GREAT for my needs
Browsing is good (not great), but I have a laptop if I need to do serious surfing
Camera and Video are fine, but I do hope they can get the camera to shutter a bit faster with an update OS
Also a global phone is key for me and I look forward to testing the capabilities down the road but I assume it is as good as my 8830

Some issues that people have had:

Typing. I admit that it took me 48 hours to get comfortable and I really did not like it at first. The key for me was to NOT THINK ABOUT WHAT I WAS LOOKING AT AND JUST TYPE. Once I started doing this my mistakes when down substantially.

I hate suretype for web browsing. Just try typing CNN and see how you do!

I have not had much of an issue with switching portrait/landscape, maybe a brief 1-2 second lag, which is not that big of a deal

Applications from my 8830 are not exactly running well with touchscreen (killing my poker habit!)

I always use a bluetooth headset so the button pushing on calls has not been an issue for me. BTW, I use the new HR15 by Motorola and I love it. It seems to me to be as good as the Jawbone in terms of quality, but it simply fit much better for me in the ear then the Jawbone.

One final note/observation: If you realize what a departure the touchscreen is and the various tweaks that needed to be made to bb base platform, what they have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. 95% of things work well and the remaining 5% should be "fixable".

The only people I would probably recommend staying away from the Storm are the true power email users as you simply will never be able to type as fast as you can on a physical keyboard, but, for my needs, the lack of physical keyboard is more then made up for in the tradeoff for a bigger screen, etc.

Good luck to all in their decision making process.

[GregMargie]

Nice review. Thanks for taking your time to write it....I am sure it will help many people in their decision

[Lightninrod]

Excellent and helpful review!

[Benji-nl]

Great post, nice and compact, covering all the things that ARE important thanks man!

[CTBBFAN]

Thought I would add a postscript to what I have actually been using the Storm for over the past 5 days:

Tethered my laptop and did work in a non wifi area
Listened to both XM radio as well as as my local stations from remote locations
Downloaded almost a full season of Boston Legal (I have a 16GB card) that almost fills the screen.
Watched live tv using ORB (still waiting for Sling however)
Read all the headlines from my hometown newspaper via Viigo
Downloaded DataVault and have all my pertinent info with me at all times
Used VN to get directions and find a pizza place

Oh yeah, I also made calls and read emails........seriously, I really like my Storm and truly think the majority of issues cited are either learning curve related or can be fixed with an OS update.

I would recommend the Storm to anyone other then someone that needs to type out 50 emails a day.