[jtdiddy]

I'm a patent lawyer and a power bb user. I didn't line up to get the Storm yesterday but was one of the lucky ones to get my Storm this morning (Saturday) by fed ex. After a full's day use of the Storm here's my objective review:

OS-My Storm is running .65 like most people. To be honest, I was pretty skeptical about the Storm based upon the negative reviews but maybe I lucked out because my Storm runs pretty well without any major bugs. The accelerator works fine (a small lag about a second) and the phone is not sluggish or slow at all. After getting used to the highlight & click differences, manuevering around the Storm has been a joy and i gotta say, moving around the Storm like an iphone is a kick and everytime i put down the phone, i keep gravitating back to the Storm and wanting to play with it.

TIP: I would recommend changing the keyrate to Fast and swipe sensitivity to 6(High) which IMO made the Storm seem to react faster. I also took the content compression mode off which also seemed to help.

TACTILE SCREEN- Love it or Hate it is the best way to put it. At first, it was very awkward typing on the Storm and I made alot of mistakes but after only several hrs of actual use (typing emails/text), my speed improved dramatically because my fingers starting "learning" where to press and the correct typing rhythm that the Storm demands. I'm sure typing on the Bold/curve or any qwerty keyboard will be faster but that's true for any touchscreen phones. BUT typing on the Storm and having that click sound and feel is pretty addicting once you get good at it.

Lastly, more than ever, Storm users need to take advantage of the BB shortcuts to make using the Storm more enjoyable and efficient.

It would be great for RIM to provide an option to either use the Surepress or just highlight to type (e.g. iPhone) instead of requiring the Surepress. This would be a very nice option to have and probably win over more people.

MEDIA- The Storm's speaker is loud and wonderful. The screen is gorgeous and when playing back the pre-loaded babylon video, it was breathtaking. Even my friends who are iphone lovers were blown away.

VIDEO & CAMERA- Is a little sluggish IMO and timing will hopefully be fixed in the next upgrade. But video recording & playback did work fine and it's such a nice feature to have.

CONCLUSION:
Using the Storm is a completely new way of working with a phone. People are always resistant to change at first but I think once people get used to the tactile screen and the new OS update fixes alot of the bugs, the Storm will be a great phone, for both the consumer and power user alike

-jt

[ghosthound]

yeah, i got mine today and so far im loving it! definitely not as laggy as people make it out to be. The accelerometer works well and the typing isnt too bad.

[Sindervhit]

Have you or anyone else figured out exactly what the tap interval and hover period numbers mean? I have mine set at 250 and 600 (respectively) and it all seems to work pretty well for me, but I'm still not sure what I've set haha.

[noaim]

hover period is the amount of time until something changes when you hover over it like just holding your finger on something without clicking.. for example on the qwerty keyboard just set your finger on a letter a second menu comes up with other option's it changes the length of time.. I didn't change mine so I can't tell you which direction to make it shorter or longer is..

[Avanti1963]

Where is the "content compression mode" on/off option located?

Thanks!

[mshipek]

Security options, general settings

[mattymatt21]

what does Content Compression mean?

[kazmi]

I was actually waiting for someone with a 8830 to write about their experience. This sure does put my mind at ease. The Storm I played with at the local store was laggy and I made a dozen errors trying to type one line. I use my 8830 very extensively (emails, BB IM, beejive, texts etc) so this was concerning. But I took the plunge and am now waiting for my storm to ship.

Can you guys also comment on the speed of typing? While I know touch screens cant be the same as physical qwerty key boards, how close does this one come?

Thanks for the information!

[cwcanty]

What is "content compression"???

[slimjimp]

I was actually waiting for someone with a 8830 to write about their experience. This sure does put my mind at ease. The Storm I played with at the local store was laggy and I made a dozen errors trying to type one line. I use my 8830 very extensively (emails, BB IM, beejive, texts etc) so this was concerning. But I took the plunge and am now waiting for my storm to ship.

Can you guys also comment on the speed of typing? While I know touch screens cant be the same as physical qwerty key boards, how close does this one come?

Thanks for the information!

Sure type is not that bad...I came from a Curve and used it alot too, beejive, email, etc...and now I am using two thumbs on suretype and I think I'm getting pretty quick, I think almost as quick or as quick as on my curve...there is a video on youtube called "Storm Speed Test" and it shows someone typing pretty fast on suretype...pretty cool video if you ask me.

[slimjimp]

What is "content compression"???

I would also like to know what it is for...but my accelorameter does seem to be quick with it off.

[mattymatt21]

I was actually waiting for someone with a 8830 to write about their experience. This sure does put my mind at ease. The Storm I played with at the local store was laggy and I made a dozen errors trying to type one line. I use my 8830 very extensively (emails, BB IM, beejive, texts etc) so this was concerning. But I took the plunge and am now waiting for my storm to ship.

Can you guys also comment on the speed of typing? While I know touch screens cant be the same as physical qwerty key boards, how close does this one come?

Thanks for the information!

this is my first qwerty keyboard phone, and first blackberry, and typing on the storm came completely natural to me. mistakes are very very minimal. i tried my friends iphone before i got my storm and couldnt even type a sentence without hitting the wrong key.

[jtdiddy]

Content compression is designed to reduce the size of your Storm's device data while maintaining the integrity of that data. When
content compression is turned on, your device compresses all device data, including messages, contacts, calendar entries, tasks, and
memos. If content compression and content protection are turned on, your device compresses device data before encrypting it.

Thus, if you are low on memory (e.g. emails automatically get erased, or if you have lots of programs installed and running) then you may want to leave content compression on to increase the Storm's memory capacity.

However, if this is not a problem, the disabling content compression will increase the overall speed of the Storm because it does not have to automatically compress everything in the background.

[darkreve]

I was actually waiting for someone with a 8830 to write about their experience. This sure does put my mind at ease. The Storm I played with at the local store was laggy and I made a dozen errors trying to type one line. I use my 8830 very extensively (emails, BB IM, beejive, texts etc) so this was concerning. But I took the plunge and am now waiting for my storm to ship.

Can you guys also comment on the speed of typing? While I know touch screens cant be the same as physical qwerty key boards, how close does this one come?

Thanks for the information!

Hi,

I used to have the BB 8830 and it was a great phone loved that I could text and email really quick. I was able to type fairly fast and use one hand when driving.. shh.. dont tell anybody i was typing while driving.. so it was a great phone.. things I didnt like about the 8830 was the internet/no camera/no video. couldn't receive pictures or text messages with pictures.
Now that I have the storm.. I can actually browse the internet when I want.. I can show off and find names of movies or singers to **** off my wifes friends.. lol.. I can receive text messages with pictures or videos.. I can take pictures and text them back etc.. I love my storm.. havent found any issues with it like people mention on the negative posts.. guess I got lucky to get a good phone....

Typing and scrolling takes time.. friday I was not able to type nor scroll.. by friday Nite I was going crazy typing and scrolling.. moving around.. moving icons around.. hiding stuff.. just having a great time with it.. wife wasn't happy.. but hey.. I had to Learn how to use my storm.. right..

I am very happy

[jtdiddy]

UPDATE-
After 48hrs of starting this thread, I had to update my review because I must say after a full's day use of the Storm, I find that ability to "get things done" on my BB is still there but now my phone is alot more fun to have.

i actually find sorting through my emails and downloading/viewing attachments are vastly improved with the storm and the visual voicemail is a must have. Not sure how I ever got around without it.

I've also seen my typing speed improve as well. Still not as fast as I was on my 8830 but the more I learn how to use the surepress screen, the faster i am getting. I think once i really master the surepress, i will be only 10-15% slower on the Storm which i can live with considering all the benefits I get with the Storm. Browsing on the Storm was like night & day compared to surfing on the 8830...

BTW, my wife has an iPhone and she couldn't put down my Storm last night haha... she was quite jealous of the Storm's screen since it is much brighter than the iPhone. She also wishes that the iPhone had the surepress for increased accuracy.

Bottom Line: After 48 hrs, I am not ljust liking the Storm but LOVING it.

[CFD323]

Bottom Line: After 48 hrs, I am not ljust liking the Storm but LOVING it.

Yeah I second that thought as well. I love this phone! A couple of bugs that should be fixed with updates, otherwise very nice.

[secretsexyninja]

i would LEAVE content compression on (actually allows more memory for your phone.. havent noticed any difference with it in basic use.. definitely useful) but take protection off (it DOES noticeably slow your phone down).

Only time I would say you might want protection on is if you truly have sensitive information on your phone that someone might want to steal by taking apart your hardware.

A standard password works best for most as 10 mistyped passwords will wipe the phone anyway :P

[jon341427]

i would LEAVE content compression on (actually allows more memory for your phone.. havent noticed any difference with it in basic use.. definitely useful) but take protection off (it DOES noticeably slow your phone down).

Only time I would say you might want protection on is if you truly have sensitive information on your phone that someone might want to steal by taking apart your hardware.

A standard password works best for most as 10 mistyped passwords will wipe the phone anyway :P

what i never got was that why does the phone tell you its about to wipe everything if you type the word 'blackberry' in? a person can just wait like 30 minutes till the counter resets. ill def try taking off protection and see how it works. thanks for explaining!

[wmscottmc]

Is that true, that you can just wait 30 min and the wrong password counter just resets? If thats true, somebody could just keep guessing forever.......

Ive also turned off "protection" but now Im not sure that is such a good idea.