[ChrisH72]

My background is in small business, I am on the road continuously and having a reliable phone is essential to my every day business. My business is hands on and needs quick responses.

I have had my BB Storm now for 2 weeks and at first I thought Oh ****zer what have I got myself in to. In the past I have had an NEC P3, Motorola MicroTAC, Nokia 636, Nokia 6110, Nokia 6130, Nokia 6230, Blackberry 7250, Nokia N71, Nokia N95.

I always wanted a phone that had:

1. Loud Ring
2. Solid Build
3. In car connection
4. Easy to Use
5. Good phone sound quality

etc etc etc

I was looking seriously at the iPhone, I already have a 80Gb iPod and thought that was simple to use... but what draw me back to Blackberry was that the data plan is now integrated into the monthly plan (Vodafone) instead of billed separately so that no longer do you end up with a massive data bill at the end of the month for e-mails sent and received.

I was hesitant on coming back to BB after the 7250 (I found this phone so hard to use - rather I couldn't be bothered getting used to it - the Nokia was simpler). Anyway... I purchased the Storm and boy has it opened up my eyes.

RULE NUMBER 1 with BB - Be patient! The operating system is different and therefore there's a lot of time required to getting used to such power and used to it all and these are the major things that I learned:

1. Make sure that your SIM card is 3G. I had my SIM card for near on 8 years and only when I went back to the dealer a few times was this recognised.

2. Get to understand typing on the phone. Once you get used to swivelling it around from portrait to landscape the phone is extremely fast to use and I will extend on this in point 3.

3. I type fast like most prople under 40 and so when I had to hover over a hyperlink or a key stroke and then press firmly it caused me no amount of angst. There is a solution - OPTIONS | SCREEN/KEYBOARD then select the following options:
a) Key Rate = Fast
b) Portrait View Keyboard = Multitap
c) Touchscreen: Tap Interval = 100
d) Touchscreen: Hover Period = 100
e) Swipe Sensitivity = 1

Once these options are selected everything is very fast and "direct".

4. E-Mail Set-up: Talk to Customer service representatives. With Vodafone they are awesome, they are based in Egypt, but their skills are very, very high. Make sure you have your BIS (Blackberry Internet Service) / RIM service with your service provider set-up with Vodafone this is mobileemail.vodafone.com etc etc { Crackbery will not allow me to post the link LOL }

5. Make sure you have Blackberry Desktop Manager Installed correctly. I personally find this software nowhere near as good as Nokia's. It has problems with connectivity issues when linking between the 3rd party applications (Media Manager and Roxio) but it is worth pursuing with.

Synching Outlook is simple and straight forward with Bluetooth and Cable but once again there are shortfalls in the software if disconnected whilst Desktop Manger is open.

6. Turn off Bluetooth when not in use to conserve battery power. This is relatively straight forward - MANAGE CONNECTIONS -> Bluetooth (On/Off)

7. Arrange your short cuts on the main screen from most widely use to lesser in the grid by HOME | MENU | MOVE - then move the icon | MENU | COMPLETE MOVE

8. I purchased Stormlock - this is awesome so that you don't inadvertently press the screen buttons whilst on a call.

9. I purchased BBSmart Alarms Pro - whilst it looks nice it did not work when the phone was on charger and it interfered with Alarms that had been set with Outlook Calender. So I removed it. SO now I use the Clock Alarms and the Calender Alarms instead.

10. I purchased VibandRing - Didn't do for me what I wanted it to. I could not make it work properly. If I could get heads up on this that would be appreciated.

11. I have purchased the Motorola Motorokr T505 bluetooth car kit and FM transmitter. What an awesome piece of kit. No longer do I need my iPod with its separate FM transmitter charger. I up loaded 5Gb of my Itunes songs onto the 8Gb card purchased with the phone. Receiving calls through the speakers of the car and listening to music like I do with the ipod was awesome and the clarity is better than the iPod transmitter I have. So I gave my BlueAnt handsfree kit, the iPod and the FM transmitter to the wife

12. The Browsing of the Internet is awesome once again ensure that you set your Hover and Click speeds to minimum so that it is efficient and use in landscape with zoom changing to cursor mode if necessary.

With regards to the internet do not be caught by the Phone Carrier's service costs. If you use Internet Browser and not the ISP's / Data providers (Mobile Carriers) service then browsing and downloading from the internet is free. For example with Vodaphone they have their own service Vodafone Live! If you connect to the Net through this then you are charged usage, but if you use Blackberry services then you are not.

To check whether this is applicable:

a) HOME | OPTIONS | ADVANCED OPTIONS | BROWSER | DEFAULT BROWSER CONFIGURATION = Internet Browser | DEFAULT MDS BROWSER CONFIGURATION = Internet Browser ............ the other Option DEFAULT WAP BROWSER CONFIGURATION can not be changed... what this means is that if you select HOME | BROWSER | and then either SEARCH HERE or HOME PAGE (WAP BROWSER) you will be billed therefore do not use either of these. Make sure you do the following to minimise your costs:

i) Link to one site using the SEARCH HERE Option to find your preferred Search Engine for example Google or Yahoo or whatever. When you are then at that site do the following - MENU | ADD BOOKMARK | NAME = Whatever you want call your Bookmark | FOLDER = Blackberry Bookmarks | AUTO SYNCRONIZE = Never | BROWSER = Internet Browser | BROWSER IDENTIFICATION = <b>Blackberry<b> | All other options you choose

ii) Once you have this primary Bookmark set-up Use it to connect the Net and set-up other Bookmarks [in the same way as i)] Make sure BROWSER IDENTIFICATION = Blackberry

13. Installed "Viigo" - this is awesome RSS Feeds for all upto date information from Latest Local and World News, to Weather, Sport, Finance, Entertainment, etc etc etc... a real winner of technology.

I have great delight in using the BB Storm, it takes a bit of getting use to but once you're around them everything from there is plain sailing... it is a very powerful tool, don't be fooled.

There is literature on Wi-Fi application but everyone says it does not have Wi-Fi, this is my next task to sort out as I want to get Skype or similar... but from what I understand there is no advantage as you still chew through your plans call time... if I could get a heads up here that would be great.

All in all I give this phone an 9+ out of 10.

[TheSultan]

I disagree with a lot of your remarks, but this was a thoughtful and well constructed review--and that, sir, I greatly appreciate. Thanks for sharing it.

[stormcrackers]

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to do such an awesome review!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Lowsol94]

Nice to see positive response on the storm. The opinion of most but it doesn't speak as loudly as the the negatives. Maybe this would greatly help out would be owners.

[substring]

Nice to see positive response on the storm. The opinion of most but it doesn't speak as loudly as the the negatives. Maybe this would greatly help out would be owners.

It is natural for the negative opinions to be louder. Those who are happy with the phone are usually the silent majority.

Thanks to the OP for such detailed opinion.

[Dyzrv]

im glad you like the storm... but yea its a great phone

[Lowsol94]

It is natural for the negative opinions to be louder. Those who are happy with the phone are usually the silent majority.

Thanks to the OP for such detailed opinion.

Exactly! To busy actually learning the phone and finding new things instead of spending your time complaining about it.

[shatiek]

Great and on the spot review.

[Crackberrykills]

I am extremely pleased you are loving your new BB. Especially, since it is a Storm.