Ok folks, just got home from my hands on demo with the Storm. Of course I started this thread as I was pissed off about the reviews it was getting from all the major tech sites.
I CAN TELL YOU NOW, SCREW THE REVIEWS AND REVIEWERS!!! The phone is sick. TYPING: I've never owned a touch screen phone and was typing w/o too many errors right off the bat. It's probably going to be easier for people who have never used a touch screen than those who have. I can see myself typing very fast with a few hours of play. The SurePress feature is very impressive, no pun intended. Having to click the screen to open an application or type a letter just makes sense. You will not open an application just because the screen has been touched as you would on iPhone, Dare, etc...as stated by everyone you have to actually click the screen. BROWSER: The browser ranks right up there with the iPhone, the double tap zoom feature is awesome and if you don't like double tapping (not clicking) you can do a single "click" to zoom in. You have to use the famous Blackberry return/back button to zoom out or you can use the zoom icon at the bottom. The download speed was pretty good, not sure they make a mobile browser that would be fast enough for my liking. Clicking on specific links, etc was very accurate, again mainly due to the highlight first then click action. Overall the browser is VERY nice and I can see I will be doing A LOT of surfing on this bad boy. SCREEN There's really no other way to describe the screen except mini HD widescreen television! I mean this baby was CRISP and CLEAR!! As many have talked about, I played the Ironman trailer and it blew me away! I felt like I was in my own little personal theater. You couldn't ask for a better screen and surprising finger smudges didn't seem to be an issue. I never saw the "ghosting" or discoloration that some have mentioned around the corners. EMAIL/MESSAGES: Not too much has been changed here. You have the normal BlackBerry messaging center. One cool feature I like is when you are in a message, you can swipe your finger left or right across the screen and it will automatically go to the next message w/o backing out of the current message and opening a new message. Hope that makes sense, hard to put into words. SIZE: The phone was very well built and fits very nice in the hands. It is actually smaller than I thought it would be and didn't weigh anymore than my 8830. It seems to be a perfect size for a smartphone. The size is great so not much to say other than that. UI: At first, I thought oh crap here goes the lag! Well, the phone I was using was fresh right out of the box. I started clicking and opening apps, etc and confused the he ll out of it! I don't think I let the phone completely finish booting up before I started. After I let the phone sit for a while it ran MUCH smoother. I didn't notice a lag that made that big of a deal. Even on this OS version 4.7.0.65 the lag didn't seem as bad as other stated. I could live with it as is with no problems. If they do any updates to the speed of the OS, it will be truley that much more amazing. Turning from portrait to landscape seemed pretty smooth too, could be a little faster but again not that big of a deal. MEDIA PLAYER: Best media player I've seen on a Blackberry. Very easy to use and does exactly what its supposed to do. The speaker are fantastic! I couldn't believe how loud the were. It made my 8830 look like...well crap! lol CAMERA: For a phone, the camera was good. It will work just fine for those quick photos you need to take. You won't be winning any photo contests with it but it'll get the job done. CONCLUSION: I will own one, no doubt about it. As many before me have said, there will be a small learning curve. However, once you get used to it, like all Berrys it will be second nature. So, long story short, don't believe all these negative reviews. Lets keep it real people, this is a small device and not a national nerve center for the Pentagon. The phone, as is, lives up to the expectation I had and then some. Get in lines early, even if you are on a list as its a first come first served basis.
If anyone has any questions, just let me know. I'm sure I'm missing something in my short review. Can't wait until the morning!!!
Well, I've come to the conclusion that for just the regular ole Joe Schmoe, this phone is great. To the extra technical reviewer type, the phone sucks. Seeing that I'm just a regular Joe Schmoe, I should be just fine.
Great review. Thanks. I'll be standing outside in 18 degree weather tomorrow in Minnesota at 7 a.m. to get mine!
Ouch! That's COLD! Not gonna be too warm here either. I just wonder what time I should get there? I don't believe the hype is all that here yet. I was one of two people for the hands on thing today. Sad to say, no I didn't win a free Storm. He ll you think they would have hooked me up!!
Thanks for the write-up Pholey. I feel a little better about the whole deal now, not that I would consider for even a moment not getting this phone based on what others have said.
It's good to hear some positives about this device. No device is perfect on launch. I remember when i got a pre-release 8830. The 1st version of software would lock up everytime you tried calling someone at the same time an incoming call was coming in. When we get our Storms we need to let CS know the shortcomings of the device so hopefully it will be addressed in future OS releases. 20 hr's to go!!!
It's good to hear some positives about this device. No device is perfect on launch. I remember when i got a pre-release 8830. The 1st version of software would lock up everytime you tried calling someone at the same time an incoming call was coming in. When we get our Storms we need to let CS know the shortcomings of the device so hopefully it will be addressed in future OS releases. 20 hr's to go!!!
Yup, its up to us Storm Troopers to give feedback on any bugs and issues so they can be corrected ASAP.
I know, me too! I was only one of two at the "hands on event" this morning so I played with the phone for well over an hour. Now I just need to figure out what time to get to the store!
