[clipberry]

Well I have owed the Storm now for about ten days this is my take on this product.

The battery didn't last too long the first couple of days which coming on here lead me to cut the contrast by 30% and turn off the GPS.
This helped a lot, but the battery did last longer once I drained the whole pack out and started up with a full charge the next morning.
My new leather case was stiff and the buttons caught the leather every time you insert the storm into its case, which pushes them up to the point they don't really like that. The solution was to open the case as far as possible so buttons clear.
The OS was a tad slow until upgrade just recently. This caused a few clitche’s such as the flickering media screen buttons had to reset the icons and hard boot via battery, but this cured the issues.
The other problem was the amountof time it rang before going to voice mail, it seems the product reacts differently to timing from Vodafone call centre's which a simple fix of the **30**# trick, but each contract supplier will give you the number to text to alter the ring notifications before voice mail 30 seconds is about right or equals 8 rings before defaulting to voice mail.

The media player is limited to only MPG4 it struggled against an Xvid I had and this file was 650MB then the media desktop converter increased the file to 1010MB so my micro SD of 2 GB 50% is used already on one film. I thought it could handle Avi and various other formats, but it struggles to keep up. I didn't like the "stop film" buttons as you have to go back and stop the film instead of back button if left on it will flash now playing. I'm sure this kills power in freeze form especially with you thinking you have stopped the film?

The best things about the Storm are the ease in which I can view my email accounts and set them up so quickly! Great functionality to essentially what a Blackberry should be doing!

The keyboard took some time to get used to, but as time goes by it is the user that adapts especially if you have fat fingers you say!

She only badly frozed on me when trying to watch other formats the struggling part was to continue the movie when paused. The other time it had problems was when the browser was engaged, but 3G is quick very quick indeed.
The WiFi vs 3G is not an issue at those speeds on the move the 3G is adequate enough.

The GPS or Vodafone find and go is fantastic due to me wanting to buy a new Tom Tom this is sufficient for me to find where I need to go at ease it struggled to find GPS one time out of 10 the PDA I had was much worse than this by far! Would like Tom Tom to apps but conflicts with Vodafone’s revenues I'm guessing?

Conclusions:
I like it, its not too heavy on the gizmos and still retains the functionality of emails and organiser for me.
Top tip do not load all apps if you want a quick BB I've only loaded what I need on the move it helps mem and power consumptions.
Wish to be fixed:
Much more wide formats compatibility this would increase the usage and increase market users as a media function it does perform well!
Themes and larger internal Mem at least 2GB instead of the 900MB as standard.
Gaps on the touch screen not consistent could be formed a tad tighter you can see little white LED’s behind the panel.
Battery & Buttons on the bottom, a bit more life in the battery pack and more ruggedness from the buttons, as they feel like they can be lifted clean off if caught on anything!

I’ll update anything that I have missed later!
Thanks for reading.
Jay