[robotkiller]

Loved the curve, but decided to take the plunge on the storm. I have to say, I thought I was insane after reading all the negative feedback, but I did it anyway. I thought I'd contribute to provide other fence-sitters some good news.

I am a post-doc medical fellow and use the phone as my primary phone, for push email and for the internet in a pinch. Don't have a real need for video or music in a phone. I decided to switch b/c I am a gadget freak.

The phone is pretty great so far. It's not as fast as the curve, but that's not a deal breaker.

The keyboard is an adjustment, but I've been making a concerted effort to get used to it - learning that the best way to hold the device is with my thumbs positioned in the middle of the screen has helped tremendously. Still not as fast with typing on the Curve, but good enough. I will get faster with time.

The OS lags very slightly - but it's not nearly as bad as the display models. Every display model I've ever used has been a complete piece of junk. This cannot be overstated. The display models are not representative. Overall, the speed is completely adequate and doesn't hamper productivity at all. That said, it would be nice if it was fast as the Curve.

The screen is beautiful - far superior to the Curve.

The camera image quality is vastly better than the Curve, which has a worse camera than my two year old LG (and my four year old Samsung)


Four complaints so far:

1 - I wish there was a way to quickly access contacts with a qwerty keyboard in the phone section when the phone is vertical. It's cumbersome to have to click the contacts button, rotate the phone, position the cursor in the finder box and then type the person's name. Might have to change my habits and learn to just scroll more effectively.

2 - I wish they had included a small pearl trackball. This would be super helpful for browsing. Now I have to zoom in to click on hyperlinks which wastes a tremendous amount of time. A trackball would help in so many other ways, I'm surprised they didn't include one - it would have really made the phone stand apart from the iPhone.

3- I wish the phone wouldn't default to a screen with a button for speakerphone when connected. I've accidently activated speakerphone when talking a few times and it's annoying

4- Not Mac friendly. Big complaint and a ridiculous oversight.

Otherwise, I love the phone so far. Despite the complaints, I find the phone fun to use and it really satisifes that gadget itch. It's beautifully made and tremendously powerful. There is definitely room for improvement, but this is a very cool phone otherwise and more productive for me than an iPhone, which always struck me as more of a fancy iPod.

So for those reading who are considering switching - it's not all doom and gloom

[xpg68]

Glad your happy, Yeah it doesn't sync well with my mac either. Missing sync is suppose to be the app that makes it sync perfect although I couldn't get it to work right.

[bubbatech]

Robotkiller,

I agree with your remarks. I have two medical fellows working in my lab, but they are not gadget freaks like you, alas. Have you tried to use the browser with Pubmed? So far, it has not worked very well, but I have not fooled with the browser settings for that site yet.

[Shanicenicolle]

3- I wish the phone wouldn't default to a screen with a button for speakerphone when connected. I've accidently activated speakerphone when talking a few times and it's annoying

TalkLock™ (BETA) Touch Screen Lock for BlackBerry� Storm™

works well for me so far. =]

[robotkiller]

Robotkiller,

I agree with your remarks. I have two medical fellows working in my lab, but they are not gadget freaks like you, alas. Have you tried to use the browser with Pubmed? So far, it has not worked very well, but I have not fooled with the browser settings for that site yet.

I tried using it briefly. It wasn't too successful, but I wasn't terribly surprised either - I have relatively low expectations for a cell phone browser.

[S3th13]

How long have you had it? It took me 4 weeks for the gadget hysteria to fade away before the light bleed on the buttons, dust under the screen, slightly laggy OS, and quirky accelerometer have started to disappoint me.

[robotkiller]

How long have you had it? It took me 4 weeks for the gadget hysteria to fade away before the light bleed on the buttons, dust under the screen, slightly laggy OS, and quirky accelerometer have started to disappoint me.

Not long. A couple of weeks. Typically, when my gadget hysteria fades, I stop caring about all the little details completely. I'm never more critical than when I first get a new toy.

When the iPaqs (remember those) first came out, they had horrible dust under screen issues. I obsessed about that and did all these little hacks to prevent it. All failed. After a couple of months, I stopped caring and just used the damn thing. When I eventually got rid of it, I noticed the thing was filled with dust.