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BlackBerry Storm review

The BlackBerry Storm this is a sleek-looking phone with lots of impressive features, like its sharp display and clickable touch screen. RIM designed this phone as a direct competitor to Apple's iPhone, but the BlackBerry Storm falls a little short.

The BlackBerry Storm will be available from Verizon Wireless on November 21, and will cost $250 when you sign a new two-year service agreement. You'll also be eligible for a $50 mail-in rebate, but that rebate comes in the form of a debit card, not cash.

Design
The Storm is beautiful. It's slightly shorter than an iPhone, but a tad wider and thicker. Like the iPhone, the Storm is shiny black with silver edging, and its face is dominated by its 3.2-inch touch screen. Beneath the screen, you get four buttons: a send key, an end key, a BlackBerry menu key, and a back key.

PROS: The clickable touch screen is the Storm's headline grabbing feature, and I like it. The screen glows blue when you touch an item (such as a key on the on-screen keyboard or an on-screen button); you then press down on the touch screen just as if you were typing. The screen will click and it actually does feel like you're really typing, and you know that your touch has registered. Like the iPhone, the Storm has an accelerometer, which changes the orientation of the screen's contents when you rotate the phone.

CONS: The blue glow that lets you know you're about to hit the right key is very helpful, because some of the menu buttons and keys feel small and scrunched together. I also found the Storm's menu system a bit cluttered and confusing: It's organized into folders and icons that are easy to browse, but some of them seem to duplicate one another. For example, you get a folder called "Applications" and an icon labeled "Application Center." You also get a folder called "Downloads." It's not always clear what you'll find in each folder. The iPhone forgoes a folder system for simple icons: Each of the phone's functions gets its own button, which makes it easy to find what you're looking for.

Making Calls
PROS: Accessing the phone features is a breeze, and--for the most part--voice quality was very good on the Storm. I found the phone comfortable to hold during calls.

CONS: The volume was bit low; I had to set the Storm's volume to its highest level to hear callers clearly when there was any background noise. I also found the clickable touch screen to be slightly problematic when I held the Storm to my ear: It's actually quite easy to accidentally press it with your cheek. I did this a couple of times, and it ended up muting my calls.

Browsing the Web
PROS: Web pages look great on the Storm's crisp, clear screen, and it's a breeze to zoom in and out on pages using the handy buttons at the bottom of your browser window. You get support for Verizon's 3G EVDO network, which delivered speedy surfing in my tests.

CONS: The Storm lacks support for Wi-Fi networks, so you have to rely on the availability of the 3G network to speed up your Web access. And while the browser offers handy buttons for zooming in and out on Web pages, it lacks dedicated forward and back buttons. You can use the hardware back button below the screen to move to previously-viewed Web pages, but none of the buttons seemed to work as a forward button.
Messaging

PROS: BlackBerry phones are messaging champs, and the Storm is no exception. It will access 10 personal and business e-mail accounts, and virtually all types are supported. Another bonus: The Storm lets you view and compose e-mail messages with the phone held horizontally--unlike the iPhone, whose e-mail app only works when the phone is held vertically.

CONS: It's a good thing you can rotate the phone, because when it's held vertically, the onscreen keyboard uses the SureType format, which puts two letters on each key. I've never been fond of the SureType format--I find that it dramatically slows down my typing--and I found it even more cumbersome on the touch-screen keyboard. I also found the Storm's on-screen keyboard a bit confusing when I was trying to send a text message: Rather than present you with a numeric keypad when you're typing in the "to:" field, the Storm gives you a letter keyboard. You can press a button to access the numeric keypad, but after each number, it defaults back to the letter screen. So entering a 10-digit phone number is painstaking.
Software

PROS: The Storm comes with Verizon's VZNavigator, Visual Voicemail, and the Standard Edition of DataViz Documents To Go, which allows you to view and edit (but not create) Microsoft Office documents. You also get access to the Application Center, which will evolve into a store that allows you to browse through and download software to your phone.

CONS: The Application Center has only a few apps available right now, including Flickr, Facebook, and several instant messaging clients.
Multimedia

PROS: The 3.2-megapixel camera features a flash and autofocus. It also captures video. It took some excellent snapshots and I found it easy to use. It's definitely a step up from the iPhone's 2-megapixel camera. You also get a decent music and video player that support a variety of formats.

CONS: The Storm doesn't seem to support Verizon's VCast Music service just yet. This is a shame, as the VCast Music with Rhapsody service is one of the better cell phone music services I've seen.

The BlackBerry Storm takes the excellent messaging capabilities of the BlackBerry Bold and combines them with the slick touch-screen design of an iPhone. But the Storm doesn't shine as brightly as either of those phones. Still, it's an innovative phone with a lot going for it--especially if you like the Verizon Wireless network.

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