BlackBerry Storm Review

Interface:

The new 4.7 OS is gorgeous to look at, and keeps the same design philosophy as the Bold’s 4.6 OS.  It is basically the same OS found on past devices such as the Curve and Pearl, only with redesigned icons and different input method.  Each application has its own icon, and the users can still arrange, organize and categorize them as they wish.  The menu can be navigated in both portrait and landscape mode.  When in landscape the user always has the full menu, in portrait there is a standby screen with two rows of four semi-transparent icons at the bottom.  There is only one theme preloaded.


In past reviews we’ve lamented the lack of a touchscreen and were never totally sold on the trackball, but unfortunately we got what we asked for.  When holding the device horizontally we especially felt that a trackball would be perfectly placed and useful.  We still feel strongly that RIM devices should utilize a touchscreen, just not at the expense of a physical keyboard and definitely not a clickable one.

As always, simple things are more complicated then they need to be, where complex things are as simple as can be.  Setting up an email, for example, is a wonderful and painless experience.  Changing the volume, not so much.  While the number after the 4. keeps getting higher, the core OS remains basically unchanged which isn’t a good thing.

The performance has noticeably improved after the .75 update, especially in regards to accelerometer performance.  The lag has been reduced greatly as well, though is still present to a small extent.  Had it been like this at launch we most likely wouldn’t have minded, as the speed is on par with previous BlackBerry offerings 90% of the time.  The accelerometer for some reason still lags somewhat when switching to landscape, but in general it now works as expected.  It has not locked orientation on us since the upgrade.  The device on the whole continues to lock now and again; at times it will recover after 10-30s but if not a battery pull is required.  Why RIM didn’t address this before launch we have no idea, but at least they released an update fairly quickly that resolved many of the issues.


Phonebook:

There isn’t anything new about the phonebook, which is a good thing.  It’s as simple and straightforward as ever, and you can store virtually an unlimited amount of contacts.  Each contact can hold three email addresses, two work phone numbers, two home numbers, a mobile, pager, fax and “other” number as well as a space for a BlackBerry PIN number. There is a slot for both a home and work address, as well as dates for anniversary and birthdays. Contacts can be sorted by user definable categories, each entry can have a custom ringer and picture ID, and there is a section for a webpage and notes.


Homescreen contact search has been cut on the Strom.  The keyboard is accessible when in the full menu, but it will not search the contacts by either name or number.  Instead, when you click on any letter it will take you to the phone application.


Voice dialing is handled by Nuance (formally VoiceSignal) and is excellent.  The left softkey is still preprogrammed to activate it, and it is still slightly annoying but the higher button placement leads to much less unintended presses.


Organizer:

Again, nothing is really new here.  Like the phonebook, the calendar function is very robust. It can be managed either on your phone or on your PC, and when paired to a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) it can be remotely managed and synced over the air. Creating an appointment is simple, and options such as reminders and recurrence are present. Appointments can also be marked as private for added security.

Other basic PIM functions are available, such as Tasks and a Memo Pad. Tasks is very basic, but reminders can be set and they can also be grouped into categories. The Memo Pad is a basic notepad, no bells and whistles. A Voice Note Recorder is present for taking notes on the go, and a basic calculator is also available.