BlackBerry Storm
10 NOV 2008
Launch price
from £free
Stuff says
The Storm’s innovative screen, strong feature set and price mean its forecast looks very good indeed
PREVIEW
It may be the master of mobile e-mail, but RIM has always struggled to make its phones as desirable as they are useful. The leather-clad Blackberry Bold was certainly a move in the right direction, but now it may finally have come up with an icon in the form of the Storm, its first touchscreen phone.
Clickable screen
It may feature a multi-touch 3.26in screen, but the Storm isn’t just an iPhone plagiarist – the screen is also clickable. Using SureType tech, the display floats above a button configuration and moves down with your finger presses. This tactile pleasure comes in useful when you’re typing on the virtual QWERTY and should give the Storm an edge over the iPhone.
Cocking a further snoop at Apple’s pride and joy is the Storm’s Flash support, Bluetooth 2.0, video shooting at 30fps and superior 3.2MP camera. And if you weren’t completely convinced, it also syncs with iTunes, although not with DRM’d tracks.
Chunky monkey
Unfortunately, all this prowess comes at a price, which is the Storm’s chunkiness in hand. There’s also the lack of Wi-Fi connectivity, which is clearly to do with Vodafone’s reluctance to lose out on 3G cash. But considering Vodafone’s data packages are some of the best value and speed, we’ll live with super speedy 7.2mbps HSDPA.
Storage wise, you’ll get 1GB onboard with support for up to 16GB card memory. An 8GB card awaits you in the box, which will have you loading it up with tracks to play in the very iPod-esque music player.
Business features
But pinstripe types shouldn’t feel too lost as the Storm is still very much a Blackberry. You’ll find support for Word, Excel and Powerpoint and excellent email functions to complement the greatly improved UI.
As a final swipe at Apple, the Storm is being offered free on Vodafone from £35 a month contract – that’s a tenner a month cheaper than the iPhone.
So if you can handle the lack of Wi-Fi and prefer to keep your phone in your bag rather than your pocket, the Storm looks a strong new contender.
Managed to snag a Storm? Have your say over in the forums...
We’ll have a full review very soon, but in the meantime check out our hands-on blog.
Update (4/11/08): The BlackBerry Storm will be hitting the shops this Friday 7th November –
5 things you need to know about the BlackBerry Storm
BlackBerry Storm hitting stores on Friday
Vodafone outlines BlackBerry Storm price plans
BlackBerry app store gets official