As usual I got the latest Blackberry to hit the market which was the Blackberry Storm 9530, the touch-screen BB! Well I was extremely excited over the fact that I finally got the cool new blackberry and within 1 day that excitement dwindled down to "Maybe I should go back to my 8830…."
That was just a thought….
After a week of getting to know the phone, and after the 4.7.0.75 update, I’m beginning to like the phone more and more, there are some things that I miss about the regular Blackberry such as the ball or the wheel, which made selecting items and icons much easier, On the Storm, its hard to find the icon you want then let alone selecting the exact item in the list you want…I really think that a ball at the bottom of this device would have made a huge difference in usability.
One of the cool features that I accidentally found was how quickly I can search for all the emails from a certain sender…how? just select the email you want and click – and hold it down for 3 seconds and it quickly displays a list of all emails from that sender. Thats cool for quick organization.
You can also search for all emails by Subject as well (from the menu) so finding the emails in the thread of conversation is quite easy.
I did uninstall VZ Navigator as everyone said that removing this application speeds up the device….I really haven’t noticed a real big difference, but I can reinstall it anytime from the Verizon Downloads store.
I did run across a incredibly crazy bug that I also read has affected other people as well, let me explain as I think this is a serious, serious bug.
I got a call from my wife and we chatted and hung up. 2 minutes later my Storms caller ID showed shes calling me back again, so I answer "What did you forget?" My friend Arvind " said "nothing, why?" – Whoa!! the Caller ID and the Caller ID picture showed my wife was calling…not my friend Arvind! That’s a real bad bug!
One of the best things I like about the Storm is the Visual Voicemail. This was the holy grail for me, it wasn’t the touch screen, or the new OS (4.7). I sometimes have 10 voicemail’s piled up and now I can skip any number I want and just listen to the latest one, not having to sit and listen to 8 other previous voicemail’s.
If I had to compile a bullet point list of my favorite Blackberry Storm features:
- Visual Voicemail
- Instant Search Sender and Subject
- Camera (both Still and Video) (upload directly to flicker) I wish a software update will allow upload to YouTube
- HTML Emails
- Real HTML Web Browser
- Multimedia Player (a True MM Player)
- All the Instant Messengers built right in. (you can even send a pic directly from camera to an Instant Messenger conversation.
- Updated BrickBreaker!!!!
Now what I dislike about the Blackberry Storm:
- Slow Response time functions I need quickly.
- Buggy Accelerometer – Doesn’t work the way you want it.
- Typing is a bit difficult as I keep hitting incorrect keys, now with that said, I’m a great typer on the iPod Touch, so I know virtual keyboards, Storm is just not 100% there yet.
- When coming out of Holster, you never know which side the orientation is going to be (must be due to buggy Accelerometer)
I know that RIM is committed to updating this as we already have had a update so I’m not worried that I bought a clunker, over time they will make this a awesome phone. GO RIM!!
