With the BlackBerry Storm, RIM has pushed its iconic email phone head long into the touchscreen tea cup. Giving us the amusing – if slightly obvious – reference, the Storm in a teacup. Sorry. We’ll get on with the review now.
BlackBerry has whacked a 3.2-inch touchscreen on the Storm, and given it our old friend Haptics. Remember him? He’s the vibration feedback you get when you press the screen. And that screen, admittedly, does look fantastic with images and videos looking sharper than a barber’s cutthroat. That said, having to “push” the display means it’s slower than say, the iPhone for texting and emailing. But wasn’t that always BlackBerry’s forte? The Storm’s user interface, though, is still pretty slick, with icons appearing large and loud on the screen for you to prod at.
Elsewhere, the Storm – unlike Robbie Williams – is an able entertainer. It has the ability to support a variety of formats such as MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA files and MPEG4 videos, and audio quality is pretty tidy for both calls and music. The camera, too, is pretty decent at 3.2-megapixels. Although, low light shots can be grainier than a loaf of wholemeal bread. While you can forgive the Storm’s shortcomings in the camera department, the lack of Wi-Fi for home networking and high-speed downloads is almost unforgivable.
So, while this isn’t in the iPhone’s or Nokia 5800′s league, it is in the division just below. And with RIM’s ever-expanding App World offering more applications to download daily, it’s still a decent proposition.
