The BlackBerry Storm 2 has landed, folks. The new and improved sequel to the touchscreen emailer has been outed official style, and we’ve just had a first hands-on. Does it make amends for the first bout of bad weather from RIM last year? We’ve got the answers here in our gallery.
We’ll jump straight to the point: the BlackBerry Storm 2 is an immense improvement on the original. Despite apparently few changes on the surface, from our first play, we were bowled over by the speed of the BlackBerry Storm 2. Gone are the bugs and the delay while typing: in their place are scrolling and swiping that works, and a new SurePress keyboard with auto correction which allows for you to roll over keys and prepare for the next push. It takes a bit of a learning curve, but the word count you can reach on a BlackBerry Storm 2 is a big leap up.
Build wise, the new shell is much slicker than before. The metal battery cover fits absolutely snugly, and the physical buttons have been merged into the display. We found it a little bit tricky to push the back button as a result, but there’s no doubt it looks nice.
BlackBerry addicts will also be relieved to hear that the BlackBerry Storm 2 packs Wi-Fi along with 3G, and a 3.2MP camera, but really, it’s the software fixes that impressed us most. We’re not going to pretend that RIM’s browser will rival the iPhone or Android’s anytime soon, but little tweaks like SMS message threading to show conversations, and a large email icon to send composed messages all help to shave off time, as does the new SurePress screen when typing.
BlackBerry Storm 2 launching this week
The BlackBerry Storm 2 launches on Vodafone later this month, but you can get a full close up in our gallery right here, and stay tuned for plenty more coverage of RIM’s push email powerhouse – we also got some face time with the new colours of the BlackBerry Curve 8520, white and lilac, so have a look up close to see if these shades of budget BlackBerry are for you too.
Out October | £TBC | BlackBerry and Vodafone
