Blackberry - Storm Cell Phone Review

Bottom-Line: The BlackBerry Storm 9530 may take some getting used to, but as a business messaging platform it excels like no other, including Windows Mobile and iPhone handhelds.    

The BlackBerry Storm 9530 is a multi-frequency broadband (3G) handset that offers anytime/anywhere access to corporate (and personal) e-mail, contacts, calendar information, a Web browser, broadband, and a full touch-screen QWERTY keyboard.  And oh, yes, it makes calls as well.

In addition to the above mentioned feature-set the black BlackBerry Storm offers a beautiful high resolution color 480x360 TFT touch, light-sensing LCD screen; Bluetooth wireless technology and polyphonic ring-tones, all bundled in a sleek, lightweight, and stylish handset.  Other features of the unit include a 3.2MP digital camera, built-in GPS, a media player, a calendar, contact list, a memo pad, an alarm clock, a calculator and a plethora of other useful applications; pretty standard fair for today's technology rich smart-phones. 

The Storm, which ships with 128MB of flash memory and 1GB of on-board RAM takes full advantage of Verizon's Wireless' 3G high-speed data network.  But the Storm is truly a world phone capable of taking full advantage of a broad spectrum of cellular networks across North America (850/1900MHz GSM/GPRS), Europe & Asia (900/1800MHz GMS/GPRS), as well as Dual-Band (800/1900MHz) CDMA/Ev-DO, and UMTS/HSPA: 2100MHz.      

The Storm excels at its chief functional queue: that is delivering business-class messaging functionality to the palm of my hand anywhere, anytime.  My Storm is connected to our corporate network via a BlackBerry Enterprise server and the Verizon Network.  Emails are delivered in a timely manner-in some cases even before they hit my Outlook inbox, and synchronization between the device and my calendar is seamless.  And with the newest version of RIM's BlackBerry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange I can even lookup employees in the Exchange Global Address List! Sweet!  Can an iPhone do that?

Problems or Dislikes     

There isn't a whole lot not to like about the BlackBerry Storm 9530, but there are a few things.  The Storm was design so that the screen can be viewed horizontally or vertically, depending on how you turn the device.  The switch in orientation should take place rather seamlessly; it doesn't most of the time.  There is notable delay in the hand-off between the two orientations and sometimes the Storm gets confused and goes right when you want it go left, so to speak. 

At first this quirk was annoying, but I have gotten used to it.  But it is a quirk my friends and business associates who own iPhones are quick to point out, they do not suffer from.

Typing on the touch-screen QWERTY keyboard can prove problematic as well, because invariably my fingers strike the wrong key and navigating backward through a sentence has proved challenging to say the least.  But I am getting the hang of it.        

My Viewpoint

All-n-all I am very satisfied with the performance of the BlackBerry Storm 9530.  Out of all the BlackBerry devices I have used over the last three years I like the Storm the most, despite the quirks I pointed out earlier in the review.  And the Storm far and away outperforms comparably priced Windows Mobile devices like my Moto Q and Palm 700w.

The Storm is small, lightweight, offers outstanding battery life, superior business-class functionality, touch-screen ease, a laudable 3.2MP digital camera with flash, and a class-leading TFT display.  And while the Storm may take some getting used to, in the end it's all good, because the main objective is email, contacts, and calendar access and in this BlackBerry devices have always excelled.