A few weeks ago I got a BlackBerry Storm. Several people have asked me to let them know what I think of it. So I'll do that here. I'm not writing this as a review. I'm not going to give it a score. I'm just going to tell you what I like and what I don't like.
As a point of reference: I also have an iPod Touch and an LG enV2. So I know what the most popular touch screen feels like, and I also know what it feels like to type on a really small keyboard. AT&T does not have service where I live, so an iPhone is not an option for me.
The way the Storm works for typing is the touch screen is one big button. You touch the key that you want which highlights that key, and then when you push in the screen it registers as hitting that key. I like the way this feels. When I go back to typing on my iPod it feels funny not having to push in the screen. I know some people think it's extra work, but I like having that tactile feedback. It's definitely less work than it is to type on the enV2, which makes my hands cramp up. The one thing the iPod/iPhone does better is the way that it highlights the key that you're pressing. The storm just makes that key glow. You can see it around your finger, but Apple's method shows you exactly what you're pressing. Once you get used to typing on it, that's not really an issue, as you should know what key you're on based on what key you're next to. That probably depends on how well you know the QWERTY keyboard layout.
In a vertical mode, the Storm uses the same keyboard design that it has on the Pearl. Basically it puts 2 letters on each key. Typing this way works pretty much the same as T9. Once I learned to just trust the auto corrector, I got faster at typing that way than on the Apple keyboard as the buttons are bigger and harder to miss. However, if I do hit the wrong key, I usually have to go back and fix my mistake as the spell checker often can't figure out what I was trying to say in that case.
The web browser isn't as nice as Safari. It displays most pages just fine, but it will not support anything that uses Javascript. Neither Safari nor the Blackberry browser support flash. It usually isn't an issue, but if you want to use Hahlo.com for twitter, you won't be able to on the Blackberry. Also on the Storm, to zoom in, you just click and it zooms in an arbitrary amount. It usually does a good job of trying to zoom in on what you want to see. You don't have as much control as you do with Apple's method of zooming. Now that I think of it, I can't say there's been a time when I really wished for Apple's control of the zoom.
There's also the option of grabbing opera for the Storm. I have it on mine, and I will occasionally try to use it for pages that don't work well in the BB browser. It feels clumsy to me and I don't like to use it for normal web use. Maybe if they create a version of it specifically for the Storm it'll get better.
For email, I have my Storm set up to use the BlackBerry enterprise server for work email, and I also have Gmail installed on it. I really like the Gmail app. It's superior to Gmail on the iPod/iPhone. Especially since you can have it alert you when you have new email. I don't think the iPhone can do that (although I could be wrong). The interface for it is nice, although it takes a few clicks to get to an email that is in another label, but not in the inbox.
The default email client that I use for Exchange email is usable. It does name look ups off of the Exchange database well, which is excellent. Beyond that, it's just an email client. Nothing special about it, nothing really wrong with it.
As an actual phone, I'm not overly impressed with the Storm. I have to be careful when talking on it as my cheek will often acidentally turn on speakerphone. It does come with earbuds that have a mic built in. I don't carry these with me, so I haven't used them. I would think that it would be easier to talk on that way. I have not talked to anyone on an iPhone, so I can't really compare it to that. I'm going to continue to carry a regular cell phone of some kind to use for phone calls. Quick work related calls on the storm are fine, but I wouldn't want to talk to my mother for half an hour on it.
The biggest thing I would like changed on the storm is to make it faster to call someone stored in memory. Speed dial is in a sub menu. From the main menu, it takes 4 clicks to call someone who's number is in speed dial. The individual buttons for this should be bigger too, it's easy to click on the wrong person.
As for twitter, once you turn off compatibility mode, twitterberry is pretty nice. I've been using it and like it quite a bit. It takes a little bit to get used to the navigation of it, but once you do it works well. The one thing I don't like is in the timeline it cuts off longer tweets and makes you click on them to read the whole thing. I put in a request to have an option to let it show the entire tweet in the timeline. If they do this, then I will be a happy camper.
One thing that all Blackberrys do that I really like is they sense if they're in a holster or not. You can set them to vibrate if they're holstered, or ring if they are not. They use magnets to determine if they're holstered. This is a fantastic feature. The holster I had broke after I bumped into something, I need to get a better one. It was off brand so it's not anything against RIM. I really miss having it, and I need to get a new one.
That's basically everything I can think of to say about it. It's a fine device. There's things it does that I really like, and there are a few things that annoy me. I heard someone say once that RIM modified the stock Blackberry interface to work with the Storm, and Apple designed the iPhone's interface specifically for the iPhone. That's a good way to summarize the differences between the two devices.
I'm still carrying all three devices with me most everywhere I go. The iPod is mainly used for music, games, and the occasional web surfing. The Storm is used for web/email/twitter/camera/texting. The enV2 is used for phone calls.
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