Blackberry Storm

A touch-screen BlackBerry? And no keyboard? Silence, you infidel!” I can almost imagine conversations like these happening in hushed whispers until a few months ago.

To its fiercest advocates, the physical keyboard was the last bastion from which they would shower scorn on the iPhone and its inefficient virtual keyboard. And then Research in Motion’s BlackBerry did the unthinkable — it brewed a Storm (almost) with the launch of the keyboard-less, full touch-screen Storm, where typing and navigating require tapping on glass, much like the iPhone and a slew of devices that were launched in its wake.

From a distance, there’s very little that sets the Storm apart from the increasingly crowded field of touch-based devices. It’s black and has (ho-hum) grey and silver accents. Run-of- the- mill stuff really.It’s about as wide as the iPhone, but the added girth around the waist makes it feel way bigger in your hand.

It’s big, surprisingly heavy and a tad on the clunky side. The weight does make it feel robust, and inspires confidence in its ability to take a licking. Even with four dedicated buttons at the base of the screen, you have to keep both hands free — this is most definitely a two-handed phone.

The size affords the Storm a gorgeous 3.25-in (480 x 360) touchscreen, the biggest and highest resolution screen to come with a BlackBerry model. It’s not as stunning as the Bold but it’s punchy and beautiful, and the BlackBerry OS and video look fantastic on it. Almost like holding a personal media player in your hand.

The capacitive touchscreen is fairly responsive, and here’s where the Storm stands out from the rest of the pack. Unlike the feedback-less iPhone and the haptic (vibration feedback) you get with the Nokia 5800 and the Samsung Omnia, the Storm utilises a completely unique “click” technology called SurePress that actually allows you to click the screen down like a mouse button.

Yes, the whole screen is one large button, and clicking it down is much like clicking a laptop mouse button. So, not only can you hover around the screen without actually selecting anything, there’s also the physical sensation of clicking a button when you type or navigate. It’s very well implemented in the hardware — you won’t accidentally press it when you don’t mean to, but you don’t have to hammer it either.

Now, just how usable is this? To answer that, one has to look at the OS that has been bundled into the Storm. Visually very similar to previous devices from BlackBerry, the Storm features version 4.7 of the OS, where the company has added touch functionality to take the place of trackball movements.

Translated, what this means is that unlike the iPhone, the Storm’s UI is not custom built for touch navigation. It’s almost like they’ve packed in touch navigation as an afterthought. The natural flow that has become now almost legendary on the iPhone — flicking and scrolling, pinching and panning — feel inelegant on the Storm. You’re never really fully in control of device, and the occasional lag you experience when using the phone for any serious use reinforces that fact.

So, to answer the question on everybody’s mind — does this phone have a true BlackBerry soul? It’s a BlackBerry, so yes, the Storm is everything you’d expect from one in the e-mail and security department, and the new Application Center is a step in the right direction. More power to certified third party applications, I say.

But for someone who uses their BlackBerry for a lot of e-mail, this is a serious letdown. I hate to say this, but typing is no fun on this device. Even after a number of days of using the device, pushing the screen in over and over requires so much more effort than simply gliding my fingers around a good touch keyboard.

If you’re in love with the BlackBerry keyboard, this will not do. It is downright tiring, even with the excellent onscreen SureType keyboard taking the smarts out of typing in the right word. And my biggest gripe — no WiFi! On a corporate device, that’s a no-no. On a consumer-oriented device, that’s downright suicidal.

If you’re intent on snapping up the Storm, bear the following in mind. You will need to take your time to get to know the Storm, it’s not an easy transition from the previous Berries.

Once you learn how it likes to be rotated, tapped and swiped, learn the shortcuts, only then can you really start to decide whether or not it’s for you. It’s not the average touchscreen device. Also, accept the fact that you may be sacrificing some amount of efficiency for that gorgeous screen and all that multimedia goodness. As long as you realise the Storm is not the ultimate BlackBerry, and there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all-device, you’ll love the Storm.

Quick Specs

• Networks: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, GSM/GPRS networks
• Display: 3.25-in 480 x 360 pixel Transmissive TFT LCD colour display with ambient light sensor
• Data Input/Navigation: SurePress touchscreen, On screen keyboard: portrait SureType and Multi-tap, QWERTY landscape
• Audio: 3.5mm stereo headset capable, A2DP compatible
• Camera: 3.2 MP camera with auto flash, auto focus, 2x digital zoom
• Memory: Expandable memory — Support for microSD card, 1GB onboard memory, 128 MB Flash (flash memory)
• Battery and battery life: 1400 mAhr battery; Standby time: 356 hours, talktime: 6 hours
• Dimensions (H x W x D): 112.5 mm x 62.2 mm x 13.95 mm
• Weight: 155gm
• Rating: 8/10
• Price: Rs 27,990. Available only on Vodafone
•URL:http://www.vodafone.in/existingusers/vbs/pages/blackberry_ind_storm.aspx