Blackberry Storm 9500 Review

The Blackberry Storm 9500 is promising to be one of the best in the touchscreen market today. The phone comes with solid messaging capabilities which have made Blackberry a leader in the phone industry. The storm also promises to make your mobile experience a fun one with a host of multimedia features as well.

The phone comes out competitively priced and is the first phone from Blackberry to support a touchscreen feature. The Storm is quite bulky and overweight compared to other phones in its class. It certainly takes a lot of space in the pocket and quite a load to handle. The phone however overcomes this with soft edges and better grip.

The Blackberry Storm’s strong point is its display. The 3.25 screen is bright and crisp for a phone which is the first of its kind from Blackberry. Like its counterparts the phone comes with an accelerometer allowing you to view images in landscape or portrait form. Another notable feature is Surepress which allows the user to experience positive feedback.

Working with the touchscreen is smooth. Keys and buttons are easy to access and clearly identified. Toggle the touchscreen by gentle taps or quick clicks. The QWERTY keyboard can be viewed in landscape and portrait mode. Navigating with the touchscreen demads a little bit of practice however. Applying a gentle pressure is needed to insure that the proper button or key is pressed. Srolling though web pages can sometimes be frustrating with a less than user-friendly interface.

The Blackberry Storm comes with Bluetooth and 3G/HSDPA. It is quite disappointing that although the storm is marketed as a 3G and smartphone it lack WiFi support. This may prove to be its undoing as more and more smartphones has been featuring WiFi technology as a standard for high-end and mid-range phones.

A 3.2 auto focus camera comes with the phone. It supplies the phone with 2x digital zoom and together with a flash provides decent image capture. The Storm has a 128 mb memory card and additional 1GB internal storage. External memory could be expanded to 16GB allowing for improved storing capacity.

The Blackberry Storm is definitely a business phone. It comes with excellent messaging and communicating tools. Viewing office documents such as word and excel files are a breeze with the Storm. Keeping in tough with friends and business partners is easy. Phone book capacity is only limited by storage. Calling features include voice activated dialing, smart dialing, speed dial, speakerphones and standard SMS and MMS messaging.

The phone comes with a full HTML web browser. View the web through your internet explorer or firefox browser. The phone allows multiple ways of web viewing. Surf through different modes, going to links is easy with just clicking or pointing your cursor over it. The Storm certainly shows some great improvements in Blackberry’s web surfing experience but still lags behind its rivals.

Multimedia experience is limited but this represents a shift in how Blackberry’s are marketed. The Blackberry Storm still shows its business lineage. The phone still ranks high as a smartphone and business phone. It has certainly attracted some people looking for an iPhone alternative. Bugs and shortcomings especially its lack of WiFi ability does not help it from delivering its full promise.

UPC	520
Brand	RIM BlackBerry
Model	RIM BlackBerry Storm 9500
Battery Type	Li - Ion
Battery Capacity	1400 mAh
Battery Talk Time	5.50 hours
Standby Time	360 hours
GSM Bands	850/900/1800/1900
CDMA Bands	N/A
Operating System	BlackBerry OS
OS Version	4.7
Processor	N/A
Memory	128 MB RAM / 192 MB ROM
Unveiled on	8 Oct 2008
Display Type	Color
Display Technology	TFT
Display Size	360 x 480 pixels
Display Colors	65 536
Display Physical Size	3.25 inches
Display Features	Light sensor
Additional Display Type	N/A
Additional Display Size	N/A
Additional Display Colors	N/A
Additional Display Physical Size	N/A
Multiple SIM Cards Support	N/A
Design Form Factor	Candybar
Design of Antenna	Internal
Dimensions	4.43 x 2.45 x 0.54 (111,94 x 61,89 x 13,83 mm)
Weight	5.47 oz (154,23 g)
Global Roaming System	Yes
Accelerometer	Yes
GPS	Yes
TTY TDD Enabled	Yes
Camera and Video Camera Type	Built-in - Immobile
Camera and Video Camera Resolution	3.2 megapixels
Camera and Video Camera Video Capture	Yes
Camera and Video Camera Flash	Yes
Camera and Video Camera Features	Auto focus
Camera and Video Camera More	N/A
Camera and Video Video Playback Protocols	MPEG4, WMV, H.263, H.264
Camera and Video Video Playback Features	N/A
Connectivity Data More	GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA 1.8 Mbit/s/HSDPA 3.6 Mbit/s/HSDPA 7.2 Mbit/s/HSUPA
Data Max Speed	N/A
Internet Browsing Protocols	N/A
Internet Browsing Features	HTML Browser
Infrared Port	N/A
Bluetooth Version	2.0
Bluetooth Profiles	Headset (HSP)/Handsfree (HFP)/Dial-up networking (DUN)/Serial Port (SPP)/Advanced Audio Distribution (A2DP)/Audio/Visual Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)/Phone Book Access (PBAP)
Bluetooth Features	N/A
Wireless LAN Type	N/A
USB Type	microUSB
USB Version	USB 2.0
Proprietory	N/A
SyncML	N/A
Computer Synchronization	Yes
HeadSet Jack 2 5mm	N/A
Head Jack 3 5mm	Yes
TV Out	N/A
External Antenna	N/A
Pop Port	N/A
Full Keyboard	N/A
Touch Screen	Yes
Side Keys Left	Convenience key
Side Keys Right	Volume keys, Camera key
Predictive Text Input Support	Yes
Predictive Text Input Type	N/A
Memory Expansion Slot Type	microSD/microSDHC
Memory Built in	1 GB
Message Text Send Receive	Yes
Message EMS	N/A
Message MMS	Yes
Message Instant Messaging More	Yes
Message Instant Messaging Services	N/A
Message E mail Protocols	IMAP/POP3/SMTP/Microsoft Exchange/Lotus Domino
Message E mail Features	N/A
Music AND Audio Music Player Protocols	MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA
Music AND Audio Music Player Features	N/A
Music AND Audio Radio	N/A
Music AND Audio FM Transmitter	N/A
Voice Dialing	Yes
Voice Commands	Yes
Voice Recording	Yes
Voice Speaker	Yes
Voice VoIP	N/A
Regulatory Approval SAR Head	N/A
Regulatory Approval SAR Body	N/A
Regulatory Approval SAR Measured in	N/A
Polyphonic Rings Voices	32
Notifications Polyphonic Rings Features	MP3 ringtones
Vibration Alert	Yes
Alarm	Yes
Calendar	Yes
Calculator	Yes
TO DO	Yes
Stopwatch	N/A
Flashlight	N/A
Organizer Other	Notes
Document Viewer Support	N/A
Document Viewer Supported formats	N/A
Book Features	Capacity depends on system memory
Book Capacity	N/A
Book Multiple Numbers Per Contact	Yes
Book Picture ID	Yes
Book Ring ID	Yes
Personalization Faceplates	N/A
Personalization Profiles	Yes
Games	Yes
JAVA Profile	N/A
JAVA Configuration	N/A
Wireless LAN Support	N/A
Messaging E mail More	N/A
Software JAVA Support	N/A
Connectivity Internet Browsing Support	N/A
Connectivity Bluetooth Support	N/A
Connectivity USB More	N/A
Battery Talk time 3G	N/A
Battery Stand by time 3G	N/A
Battery Video call time	N/A
Battery Music playback	N/A
Battery Video playback	N/A
Battery Gaming	N/A
Battery GPS usage	N/A

RIM packs functionality and entertainment into the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, its first touchscreen phone. Like many other touchscreen phones, the Blackberry Storm has an on-board accelerometer to switch from portrait to landscape mode or vice versa, but unlike other touchscreens, the Storm offers SurePress Technology, which alllows you to use the entire screen as one big button, creating an unique, one-of-a-kind interactive user experience. The Storm offers two virtual keyboards -- the Full QWERTY keyboard for long messaging and editing documents and the SureType™ keyboard, as found on the BlackBerry® Pearl™, for sending quick texts. As with all Blackberry devices, The Blackberry Storm features great corporate and web-based email functionality and also comes with the ability to view and edit Microsoft Office documents out of the box. Storage is not a problem, as the Blackberry Storm comes with a 8GB MicroSD memory card and is expandable up to 16GB. Use the extra storage for photos, music, documents, or even videos. Streaming is fast on Verizon's 3G data network and, with Verizon's V CAST Music service, you can download music straight onto your phone. An Enhanced HTML Web Browser and the ability to pan and zoom on web pages make surfing the web intuitive. Preloaded editing Software for Microsoft® Word, Excel® and PowerPoint® Files further enhances the Blackberry Storm's functionality. The Storm's built-in GPS supports VZ Navigator for spoken turn-by-turn directions. Other features include a 3.2 megapixel camera/camcorder with 2x zoom, stereo Bluetooth, and quad-band GSM for use all over the world.