TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

BlackBerry's Storm Takes On Touch Phones

ADVERTISEMENT

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 24, 2008

To its fiercest devotees, one of the best things about the BlackBerry is its carefully designed physical keyboard, which the skilled BlackBerry addict can play like a violin. These folks scorn Apple's popular iPhone, whose keyboard is virtual and must be operated by tapping on the screen.

But Friday, Verizon Wireless and Research in Motion, the BlackBerry's maker, did the unthinkable: They introduced a BlackBerry model without a physical keyboard, one where typing and navigating require tapping on glass, just like on the iPhone. This new model is called BlackBerry Storm, and will sell for $250 with a two-year contract, though a $50 mail-in rebate can bring the price close to the $199 that Apple charges for the base model of the iPhone.

Despite its lack of a keyboard, the Storm is a real BlackBerry in every other respect and is also the latest member of the new class of hand-held computers, the super-smart phone category kicked off by the iPhone last year and joined by the Google G1 earlier this year.

The Storm sports a large, high-resolution touch screen that fills most of its surface and automatically switches from portrait to landscape mode when the phone is turned. There's also a forthcoming souped-up download store for third-party software.

However, the biggest innovation in the Storm is a clever feature its maker hopes will give it a big advantage over the iPhone. When you strike a key or icon on the Storm's screen, you feel a physical sensation, as if you were pressing down on a real key or button.

This push-down screen also replaces the side-mounted scroll wheel or track ball on other BlackBerrys for activating menu choices and icons.

But, in my tests, this physical feedback feature, called SurePress, didn't magically turn the Storm's touch interface and virtual keyboard into their physical counterparts.

In my opinion, using the Storm's keyboard is much more like using the iPhone's keyboard than a traditional BlackBerry's.

One glaring deficit in the Storm is that it lacks Wi-Fi capability. This means that, unlike on the Bold, the iPhone or the Google G1, if high-speed cell phone data service is absent or pokey, you can't fall back on speedy Wi-Fi connections in public places.

The Storm has some important advantages over the iPhone. Its screen, while 7 percent smaller physically, offers 13 percent higher resolution. Photos and videos look beautiful on it. It has much better battery life for phone calls.

Also, the Storm has copy and paste functionality, voice dialing and the ability to act as a modem for your laptop. It also allows you to edit Microsoft Office documents. These features are missing from the iPhone out of the box.

Where Verizon's high-speed data coverage is strong, the Storm flies, but because it lacks Wi-Fi, the Storm can be much slower at Web access than its main competitors.

My test Storm, which was a near-final model missing only a few minor software tweaks, was also sluggish at some tasks. It took noticeably longer than the iPhone to flip the first photo from landscape to portrait orientation.

Using the BlackBerry desktop software, I was easily able to synchronize my calendar and contact data, but the Storm doesn't offer wireless synchronization from consumer services, only from corporate servers.

Overall, the Storm is a capable hand-held computer that will appeal to BlackBerry users and offers another good option for anyone looking to buy one of the new, more powerful, pocket computers.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT