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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost Perfect..., May 5, 2009
I've now come to the conclusion that everybody who wrote reviews on the phone spent about five minutes with the device. Part of me doesn't blame them. If I reviewed electronics for a living, I wouldn't want to spend several days really testing the phone. However, with a cell phone as radically different as the Storm, it is unfair to make these judgments on the keyboard, etc. in haste.
Simply put, the phone is very good. It isn't as breathtaking as I wanted it to be, however it is not nearly as disappointing as many critics want you to think (**cough** New York Times, excuse me). The keyboard is getting easier and easier to use as time goes by. If RIM put a tracker ball at the bottom of the phone where it is on all the other units, then this would in fact be, an iPhone killer. When I look at the phone, there is definitely room for that magical RIM trackball...(can you say Storm2?)
Starting from the top. The phone feels solidly built. It has a good weight to it and feels durable. My only fear is that my propensity for dropping phones will be disastrous for the glass click screen. I'm having bad thoughts about not being able to do anything with the phone because the click activator ceases to work or I'll scratch up that beautiful screen. Three times in the last seven years or so I've had the misfortune of waking up from a night of drinking only to find giant cracks on the LCDs of my phones (can you say insurance? iPhone people can't, and that alone will FOREVER stop me from getting one). Seriously though, I really hope this thing is bomb proof. I have a silicon condom on it, which better keep it safe at night.
I was perplexed when I powered it on for the first time. The phone takes several minutes to reboot. This is a laptop, not a phone, right? Thankfully I only have to reset the phone every so often... Pretty is a good word to describe the design and graphics overall.
The click screen is a trip. It is definitely takes adjustment, but I really dig it. It definitely limits the speed of your typing because you must remain in line with the speed of "The Cadence of the Clicker" (this is the name of my next album). I say that because when you are really going at it, it can create a steady beat like a metronome. This just feels like one of the drawbacks to writing novels on any mobile device. All keyboards have a handicap, but I sincerely miss being able to press to multiple buttons at the almost exact time (as we are accustomed to on a computer keyboard). This system causes you to be a little more accurate because you can't barrel through your letters, so it may be a bonus after all. I also like the SureType keyboard in portrait mode. It uses the predictive text heavily, and it is a great fast type option with one thumb. This mode suffers most from the click limiter because the surface area is far too tight for dual finger typing as tempting as it is.
One of my friends voiced his displeasure with the auto correct function on the text. I find it useful. Just remember if it auto corrects something and you don't like it, immediately hit the DELETE button, and it will revert to your perverted word or innocent typo. His changed the word "f*&^ing" into "ducking." The best way around this is to add these words that you use when frustrated or talking dirty to your lover into the Dictionary. To do so, go to the HOME screen, then choose: OPTIONS-CUSTOM DICTIONARY. Now hit the BlackBerry button and select NEW.
I've also heard that the VZNavigator and Visual Voicemail programs should be removed to speed up the performance of the phone. After all, who is going to pay $10 and $3/month for such frivolous features? What I was jazzed to see is that Google Maps' triangulation feature was not disabled here as it was on my i760 and Treo. This means that it will show your approximate location on the map for free. It is a nice feature to get you partially orientated at no cost (just keep in mind it is using cell towers to locate you, so you must have service for it to work, which is not the case with true GPS/VZNav).
The media player is good. It is not an iPod, but it has a great search feature, and is intuitively laid out. The resolution on the screen is better than the iPhone and video looks GREAT. The included headphones sound great and the speakerphone gets extremely loud, however it is very tinny sounding and has an over modulated feel when at high volumes.
The icing on the cake is that I am not utilizing the BlackBerry Corporate server, therefore, I do not have to pay for BlackBerry data access. I am now paying only $29.99 for data where I was paying $44.99 on my Samsung for the exact same unlimited data/email service. With this savings, my Storm will pay for itself in 14 months of service!
The device lock is good. You can either hit the button on the top left of the phone, or you can use the "Lock" button in your home menu. I'm peeved at how the Mute/un-Mute button still functions while the device is locked. I've had the phone suddenly start playing "Rise Against" over the speakerphone (which can get pretty damn loud) at times that I wished it hadn't. I understand that it is to let you control your music without unlocking the device, however I always saw locking as the way to prevent your phone from doing strange things in the privacy of your pocket/holster without your permission. FIX: just lower your media playback volume all the way to silent.
The ringer alerts are one of the best features on the phone. I can't be happier in this department. This puts every phone I've ever seen to shame (I don't know if all BBs do this, this is my first). You can select from a plethora of options including: Normal, Loud, Medium, Vibrate Only, Silent, All Alerts Off, and my personal favorite Phone Calls Only (all with the touch of a button). I'm used to an all or nothing world, or having to go into individual menus and make these decisions (time consuming/annoying? Yes). Furthermore, the alarm will sound in any mode other than All Alerts Off.
Where the Storm crushes the iPhone is in the folder organization possibilities on the home page. Where the iPhone only allows you to move your applications around, the Storm lets you create folders to keep everything organized as if it were a computer desktop. I absolutely love this ability because I'm very big at keeping things `tidy.'
I'm also a fan of how the screen fades down instead of cutting out when it is time to turn off. This is great because it reminds you that you have to do something to the device if you don't want the image to go away completely.
Some tips:
To get IMAP to work with GMAIL, follow the instructions here: http://forums.crackberry.com/f86/storm-gmail-imap-99071/
Don't waste your time like I did, just go directly to this website as per the forums instructions: https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=vzw
I was concerned that there was a charge to using this service (because I'm not utilizing Verizon's BlackBerry email service), but there isn't.
To copy and paste, you simply hold down one finger where you want to start, and then drag along with another to where you want it to end.
When entering text, if you spell something so terribly wrong that its suggestions aren't helpful, then the best thing to do is just delete the entire word. This is frustrating. It doesn't allow you to fix your mistake because when you click on a part of the word it makes you chose from the suggested list. I wish there were a way around this. Nevertheless, if you just give up, then you can move on without losing any more hair.
I can't properly sync my phone with my Mac given the software they include and the USB cable. However, thanks to Google's amazing Sync application, I do all of my syncing wirelessly as often as I wish. YOU MUST DOWNLOAD THIS PROGRAM!
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51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I compared Apple iPhone 3Gs and Android phones to Blackberry Storm 1 & Storm 2, April 27, 2009
May 4, 2010 I have a love-hate relationship with my Verizon Blackberry Storm 1.
In April 2010, I bought and returned an iPhone from AT&T and a Sprint Google Android phone from Samsung. I also tried out the BlackBerry Storm 2. My story unfolds...
When the antenna on my BB Storm 1 stopped working, my first instinct was to get the Storm 2 from Verizon as a replacement. I checked it out and I was unimpressed. Not much new there, except that it is now Wi-Fi capable. Now, you would think that Verizon Wireless would set up a simple wireless router at their showrooms to show just how fast their phones are, but Verizon is not that smart. Anyway, the Storm 2 is just as pathetic as the Storm 1 when it comes to internet browsing over the network. It's so bad that the Attorneys General of the US should sue them for false advertising. Verizon calls it high-speed internet, but it truly is the speed of dial-up. Remember dial-up? 56K? It takes 30 to 90 seconds to load an average web page. At least it does in the Providence area. And around here, the phone coverage sucks too. At times, I have 5 bars, sometimes I have 3, sometimes no signal at all, and that's all without leaving my house.
I decided to try the iPhone 3Gs and go over to the Dark Side. I LOVED IT! The browser is phenomenal and FAST! Almost as fast as my home computer, whether I was using Wi-Fi or in the car. The phone is much easier to use than the BlackBerry. The signal was ALWAYS 5 bars... EVERYWHERE, even in the hills of Connecticut where my wife's old Verizon phone had maybe 1 bar. Worked great in San Francisco too. But this story does not have a happy ending. The iPhone went back 29 days later.
Although everything about the iPhone gets an A or A+, its calendar reminder system gets a big fat F! I almost missed a class, and I was teaching the class!! The iPhone only tells you about an appointment once. Then you're on your own. I need to be reminded 5 hours out, 2 hours out, 30 minutes out and then every 5 minutes after that, until I say "Dismissed". I looked into fixes and other possibilities. I called AT&T and Apple support and went to the AT&T and Apple stores. Everyone looked at me as if to say "Dude, this is the best phone in the world, your A.D.D. is not the iPhone's problem." One woman told me to set multiple appointments so I would be reminded adequately. My reply was "You want me to clutter my calendar because the iPhone does a terrible job of reminding me of stuff I have to do?" And every person I asked said "Well, I'm sure there's an app for that." The cop-out mantra of iPhone support "There's an app for that." No, there isn't! Well, not unless you call getting sent emails and text messages or an entirely separate reminder app a good solution. Beyond frustrated, I Googled and started reading the forums. I learned that Apple did not open the SDK (the iPhone's architecture) for 3rd party developers. No adequate fix exists for this problem, and apparently it's not even on Apple's radar. In May 2010, they are releasing a major upgrade to the software and snoozing is not part of it. Below I complain that the BlackBerry's task and appointment reminders can only snooze a set amount of time. Oh ma Gah! This is heaven compared to the iPhone.
My other gripe about the iPhone was that it can only do one thing at a time... literally. It's not multi-tasking. If you are listening to Slacker Radio and you get a call or you go to a web page, the iPhone closes the application. When you go back, you start over. The upside is you don't have the nasty memory problems that the Storm used to have, but this was Apple's best idea??? Wow, big brain trust there.
iPhone doesn't have a flash for the camera. If you know anything about photography, you know the more light the better. Pictures without a flash indoors will be dark and/or grainy, even if you edit them after the fact.
Typing on the iPhone was okay, but merely okay.
I have heard that AT&T phone and data coverage is bad in major cities. A lot of young people live in big cities and they all have iPhones, thus the systems are overloaded.
So, to summarize, if you want to be entertained, take photos in broad daylight, and use social media all day long, get an iPhone. If you have actual responsibilities or have A.D.D like me, and you need a true PDA (personal digital assistant), stick with a BlackBerry... any BlackBerry. The iPhone grew out of the iPod -- an entertainment device -- and then they added a phone. BlackBerries started out as business devices and have added entertainment for those rare occasions that business people don't have something else they should be doing. God, I sound old!
Oh, by the way, when people at AT&T say "try the iPhone free for 30 days", they don't mean it. I had to pay a $35 restocking fee AND I had to pay for almost 30 days of phone service. The 2-year contract did not kick in though.
Onto the Android. I tried the Samsung Moment. Its reminder feature was weak. I mean that literally. I didn't hear it. And a bumble bee 10 feet away vibrates my pocket more that that phone. And the Android cannot snooze a task or appointment either, but you can set multiple (I don't know how many) reminders in the calendar appointment, not that you'll hear or feel any of them when they go off.
Oh, and you need to have Google Mail and Calendar to even try the calendar. If I could have checked out reminders in the store, I would have known right away that the Android was not for me. Regular Yahoo Mail accounts do not work with Android at this time. I didn't even try my work email.
The phone functionality of the Android was slow and not well thought out (long story short). Google needs to fix that immediately.
Typing on the Samsung Moment was okay, but merely okay. I may have gotten used to its slide-out keyboard, but I didn't keep it that long.
Sprint's network speed was half of what AT&T's is in Providence and San Francisco. (I live in RI and traveled to San Fran while I had the phone.) Luckily, Sprint's policy is now not to charge a dime if you bring it back within 30 days, but they would not take back the overpriced $40 phone protector.
To wrap up this comparison of the 4 phones, I don't think the BlackBerry Storm 1 is perfect, but it still does most of the things I need it to do and it does those things well enough. Oh, by some stroke of luck, my phone started working again 6 weeks later, so I'm sticking with the Storm 1 for now. If someone knows of a good phone/PDA/push email device that works better, please email me!
There's more details about the BlackBerry Storm 1 below.
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A January 2010 update to the updates below.
#4 Desktop Manager 5.0.1.28 works well with Outlook 2007 on Windows 7.
In January 2010, I bought a new computer with Windows 7. I got a great deal on Microsoft Office 2007, so I installed the new Office. Well, that combination didn't work so well with my ol' reliable BlackBerry Desktop Manager 4.2.2.14. I decided to upgrade to the latest version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager (something I said I would never do). It all works very well together. I was previously running Windows XP and Office 2000.
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This is a Dec 2009 update to my April 2009 review of the Storm 1 (this is not a review of the Storm 2). The numbers refer to my April 2009 criticisms (below the dotted line).
summary: much better since 5.0 operating system released in Oct 2009
#1 The Storm 1 was greatly improved when BlackBerry released the 5.0 operating system. Now I'd have to give the Storm 4 out of 5 stars.
#1B Those sub-second connections to internet pages that they show in the commercials... are still a big fat lie! To call the connection "broadband" is a complete deception perpetrated by Verizon. This is approximately dialup speed minus the wheezing and hissing of a modem. That said, I absolutely love that I can connect to the internet almost anytime/anyplace.
#2 To mitigate the fat-fingering problems I was having with the full QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode, I have been using the SureType keyboard in portrait mode. It's a QWERTY keyboard in 3 rows x 5 columns. What makes it quick and effective is that the Storm starts suggesting words to select after typing in a few letters of the word. I can single-thumb or double-thumb most everything now. To change the keyboard default to SureType, in the options (the wrench icon), choose Screen/Keyboard, then change the Portrait View Keyboard to SureType.
#3 hasn't changed. In April, I forgot to mention that in order to get turn by turn spoken directions, you have to pay Verizon a $10 ransom per month or buy software from Garmin for $100. You can use BlackBerry Maps or Google Maps for free, but it doesn't talk to you.
#4 Synchronization works well with Desktop Manager 4.2.2.14 (released April 26, 2007). It doesn't have the niceties that the current release has, but it actually works, unlike more recent releases. On several occasions, I spent an entire DAY upgrading to "the latest and greatest" only to have to uninstall it and then install 4.2 again. This happened more than once on the advice of Verizon technicians who don't know nearly as much as the RIM techs. I will be using Desktop Manager 4.2 until the day this phone dies. Fool me once, shame on Verizon. Fool me twice (and then a third time), shame on me. There will be no fourth time.
#5 phrase selection has been vastly improved, but still isn't great. It would be really helpful if double-clicking would highlight a...
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
5-Stars...but be careful when buying to check a few things!, May 6, 2009
All in all I am VERY satisfied with this phone! I have not found it to be slow at all. In fact in a side by side test, it loads web pages and apps much faster than my daughters iPhone. Also, I have not had any of the syncing issues described in other reviews (although I'm using a PC, not an Apple).
Some have said they don't care for the clickable screen. I REALLY like it! Although my fingers aren't huge they arn't tiny either and the QWERTY keyboard works for me just fine (although I'd definitly recommend landscape mode when typing). I have noticed that the more you use the typing feature the more you get a "feel" for typing on the virtual keyboard.
My only issue with this phone was getting a well built unit. The first phone I bought had some kind of contaminant under the glass of the screen. Phone#2 had a bad mic, Phone#3 had a problem "clicking" on one edge of the screen. I'm on phone#4 currently and I think this one is a winner (knock wood). I will say that Verizon switched out the phone each time, no questions asked and sincerely wanted me to be happy with my purchase.
Minor complaints (not strong enough to deduct a Star):
1. Music data (album name, artist, etc...) should be editable on the device, instead of just on windows before you transfer the song over.
2. The data displayed while a song is playing does not appear to be configurable.
3. Hoping for a 32gb SD card option although 16mb is probably fine.
4. Agree with the previous review re:placement of the sd card. It would have made more sense to put it on the outside somewhere to make it easier to swap out.
Overall, I would highly recommend this phone and would advise that one just be picky to make sure your phone doesn't have any functional issues.
Don
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