Well if you read my last blog you know I was really excited about the HTC Touch Diamond, well a few months later I never got that phone; it came out on Sprint not Verizon like I thought...but it will sometime next year but by then who cares.  Anyway I replaced my want of the Diamond by the very very very hyped BlackBerry Storm (BBS from now on).  Well people have been asking me over and over what I think of the phone because its the hot new item now and hard to get. Well here is my review.

Its a really good phone...it has the best screen I have seen on an American phone. Its like HD but in the palm of your hand…lol… Its a BlackBerry (BB) so the Operating System (OS) is awesome and very easy to use.  But the real question is how does it compare to the Iphone.  The BB OS is better than the Iphone OS but unfortunately this is the slowest blackberry so it does fall short of the Iphone in the speed (as in running apps) department, and a lot of hardcore BB users I know really HATE how slow it runs since most BBs run so fast.  The internet browser on the BBS is better than most phones but nowhere in comparison to the Iphone or Opera mini that comes with new Windows Mobile phones like the Diamond or the Omnia .  The click screen is great.  It may be a change of pace for someone used to a touchscreen phone like the Iphone (so I am sure they won't like it), but if you're used to buttons on a phone (or a QWERTY keyboard) it will feel great to you and it will be much easier to make the switch from a button phone to a touchscreen with the BBS than an Iphone.  The screen isnt as precise as the Iphone but again I think that's due to the slowness of the device.  Sometimes it doesn't respond instantly to your touch so you think you didnt touch the right spot.  The media player is no where close to the ipod on the iphone but its still very good, it plays music, movies, and pictures.  It has a lot of the features that people complained were missing from the first Iphone but since these features are in the Iphone 3G it has a lot to live up to.  The new Iphone app store has really opened up the device and made it so much better than it was a year ago, while most BlackBerry Apps dont work on the Storm and the ones that do shuck,  there are a few that were made by RIM and work great, but these are few and far between (literally there are only like 10 apps).  Also some of the better selling points for this phone from Verizon cost extra.  Namely VZ Navigation (which turns the phone into a Garmen or TomTom like GPS system), and Visual Voicemail (which lets you see your voicemails and decide which ones you want to listen to); they cost $10 and $3 a month respectively to use (fortunately it does come with BB maps which is like google maps just not navigation).  Bottom line in comparing it to the Iphone is it does BB stuff better (email, calendars, documents, etc) but the Iphone is more responsive and does multimedia (pictures, movies, music, internet) better, and thus a better phone.  But it's a great device and if your already on Verizon, which to me is the best network in America, and you're looking for an Iphone alternative smartphone, get this if you like Blackberry's and get the Omnia if you like Pocket PCs (part of me wants to switch to the Omnia since I have had PPCs for 4 years now, but there are aspects of the BB OS I love and don't want to lose).

 

Any questions let me know