The first Blackberry came out onto the market in 1999, heralding the dawn of the convergence device. The Blackberry (before Blackberry Phones was originaly intended as a complicated pager. But its local messaging system was so effective it earned a rapid cult following to such an extent that Webster’s New World School Compendium named “crackberry” the “New Word of the Year”. RIM’s latest BlackBerry, the Storm, is a try to un-king the mighty iPhone, which appears to have a grip on being the #1 selling mobile telephone. The Storm’s partner on this is Verizon, as it is being offered as part of Verizon Phones, who is still reeling from its mistake of turning down Steve Jobs’ iPhone (Verizon as a carrier). If Verizon is attempting to make amends for missing the iPhone, it’s at least heading in the correct direction. The Storm has a widescreen touchscreen graphical user interface that provides much of the same features as the iPhone, but with some enhancements for the touchscreen display. The outcome of these betterments are mixed. Not like the normal keyboard, the onscreen buttons are not able to keep up with terribly fast typing. Those used to the classic Blackberry “thumbing” may not be in a position to send off messages with equal speed or accuracy.
The clickthrough interface needs a good bit of practice if you want to become accustomed to pushing the touch-sensitive screen down until there’s a click, in complete contrast to the seamless interactivity offered by the iPhone.
Similarly, since your finger is on it, the blue highlight that displays confirmation of the active status of a given button is active is hard to see.
So Whether it’ll go down in history as a design fluke or an all out error, is yet to be seen. Last and perhaps least of all, this Blackberry also doesn’t offer the predictive spelling aid functions available with the iPhone. If you are a bad speller, the Blackberry won’t offer you much of a safety net. The browser renders HTML quickly and thoroughly, utilizing context-sensitive page-dragging features that enable you to navigate any given webpage. The sole gripe here is that form fields are a little troublesome to fill out. Though the browser earned high praise, the absence of Wi-Fi on the telephone is quite the mystery. Though Verizon’s EV-DO coverage is wonderful, there are tons of circumstances where Wi-Fi would have been quite useful. As for the robust, commercial design, Blackberry gets the thumbs up.
The benefit of discarding the tactile keyboard and trademarked trackball behind is a faster, flatter, three.25 in. shiny glass face. Four familiar Blackberry keys lie at the base of the telephone, and they are: Telephone , Menu, Back, and End / Power. The telephone also comes supplied with a mini USB key and 3.5 millimeter head phone jack. One possible drawback of the design – is the issue of whether metal construction is superior to plastic. The phone is joined with the even so wonderful Verizon (for cellular service coverage) will keep the Storm well positioned in the race to cell phone king.
