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BlackBerry Storm on Vodafone Review

Author	Riyad Emeran
Published	3rd Dec 2008
Manufacturer	Research In Motion
Supplier	Vodafone
Price	Free on £40 tariff
Latest Price	Click here

Design
Features
Performance
Value
Overall

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There's a built-in GPS, which is pretty much par for the course these days. You have the option of using BlackBerry Maps or Vodafone Find and Go, but if you've got any sense you'll do exactly what I did and download Google Maps the first chance you get. As with the Bold, Google Maps works very well and very fast. Strangely, the double tap doesn't zoom in on Google Maps the way it does on web pages, and although the zoom in/out icons in the bottom left of the screen work well enough, they're still no substitute for the pinching in/out method on the iPhone.

Since this is the first touchscreen BlackBerry it comes as no surprise that it's also the most accomplished when it comes to media playback. The music player is very good indeed - OK, so it's not quite as slick as the iPhone, which is basically an iPod touch, but it's the best I've seen on a non-Apple phone. You get full screen album art, with basic playback controls along the bottom - the Mute button on the top of the device also doubles as a Play/Pause button, so it's easy to stop playback without having to take the Storm out of your pocket. Hitting the Menu button brings up a plethora of useful options like Shuffle, Repeat and my personal favourite, Set As Ringtone. The Storm is also happy to stream its music to a Bluetooth receiver, which is handy since you get one of these in the box. The small, square receiver is nicely unobtrusive - it's powered via its mini-USB port, and has a 3.5mm jack so you can connect it up to a pair of speakers or your hi-fi.

Video playback is also good, with the screen put to good use in landscape mode. Whether you think that a device this size is suitable for watching video is a personal thing, but if you're happy with the iPhone or iPod touch, then you'll be just as happy with the Storm. YouTube is also well integrated into the Storm, and if you're the type that wastes many hours trawling YouTube, you'll be able to make the most of any long journeys. The fast HSDPA data rate means that you really can stream video to the Storm anytime and anyplace. It's also a blessing not to have to use iTunes to get media content on and off the Storm - my second biggest annoyance as an iPhone user is having to use iTunes, with the first being the appalling signal strength on my first generation unit.

The 3.2-Megapixel can produce surprisingly good images, but getting the best out of it is very hard. Although the camera has a solid auto-focus system, it also suffers from the worst case of shutter lag I've seen in years. It takes four seconds from the point that you press the button, to the point that the shutter sound is heard and the image is displayed. Given, it appears that the image is captured early in the four seconds of "black screen", but it's still hard to gauge exactly when the shot is taken. And shooting anything that's moving is pretty much impossible.

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Gordon said on 10th December 2008

@Francis Phillips - nope, but we saw the potential of the device and now a few weeks later and one firmware update and our points remain valid and the NTY looks rather stupid ;)

Andrew Stephens said on 11th December 2008

Come on you gave this a higher performance rating than the original iPhone ! How can this possibly be ? I think I would give my old psion siena a better rating. I love you guys at ... more

Riyad said on 12th December 2008

@Andrew Stephens - Of course the Storm got a higher performance rating than the original iPhone, since you can actually make phone calls on it. The signal strength for calls on the... more

Andi said on 27th December 2008

I have had this phone for 1 week now and sadly my SIM is back in my faithful Bold. I waited and waited for the release of this phone and was so delighted to finally get my hands on one.... The screen is wonderful, I played with the swiping action and then set about changing my PIN online.... Emails came through just as slick as ever. It all started going wrong when I tried to type, the portrait suretype keyboard was ok but a pain when entering non standard words and I quickly found the little editing trick of touching the keyboard for a few second to get a cursor just above your finger very useful. Too useful in fact as I had to correct almost every word. I use suretype on my wifes Pearl and have no issues with it even with the smaller keys. The landscape standard qwerty is surprisingly worse due to the smaller keys. You have to put your finger directly on top and this is hard to do if you used to a normall BB keyboard where you type with the side of your thumbs. I licked the clicking sensation so struggled on determined to get use to it. Web browsing was great the screen was good. But what about the 3meg camera, press the button to focus the light lights the camera focuses, you press harder to take the picture and then wait for 2-3 seconds before the light lights again and the picture is taken. I have loads of pictures of people walking away !! But the screen, the coolness I will struggle on. Day two - I had my "tunes" loaded only to find that the sound was not as loud as my Bold. I was using the excellent "buds" that came with the Bold as the ones supplied with the storm were not even worth taking out of the box!! Worth 50p at the most, when the Bold ones compare well to my Sennheiser's. Even with the volume boost enabled it was quieter. But still it looks so good and the screen, I struggled on determined to love it! At around 3pm that day when I had listened to music for 50 mins and made a quick 2 min call, the battery warning went! To be followed 30 mins later by BB's "Not enough power for radio use" warning. Maybe if it had a mini USB like all the other BB's I have owned I could have kept it on charge on my desk, but no mini USB instead micro USB, what a waste of 7 BB chargers from previous phones... I had to put my SIM back into my Bold and the first call I made? You guessed it Vodafone 14 day returns... Who offered me all manner of Batteries and chargers to keep it (no doubt becasue of similar calls) , but what is the point of a mobile phone that needs to be tethered by wires. I don't expect a phone to last for days and days, I am happy to charge every night. (especially as BB had a cool bedside feature) I am dissapointed, really dissapointed! I have loved all of my 7 Blackberries. I get teased for being a "crackberry fan boy"! I have been with Vodafone for over a decade and would not be persuaded to move to another network. Its such as shame that the Storm did not live up to the idea behind it. I am sure they will get it right with the Storm 2. But if your thinking of getting one, don't. My Bold has forgiven my little affair and we are reunited once again, Blackberries are all about reliability and typing. The Bold is a much better bet.

I have had this phone for 1 week now and sadly my SIM is back in my faithful Bold. I waited and waited for the release of this phone and was so delighted to finally get my hands on... more

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