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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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Unlike the iPhone, the Storm does feature MMS and video recording, but there's no video calling, since the device doesn't have a front mounted camera. Of course most iPhone users will insist that they don't need MMS and video recording - as always, it comes down to personal need and preference.

But as with all BlackBerry devices, it's the mobile email integration that's a, if not the key feature. RIM has been doing push email for so long now, that the BlackBerry is pretty much synonymous with email in your pocket. The Storm is just as good as any other BlackBerry at accessing your email, and in some ways better. The obvious advantage is the big screen, that makes it easy to read longer emails. But RIM has also integrated the Storm's multi-touch support into the email client, so when you've finished reading one email, you can simply swipe the screen to switch to the next one. Obviously the Storm has full Exchange support through the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, but if you don't have corporate Exchange setup, it's simple to add multiple standard email accounts to the Storm.

The Documents To Go suite comes pre-installed on the Storm, but you can't create new documents, you can only view and edit existing documents. You'll need to buy the Premium version if you want to create new documents. However, all you really need to do is copy template documents to the Storm, then just edit them and save them under a different name whenever you need to create a new document.

Hardware wise, this is a quad-band handset so it should work pretty much anywhere in the world, including difficult locations like Japan. From a data perspective the Storm can handle full 7.2mbps HSDPA, along with UMTS, Edge and GPRS, so you should be able to get at least some kind of data service no matter where you are. There's 1GB of storage built into the Storm, but it does sport a microSD card slot, so you can expand that storage easily and cheaply - it only costs around £16 for an 8GB microSD card.

One of the strongest selling points of BlackBerry handsets has always been long battery life, but unfortunately this isn't carried over into the Storm. RIM quotes 15 days standby time, but in reality the Storm gets nowhere near that. If you have any intention of actually using the Storm as a data device and a phone, you're going to have to charge it every night. And even leaving the device purely on standby, without really interacting with it, I couldn't get more than two or three days before the battery went dead. That said, I'm not one to bleat on about having to charge a phone every day, since I tend to charge my phone overnight as a matter of course, it's simply not that much of a hardship. The annoyance comes when you have to go away for a few days and you're hoping that you don't have to take a phone charger with you - in the case of the Storm, take the charger with you.

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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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