14 DAY TRIAL // After reviewing the first clamshell manufactured by RIM, BlackBerry 8220 Pearl Flip, Pure Mobile has offered us the opportunity to test the first BlackBerry smartphone to feature a touch screen, BlackBerry Storm 9500. The device itself has been especially developed to be a direct competitor to Apple's iPhone 3G, T-Mobile's G1 by HTC, and to the lastest HTC Touch family device.
Whether it either succeeds or not, we will discover in the following review. Bear in mind that while the device is only sold branded, there are still unlocked versions of the smartphone, which allows owners to use it with any GSM service provider.
Announced in September 2008, the Blackberry Storm 9500 smartphone was made available on the market two months later, in November 2008. At the moment, the handset can be acquired for the amount of $520USD, unlocked with no plan. You can check it out here.
Design
Blackberry Storm 9500 is not only the first Blackberry device with a touch screen, but also the first to lack a physical keyboard. For businessmen, who are the main target of the smartphone, this might sound pretty awkward at first glance. To substitute this lack of keypad, RIM has introduced a new, innovative technology called SurePress. RIM's SurePress patented technology makes the touch screen physically react like a button when pressed. It also provides haptic feedback, which means that you won't feel the difference between a physical keyboard and this one. Nevertheless, the feeling that you get when clicking a flimsy touch screen that seems not to have been solidly attached has scared me.
First time I kept it in my hand, I thought the device had a big flaw, as the display was 2mm shorter than the frame and you could easily see through these spaces left up and below the screen. The screen is protected by a thin foil, so it won't get too many fingerprints. Except for it, the device seems to have been constructed solidly. It feels good in your hand, but might be a little heavier than expected (155g, including battery). The metallic back cover seems to be taking its toll on the weight of the device. Still, Storm 9500 is not such a big handset as compared with the HTC Touch HD or even the iPhone 3G, measuring only 112.5 x 62.2 x 14mm. The smartphone surprisingly features a 3.5mm jack port on the upper right side. Below the port, there are also a dual-volume key and a dedicated camera one. On the left side of the device, there's a dedicated Voice dial button and a microUSB port. Below the 3.25-inch display, there are 4 buttons: the Accept calls and Reject calls keys, the Menu one and the Back button. Above the touch screen, there's a large in-call speaker and an LED that is mostly used for alerts. The 3.2-Megapixel camera on the back of the phone features flash and autofocus. It is covered by a plastic glass that protects it against scratches. Another innovative feature of the smartphone consists of the 2 buttons on the top of the device. While they are not really defined as keys, you can press on their icons to use them. The left one locks the phone, while the right one mutes a phone talk in progress. The microSD slot card has been placed under the back cover, so you'll need to remove it before inserting a new storage card. At the bottom of the metallic cover on the back, you can also notice a small loudspeaker. Overall, I have been pleased with how BlackBerry Storm 9500 looks like, and pretty content with the way RIM has handled the layout of all the external controls.Display and Camera
As I have also mentioned above, Storm 9500 is the first Blackberry device to feature a capacitive touch screen. It measures 3.25 inches and supports 65k colors and a 360x480-pixel resolution. The capacitive touch screen eliminates the need to employ a stylus, and is also scratch-resistant. It embeds the innovative SurePress technology, a Research-In-Motion patented technology that provides haptic feedback. This screen allows the user to navigate through the phone using their fingertips, similar to a computer's mouse, and "click" the screen by pushing down select, which provides the user with a haptic feedback. They have the ability to adjust the screen's settings so that double tapping can be employed as an alternate method to select and navigate the phone, but the sensitivity of scrolling can also be set.
Eligibility under strong light is pretty good, yet you'll have to set the brightness to a maximum level. As the main tool for text input, the TFT LCD touch screen also embeds an accelerometer, which gives users the possibility to turn to the QWERTY keyboard automatically when the screen is in landscape mode. Unfortunately, while the responsiveness of the touch screen is very good, the fact that you need to press it slows a little bit the texting speed down. The 3.2-Megapixel camera of the Blackberry Storm 9500 features the autofocus and the LED flash. Unfortunately, the camera interface misses entirely. The only way to adjust the few settings that the camera has is to click on the Menu key after the camera function has been opened. Instead of this annoying thing, you get some nice features: geotagging and image stabilization. The maximum resolution for pictures is of 2048x1536 pixels, but that can be lowered for storage purposes. The only other settings of the camera are White balance and Colors effect, as well as Picture quality. Taking pictures with Storm's 3.2-Megapixel camera seems pretty difficult, as the preview screen is covered at the base with a bar that features some settings. This makes focusing and framing a picture very difficult. Otherwise, I have found the quality of the photographs pretty good. It's not the best on the market, but it is definitely above average. As you can see in the sample pictures below, colors and contrast are pretty good, while noise is kept at a decent level. Movies can also be recorded in QVGA resolution at 30fps only, but the quality is way lower than expected, so I don't really recommend using the smartphone to record clips. Overall, I think Blackberry Storm 9500 features a good camera for a business phone, above average in quality, which will satisfy most users.
Menu and Software
Blackberry Storm 9500 runs the Blackberry 4.7.0 operating system, platform 4.0.0.98. It seems to be the 4.6.0 OS, which has been converted for the touch screen. As of now, this is the latest OS from Blackberry available for touch screen devices.
Anyway, in case you already have or have had a Blackberry device, the 9500's interface won't surprise you at all, as RIM hasn't come up with anything new in terms of productivity tools. Instead, the unchanged BlackBerry interface is now looking much better than the older ones. The colors of the icons you'll find in the main menu are softly lighted in contrast with the dark background, and make a very good overall impression. The usual Office package, called Documents To Go, developed by DataViz, is also included in 9500's operating system. Unfortunately, as you can see from the screenshots, you can only read or edit Word docs, Excel docs, and PowerPoint presentations, but need to pay if you want to make new documents. Instead of getting more new features that might not come in handy at all, RIM has preferred to keep all the old stuff and give everything a shiny look. Not too bad, as all Blackberry's productivity tools are pretty solid. The problem comes when you dig deeper and see that menus are pretty boring, looking like a white-board. The phonebook can store an unlimited number of contacts, as long as your available memory allows it to. Each contact can be filled with multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, birthday and anniversary information, a picture and a slot for both work and home addresses. There are also two games that you can play when you're bored: BrickBreaker and Word Mole. Of course, there's always the possibility to add more software, Blackberry- or Java- compatible.Communications
One of the main drawbacks of the touch screen smartphone is the fact that it lacks Wi-Fi connectivity. Still, this is balanced by the fact that it features an HSDPA one.
The Blackberry that I received has been branded by Vodafone, and it features the Opera Mini browser, which is working great. Web surfing is good and pages are loading pretty fast, especially when using the HSDPA connection.
You can choose to see the page in Mobile view, or simply the whole of it. Anyway, the main reason people are buying RIM devices is messaging. Blackberry Storm 9500 is no stranger to that, and features the whole Blackberry package. Should you either want multiple emails or instant messaging, this smartphone has them all. You can use any of the following instant messaging applications: Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live, AIM, ICQ, or Google Talk. All are easy to access and work within the parameters. Unfortunately, you will be limited to BlackBerry Internet Service email accounts on the Storm. So as to fully integrate the BlackBerry into a company's systems, the installation of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is required. Synchronizing the smartphone with the PC can be made very easy with the Blackberry Desktop Manager. The transfer is very fast, should you either be syncing emails and messages or simply filling your smartphone with music files. Blackberry Storm 9500 is a quad band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) smartphone, which features GPRS, EDGE, and HSDPA. Other connectivity tools include the Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and the microUSB for PC synchronization (including charging). The call quality is exceptionally good, almost impressive. You'll thus be able to talk on the phone even in more crowded areas. The GSM signal is also very good, on the EDGE network, as well as on WCDMA.Processor and Memory
The Blackberry Storm 9500 is powered by a Qualcomm processor running at speeds of up to 624 MHz. This seems to be a powerful CPU, still I have experienced annoying lags and lock-downs, occasional hiccups, and I'm not really sure what's really causing them. This is definitely a major drawback, and I believe the fault stands in the software part and is not hardware-related.
The smartphone embeds a 1GB user-free, internal storage memory and a 128 MB Flash memory. The storage space can be expanded up to 16GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card. The sales package also contains an 8GB microSD card.Multimedia
As a business device, I wasn't expecting too many high-quality multimedia features. Even if these are only basic, I have been surprised to find out that the quality of the sound is pretty high. The music player looks very appealing and features options like Shuffle, Repeat, Playlists, and Equalizers. Users can listen to songs stored in MP3, AAC, and WMA files. The music player can also display the album cover art when a song is playing.
The phone features a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you'll be able to change the earphones that are coming with the smartphone, or you can choose to listen to the music through the stereo Bluetooth feature. The music player can be run in the background, however, be careful how many applications you are using at a time. The external speaker is very loud and pretty clear. Overall, multimedia features are surprisingly good for a business phone, and especially for a Blackberry device.Battery
The 1400 mAh Li-Ion battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 360 hours in standby, and of about 5 hours and 30 minutes in talk time mode. Our test unit has made it for about 4 days at a medium use. Heavy users will need to charge the smartphone twice every week. The autonomy is pretty acceptable for a Blackberry owner that only employs the specific Blackberry services, namely the messaging capabilities.
Impressions
At first glance, the Blackberry Storm 9500 looks very appealing. Even more when you start using it, but there are some functionality flaws that make the device not as good as expected. Being the first in a line could prove to be fatal for some devices, but the Storm 9500 makes a good overall impression, even if it has some drawbacks.
The Good
The Bad
Sales package:
1 BlackBerry Storm 9500 Smartphone; 1 Standard Battery; 1 USB Data Cable; 1 Wired Headset / Ear Piece; 1 Standard Carrying Case; 1 Cleaning Cloth; 1 Software Suite; 1 User Manual.
