RIM BlackBerry 9530 Smartphone

... and fails to knock anything over.
In Summary: This is the worst smartphone I've used in a long time. It offers neither the exceptional reliability or strengths of a 'real' Blackberry nor the powerful platform of the iPhone. Since returning my unit, a software update has improved some of the sluggishness, so I'm giving it an extra star, but it doesn't make up for the plethora of bad design and rushed efforts making this. At $250.00 , you're better off picking up a Blackberry Curve on Verizon, Bold on AT&T, or iPhone.

--- On to the Review ---

A bit of background (I am including this to put into context how I judge usability and design of a phone. )

The worst cell phone I've ever owned was an HTC Apache (Also known as the Sprint PPC 6700. ) This horrible piece of trash was an abomination on all fronts- it was awkward to use, its performance (in signal strength, UI speed, sound quality, and battery life) was horrendous. It was unreliable to the point where I'd have three replacements in three months due to hardware failures, and problems just about every day with software failures (Outlook would stop syncing, software conflicts, etc. The device was slow and unusable- even my old Toshiba VM4050 was a more functional device. Since owning that device, I've been pretty cut-and-dry with my Smartphone evaluations: either they work or they don't.

This was when I discovered the Blackberry. Right as I was giving up on the promise of a smartphone, I picked up a Blackberry 7130e . Unlike the HTC Apache , it didn't promise to do everything (Adobe Illustrator files on your phone!), just web browsing and email. What it did offer, was exceptional functionality and reliability. I was hooked. My subsequent Blackberries (an 8703e and a Pearl) were wonderful devices that I swore by.

However, things changed when Apple would introduce the iPhone. (It's impossible not to mention the iPhone in this review, because if it wasn't for the iPhone, the Storm wouldn't exist. Given the iPhone is the direct competition of this device, that's what it's going to be reviewed against.) After months of bitter debate, I finally ditched my Blackberry for the iPhone. What it lacked in email it made up for with a truly usable web browser and excellent media player. This wasn't an easy decision by any means and I actually carried both with me for several months. I longed for a device that would take the best of both worlds (the iPhone's wonderful UI and powerful Browser with the Blackberry's messaging strengths.) I figured RIM- whose reputation is built on function over flash- would be the manufacturer to finally match Apple's move. I was wrong. (My iPhone had an unfortunate death two nights before the Storm's debut.)

The Hardware: It looks like a Blackberry-ish Samsung Instinct... or is it LG Dare? It's not as 'clean' looking as the iPhone, and it's pretty chunky. It feels solid in your hand, and  it is fairly well assembled with the exception of...

The Clickscreen: This is THE selling point RIM has been pushing with the Storm. It's a pretty cool idea, and during my first hands-on in the Verizon store, I was really impressed with it. But upon taking it home and using it for the next two weeks, I'd grow to loathe it for several reasons.

1) It's fairly tiring after awhile - while navigating through a menu, it's pleasant and fun. Typing is another story, and you soon wish to just 'feather tap' as you would on an iPhone.

2) It makes the finger-challenged UI that much more difficult - the thing is, the screen wobbles a little bit... just enough to mean you might select the item above what you were intending to. Even after two weeks of heavy usage, I was never able to reliably select something, as you never know how the wobbly screen will respond.

3) When the UI lags it's even more frustrating - especially if the capacitive-touch screen didn't register your press correctly.

4) The bottom row of keys on the keyboard are difficult to press - there is a ridge from the edge of the click screen to the metal frame of the device, making the letters ZXCVBNM impossible to hit accurately from the natural angle your thumbs take.. The travel at the edge of the screen is also significantly more than in the middle.

The clickscreen is most useful in the web browser, where it's easier to pan around rather than accidentally select a link. This would be a bigger selling point if the iPhone had a problem with this, but it doesn't- it's able to reliably interpret scroll vs. clicking of a link. LG Dare and Instinct users will certainly think it's an improvement.

The User Interface:   Oh man, not since the days of Windows Mobile have I ever been so frustrated at a user interface. Now keep in mind, I like the Blackberry user interface.It might be text heavy and a little dull looking, but it's always been a paragon of efficient navigation... when used with the clickwheel (7130e or 8703e) or clickball (Pearl, Curve, Bold.)

Here's the problem: rather than launch a "next generation" Blackberry UI redesigned from the ground up, RIM decided to touch-ify the current Blackberry UI. That translates to larger fonts and some larger icons. Oh yes, and menus are now all over the place. That's about it. The thinking behind this probably stems from the fact Blackberries cater to the more 'traditional' mindset and they wanted a certain level of familiarity. In reality, the touch UI is going to do nothing but remind someone how much faster you'd be able to get things done with a 'real' Blackberry.

For example, let's say you're in the web browser and want to go to a URL. You hit the menu button, then there's a list. Okay, fine. You now scroll to where you want on the list and try to select it. Ooops... you hit "Home" instead. Ok, let's say you want to zoom in (something accomplished on the iPhone by pinching.) Pull up the menu, scroll up to Zoom In.... position your thumb carefully..... and... Ooops, you accidentally hit Zoom Out. If you had a clickball, you'd have been done a long time ago, but meanwhile you're still trying to get it to work. If you're walking or trying to do several things at once, forget it.

Scrolling also deserves a mention here, because it's another thing RIM got wrong. Unlike the iPhone or, to a lesser extent, the G1, which go out of their way to convince you the UI has some sort of inertia , the Storm doesn't bother with fluid scrolling. You flick your finger and the storm scrolls like someone forgot to lubricate it properly. It makes long lists (and there are plenty of them) tedious. Again, you'll wish for a clickball. If RIM was going to be lazy with the touch UI, they might as well have copped out with the hardware by including a clickball as well.

Text Input This is the lowest of the low for the Storm (all other glitches I experienced aside.) Text input is a groan-inducing experience in portrait mode and a miserable, awful experience in landscape. One of the main complaints about the iPhone is that text entry is less than intuitive. To the iPhone's credit, once you familiarize yourself with its input (it takes about a week), it works consistently and quickly. By contrast, the Storm's will never work well.

In portrait mode it uses Suretype- this is your best bet. Providing you're familiar with Suretype, this isn't such a bad way to go. Key feel is fairly consistent, and the buttons are large enough to reliably press. The big problem with both input methods is how the text correction works. Rather than use a system such as the iPhone's "dismiss" system (which works pretty well once you correct its 'ducking' preferences) , the Storm presents suggestions in a list format. This made sense when Blackberries had a mechanical scroll that allowed you to quickly make a selection with a quick flick. Now it requires you to clumsily scroll through your options in the middle of typing- a time consuming and frustrating process. At least in portrait mode you can scroll through the list a little easier.

In Landscape mode it's too difficult to scroll. But by far the most annoying trait is the fact that there's no way to see what letter is actually being registered by the screen. The iPhone cleverly magnifies the selected letter when typing, where the Storm simply 'glows' around your thumb. Magnifying the letter makes so much sense... how could RIM possibly miss this given the clickscreen IS the selling point of this device?

Reception: Where I live, Verizon's coverage is a distant second to AT&T. That said, the Storm held onto signal better than any other Verizon phone I've encountered... enough so much that I was able to use it indoors- even while downstairs. That said, the lack of WiFi was a bit of a downer and hampered speeds slightly.

Battery Life:  After a full day's of usage, I ran the Storm right till it had no juice left. Given the weak Verizon signal in my area, that's really good. I don't figure anyone will have a problem with its battery life.

Voice Quality: RIM got this one right. I think Blackberries have some of the best speakerphones, and there's no denying this holds up to the best of them.



Global Usage: One of the problems with Verizon's CDMA technology is... nobody else (outside the U.S and Canada) really uses it. Verizon Wireless has realized this and there's actually a GSM radio in the Storm for overseas use. This is particularly cool, but frankly unless your boss is paying for it, it's much cheaper to use an unlocked phone overseas... provided you know which providers to use. If you're a world traveler, and tethered to Verizon, this might be enough to overlook the Storm's many flaws.

Email:  Not much has changed here. I love the instantaneous nature of the Blackberry's email, but this just isn't that much of a novelty anymore. Even the iPhone has MobileMe (which actually works better... now that it's working....) One thing I really like is how Blackberries group all of the messages together in one inbox. Nobody else seems to do this and, especially on the iPhone, it's really annoying when you're managing multiple accounts.

The one area where the iPhone trumps Blackberries in email is formatting. It's 2009, and about half of the emails I receive have some sort of HTML formatting in them.. The iPhone also gets points for proper PDF support.

The Web Browser is done suprisingly well, for a Blackberry. It renders pages quickly and accurate... something I can't say for most former Blackberries. That said, in terms of overall usability, the iPhone eats its lunch. There's simply no way around it- the iPhone is the standard and RIM simply didn't put any effort into it. The tap-zoom feature isn't well implemented. Scrolling is miserable as it is in the rest of the UI.

My unit had several bugs which manifested themselves quite often in the web browser. On several occasions:
-The orientation would get stuck
-The screen would 'freeze' for about a minute (aka an eternity when you're trying to get work done)
-The entire unit would crash
-Some random applications would launch without any prompting.

This wouldn't happen once a day, or even once an hour. There wasn't a single session in the web browser that didn't end with a crash or glitch. That's downright horrible.

RIM has since released a software update to correct these problems (supposedly) , but I returned my device before I had the opportunity to install it. That's no excuse though- although I expect initial glitches, this was downright excessive and was obvious from the very start. It shouldn't take much testing to find these glaring deficits, so I find this totally inexcusable, especially coming from RIM. Blackberries have a reputation as a professional grade product. The only other product I've used with such glitches was the HTC Apache. Now that the iPhone platform has stabilized, this is even more unacceptable.

Synchronization:  I couldn't get PocketMac to work with my Storm, but I'm sure they'll have a solution quite shortly. A proper Mac sync solution is long overdue.

Media Player:  The Storm has a pretty nice media player. In fact, despite the fact it's only average, it was one of the few things about the device that didn't seem slapped together. Of course, most people who purchase the Storm will probably have an iPod along side them, but I was pleased that at least it had a 3.5mm headset jack.

The Photo viewing application stinks though. Oh wow, it can do the flick-to-the-next picture trick! So can every other phone ! Only the Storm makes you wait for the picture to load! Again with the lazy effort...

Camera:  It takes pictures! Actually, I want to mention here the Storm has MMS. I don't have so much an issue of the iPhone lacking MMS (it's called emailing pictures....) as I do with AT&T's implementation of receiving an MMS, which requires you to log in to a website with some inscrutable username and password. It's such a terrible setup I'm actually going to say I was happy to see it- even if VZW charges you for it.

VZ Navigator:  Waste of money. Frankly, Google Maps is free, and never have I been in a situation I need turn by turn directions so badly it'd justify the cost.
VCast:  Screw this. This is a thin gruel of content nobody wants to see. There's Give me YouTube and Pandora. Thank you.

The Big Picture - At the end of two weeks of what I could best describe as pure hell , I returned my Storm. Believe it or not, the Verizon guy was pretty surprised, saying the Storm has been a 'knockout hit.' I wonder how many people purchased it in the same situation as me- lured in by a previous experience with RIM's excellent products only to take home one of the worst cell phones in recent memory.

The big problem with the Storm is this- it's a Blackberry with a touch screen duct-taped on. It's not a new platform, and there obviously wasn't a lot of thought or effort put into making the device. In fact, there's really not a whole lot that's new or novel once you get past the clickscreen- something they didn't even try that hard on. I bring that up because with Android, Palm's new WebOS, and the iPhone ,the smartphone landscape is quickly changing and innovating faster than before. I've always accepted that Blackberries were good for some things and not others, but the problem is that the Storm isn't even really good at anything, or even acceptable in most regards- and it's not ever going to be. The iPhone, by contrast, has morphed from an entertainment-oriented high-end phone to a pretty powerful computing platform in the past year. I had hopes that the Storm was going to be a glimpse into the future of Blackberries, but instead it seems more like "Hey, please don't leave us for the iPhone" effort.

Alternatives:  If you're on Verizon, my Blackberry pick is still the Curve. People who want a high-end Blackberry should also give the Bold a SERIOUS look, although at $300.00 it's overpriced. The UI on the Bold is similar to the Storm, although having the clickball and a fairly nice physical keyboard make all the difference in the world.

Update: There's a great quote from RIM co-ceo Jim Balsillie stating buggy phones are the "new reality." I guess the days of RIM building good phones has long passed.