The moment we say Blackberry, the first thing that came to mind is PUSH email. Long has the function be the marquee of RIM products as it tries to bring office communications to a convenient handheld. That very substance too, has kept them as a major market player over the years in the telecommunication industry. That’s why, with any new launch of a Blackberry, I can already see the full QWERTY keyboard under a decently large screen, all on the surface of a bulky looking mobile device. This is because it is convenient for people to reply to e-mails, SMSes and chats. As they evolve, the device are better looking now, especially with the 2 most recent release of Blackberry Bold and Blackberry Curve. But when RIM announces the Blackberry Storm as the first touch screen Blackberry product, I tried (and prayed) hard that i’ll look better. In fact, I can’t really imagine a Blackberry smartphone that does not offer physical keyboard. Will RIM be successful in joining in the new era of touchscreen mobile phones or is it better for them to stick to their winning formula?
Design
When I first laid eyes on it, the first thing that I noticed is how smart it looked like. It was love at first sight. However, to maintain sanity, I was telling myself, why don’t we see what it really has to offer. So when I got my hands on it, it has this quality feeling of a good device. The monoblock form factor with curvy edges, coated with a glossy piano black coating is just too cool. A finger print magnet, but not the brushed aluminium cover at the back that covers a 3.2 megapixel camera, which compliments the chrome lining. Great effort in details is seen here.
The majority of the front panel is display, a large 3.25-inch TFT LCD (480 x 360) touchscreen which supports up to 65,000 colours. I’ve noticed that the recent Blackberrys’ offers a high quality video display with vivid images and good quality sound. Right below the display is the standard call, BB and return buttons. On the sides are convenient keys where volume rocker, USB port and even a 3.5mm jack is located, which practically covers almost everything. It is around 4.43 inches (112.5 mm) in height, 2.45 inches (62.2 mm) width, and weight approximately 5.5 ounces (155 grams).
Clickable Touchscreen
The great selling point for the new Blackberry Storm is it is the first touchscreen mobile phone introduced by RIM. Some reports suggests that the release is an answer by RIM to Apple iPhone’s sales spike in the US. However, rather than introducing the typical touchscreen, Blackberry Storm introduced a clickable SurePress™ powered touch screen. There are 2 reasons to which this is introduced. One is, by clicking the screen, it will enable users to hover the screen without actually selecting anything, until it is clicked. Another is to give the familiar feeling of clicking to confirm selection - just like on the desktop. The physical keyboard is replaced with portrait SureType® and Multi-tap, QWERTY. This virtual QWERTY keyboard is surprisingly efficient even typing with my giant thumb.
While a clickable screen is perceived to be able to cater more function, my initial experience with it is rather annoying. You will be confused when sometimes you wanted to select on something and eventually the screen just slides over as you did not apply enough pressure to actually initiate or click the selection. You’d get used to it over time, but it is not something that has a natural feeling to it - yeah, you know what I’m talking about - the iPhone’s user experience.
Smart Phone
As a smart phone, what else can I say about a Blackberry? Blackberry is the epitome of smart phones. It offers the standard quad band that supports over a wide network suitable for most countries - convenient for business travels. It has both stand alone and A-GPS with preloaded BlackBerry Maps. Applications that supports the phone is also ample ranging from stock market updates to Facebook. It is claimed that it has the battery life of 15-hours standby mode with 6-hours talk-time. It comes with organizers, timers, contact books which is all sync-able through Microsoft Outlook.
Verdict
Being the first always have some pressure to it to live up to the expectation of being great and revealing. While it may be deemed a good enough touchscreen mobile phone for a Blackberry, nothing is exciting on the new Blackberry Storm. The innovative clickable screen with SurePress™ surely can get better as currently, it confuses users more than actually giving them the intended convenience. As a start, this is a good move by RIM. The design is stunning with good capabilities and better looking GUI. It will be a matter of time before they sorted the SurePress™ clickable touchscreen issues and make the next touchscreen Blackberry a killer.
To answer whether RIM should stick to the old physical QWERTY keyboard winning formula, well, since everybody’s going towards variety - even Nokia and touchscreens are seen as a cool factor plus a good way for seamless navigation, so the Blackberry Storm is a good start.
