[product#15]
Here at Gaj-It we’ve seen a lot of touch-screen phones looking to oust the iPhone from the top spot, and this time around we’re taking a look at the upcoming Blackberry Storm 9500, due for release next month.
Known most notably up until now for their business class phones, this will be the company’s first offering that bridges the gap between business functionality, consumer applications such as GPS, and social networking tools.
Recent models from Blackberry, like the Bold or the 8820, were aimed squarely at the professional sector with their full qwerty keyboards and mildly understated business-like design, and whilst by no means ugly they are definitely a triumph of function over form. However, these business shackles have been cast aside for the Storm and a sleek new appearance is the order of the day. Even if it does bear more than a passing resemblance to lots of other touch-screen phones on the market, it was high time that RIM (who make Blackberry) embraced the fact that smart phones are no longer the reserve of the executive class.
Whilst it may be difficult for the Storm to stand out amongst touch-screen competitors from a distance, when you look a little closer you realise that there is a little more ‘under the hood’ here than in some competitors offerings.
It has a spacious, 3.25" touch-screen with a 480×360 resolution which compares well with the iPhone’s 3.5"; it also provides haptic feedback, letting you know when the screen has been pressed - something omitted from the new 3G iPhone and a feature I find very useful on my Tocco. This handset makes no bones about the fact that it’s going after Apple’s crown, offering many features that drew people to the iPhone in the first place and it will even synchronise with iTunes.
The Storm has a virtual qwerty keyboard to take care of your email and office needs and ships with a host of software, including: Blackberry Internet Service, BlackBerry Unite!, BlackBerry Professional Software and BlackBerry Enterprise Server support. It also allows viewing and editing of Word, Excel and Powerpoint presentations via the included DataViz software. To complement the GPS functionality the storm also comes with Blackberry maps pre-installed.
Other features included with the newest kid on the block include; EDGE/GPRS and Wi-Fi connections for fast internet access, a 3.2MP camera with flash and auto focus, Bluetooth V2 and a media player that will handle a host of different file types including all the usual audio and visual suspects. The camera could be a little better – offering just 3.2 MP, but it is still more than the benchmark iPhone has on board.
It has a 624MHz processor, mini-USB connectivity and comes with a healthy 1GB of storage built in, and has a microSD slot for further expansion. I was particularly pleased to learn that it comes with a standard 3.5mm jack for headphones, none of that proprietary nonsense here.
Not having had a hands-on with this phone, it’s difficult to say how well it will work, how responsive the screen or operating system will be and a whole host of other questions that are pertinent when deciding what your next handset will be, but with good heritage, sleek looks and a seemingly positive response from both press and public, it’s hard to imagine this one being a flop.
It seems inevitable when a new touch-screen phone is released that it will be compared to an iPhone, or be reported as an ‘iPhone Killer’ (usually with a large question mark next to it!), but in this case it certainly seems to be a genuine alternative to the current king of touch screen mobiles, particularly for people like myself that have a mild aversion to Apple. Sorry Steve.
Rumoured to be launching exclusively on the Vodafone network – price, specifications and release date are yet to be confirmed officially for the UK. Will it be the coup de grâce for apple’s golden, mobile-shaped, goose? Probably not. Will it steal some potential new iPhone customers? Without a doubt.
Batten down the hatches, there’s a Storm on the way.
What do you think of the upcoming RIM touchscreen. Excited? Non-plussed? Let us know in the box below or head over to our mobile phones forums to have your say.
(image source for blackberry phones4u.co.uk)
3 thoughts on “Preview: Blackberry Storm 9500 – Whipping Up A Storm”
Really nice phone! Maybe i will buy it someday :) I think that RIM touchscreen is more powerfull.
Yeah, it does look pretty good! Be interesting to get a hands on closer look and see how it measures up side by side.