RIM BLACKBERRY STORM 9530

A Troubled Storm




Verizon's BlackBerry Storm 9530 is a radical new direction for BlackBerry, but it's imperiled by a difficult-to-use QWERTY keyboard and widespread reports of serious bugs.

The decidedly sexy 5.5-ounce Storm is a 4.4-by-2.4-by-0.5-inch (HWD) slab dominated by a 3.3-inch, 360-by-480-pixel touch screen. The screen is capacitive, meaning it detects the electricity from your fingers, thus requiring less effort to press. It is also transflective, so it's easy to view outdoors in bright light.

Below the display are Pick Up and End call buttons, a Back button, and the familiar BlackBerry menu key. On the sides of the handset, you'll find Camera, Volume, and a programmable multifunction button. RIM has again transformed keyboard design with the Storm's click screen, which you click by pressing down. Although this method gives you actual feedback, the learning process for the new interface is challenging. Furthermore, the keyboard had some serious accuracy problems.

The Storm showed zippy performance when it wasn't overcome by software bugs. It is a world phone, running on Verizon's EV-DO Rev A network here in the U.S. and on dual-band CDMA, quad-band EDGE, and 2,100-MHz HSDPA networks abroad. On our tests, the Storm registered fine reception, and earpiece and speakerphone volume are both very loud. In a straight-up talk time test, I got an excellent 7 hours 25 minutes.



Overall, the Storm is an exciting device Nonetheless, I can't recommend it strongly until the software bugs are fixed.—Sascha Segan

PC Magazine February 2009

This article is published on CellPhones Info, Handphone Reviews, Fun Gadgets, and More Techs.