[pcprof2008]

I appreciate the review. The cause of my qualm is that you are doing reviews without adequate info. Who reviews something without knowing about a device none the less reading the manual to know all the device features. I was disappointed.

[BR14]

Is this a male/female thing?
I found the screen to be amazing to type on, but then I have substantial thumbs to wield.
Oddly enough a number of other female reviewers didn't like the screen.
I can type almost as fast on the Storm as I can on my other BlackBerrys, and ordinarily I can't stand touch screens.
Maybe RIM needs more females in it's R&D department.

[pastorotis]

I totally agree with you. Besides, if I want an Iphone then I will buy an Iphone. I don't think it's fair to give a review until you go through the manuel an learn all of the features first.

[myunker]

I stopped paying attention to this review when the reviewer complained that the numerical input was a hassle due to the fact that you had to repeatedly change the keypad back and forth between the letters and numbers when trying to enter in a phone number or something. All you have to do is hold the button down for a second or two and it locks in place. You enter your numbers, click it again to unlock, and you are good to go. It would be nice if the device was thoroughly used and experimented with before someone writes a review like this. I'm not an apologist for RIM or anything along those lines, just a consumer that would like to be reading opinions formulated on correct information.

[CMack]

I am very interested in hearing about some actual user reviews from anyone who has bought the Storm. I had a chance to try out the demo today and please excuse me when I say it might be considered a little "Awkward and Disappointing." Seriously.

It could have been the two in-store demos that I tried this afternoon that were not working properly. And I truly am hoping that it was, but I really need to hear about some other user input so I know if that's what I'd be getting out of the box.

[kwt31166]

The Blackberry is much deeper in functionality than meets the eye, really requiring a read of the manual or at least some tips and tricks. Here is one tip for one of your criticisms:

"There's no obvious way to make the keyboard go away quickly, either, if you want to see part of the screen that it's concealing."

Touch the top of the key board (do not press) and swipe your finger down and off the screen. Do the opposite to bring the keyboard back. Fast and easy.

kwt31166

[06harleyrider]

Yardena, I just gotta say that its really obvious that you have very little to no experience with a blackberry device..

Every issue you claimed to have were caused by user error nothing more..the contact issue is a user issue on your part as well as the number issue you were having ...

This is not an iphone (thank god) and should not be compared to the iphone..it is not trying to be an iphone nor is it an iphone clone ... in fact if you were to compare the many features that this phone has vs. the iphone the iphone couldnt hold its own weight..outside of the wifi complaints that everyone seems to be having the storm has more functions/features than the iphone..

Wifi is not a issue .. honestly now maybe for the at&t iphone subscribers it is because there 3g service is so limited they have to rely on wifi..but on verizon I can assure this is not an issue..

Just some advice, familiarize yourself with a device's basic funnctions before you decide to do a review. Anything else is cheating your readers and yourself..

[wicked4u2c]

WOW, can you say IPHONE NUT HUGGER! I'm not even going to say your review because this was not a review. Everything you stated was inaccurate and it clearly shows you did not bother playing with the phone. I like at the end how you try and say positive things about the phone trying to make your review biased. Why are people comparing this to the IPHONE? Like stated by many, just because it has a touch screen doesn't mean anything. This doesn't surprise me, it seems that APPLE lovers are die hard and feel threaten by the storm. In which they should be, because the storm is in a different league. And just like people like to compare Kobe Bryant with Michael Jordan. Yes, Michael was once the greatest NBA player of all time just like IPHONE was once a great phone. But with Verizons network, sorry to say but Kobe Bryant and the Storm are in a different league. So you can say whatever you want about the touch screen. But all the people I know who have an Iphone always call me on accident because of how sensitive the screen is which to me is annoying. I would rather push down to confirm my selecting then having to accidently go all over the place. So stick with your IPHONE and your lousy network. Biggest mistake IPHONE did was to go with AT&T. It's too bad...

[DocDog]

Right on. This is an absolutely ignorant review. Just as these morons fauned all over the iPhone without noting any of the limitations, they sit up and bash a novel and extremely useful phone because it has a completely new user interface that they don't want to even try to understand.

Pitiful.

Great phone. Love mine. I have no worries that RIM won't support this phone to the fullest and any -actual- bugs will be resolved appropriately.

[hamilton]

I didn't know about the fast and easy key board hiding feature. Thanks for that tip.

As to the review... I'm glad that some people actually pushed back on the reviewer for being inaccurate. I figured the number lock feature out in a few minutes w/o reading the manual, to me it seemed pretty intuitive.

Also, if anyone noticed, the reviewer seemed to be putting a lot of her thumb on the phone. I've played with iPhones in the apple store and putting too much of your thumb on the phone will cause mis-types as well. Her argument isn't very convincing.

Also, manuals are there ,now-a-days, mostly for reference. So, a quick and simple flip through the first 50 pages (the only pages you need to figure out the basic features of the phone) in the 3 minutes before the camera started to roll would have led the reviewer to the second bullet from the bottom" on page 48 under the section"typing shortcuts which teaches the user how to lock and unlock numbers (p.s. the box was next to you the whole time). You don't have to read the entire 96-page manual (including the blank notes pages and the two sections which has little to do with use of the phone itself), just flip and glance :-)

Not a slam on the editor... just a little constructive criticism with the utmost respect.

The iPhone and Storm are both good at what they do. Of course the iPhone is going to be more polished; its been out longer!! So, is the storm an iPhone killer? Maybe not now, but give RIM respect and time to develop on the foundation to the best 'iClone' yet.... that is if you want to compare the two phones.

Again, glad to see people pushing back. Just hope any potential buyers don't take this review at face value, but actually read the reviews.

[coastie65]

Hi Hamilton and welcome to the forum. Nice post. coastie65

[yeomanrycavalry]

I wonder how many days you gave this phone a test drive for. Did you realize that there is a little learning curve just like for any other device out there? I find the phone more intuitive than iPhone by a long shot, because it gives you more options than the iPhone for typing. The Storm can do what any other BlackBerry can do. MMS, SMS, IM Push, etc. Things the iPhone cannot accomplish, the Storm can. The Storm may not have the best web browser avail. on the market, but it is one the best avail and works perfectly fine with the recent update. Also, the iPhone cannot, I repeat cannot cut, copy and paste, the Storm can. iPhone cannot record video, the Storm can and even upload videos. The Storm has stereo bluetooth and noise canceling speaker/microphone and has the loudest and enjoyable audio. This is certainly not a toy, but gives multimedia capability to a hard working phone. The iToy cannot have its memory upgraded, or even battery replaced.... hmmmmmm.

Whatever the case, there are many numerous tricks that can be done with this phone which can be found on sites such as crackberry.com and other related sites. You should read them and actually learn the phone first before you give your half-baked opinions. :D

[wicked4u2c]

Well said Yeomanrycavalry. And for all you IPHONE LOVERS out there READ THIS CAREFULLY!

My friend had an Iphone which all of a sudden died without any reason. He went to Apple store and they told him it was a problem with the battery and he had to send it in. Well, all of his contacts, and information were LOST!! So he had to send his phone in to Apple warranty and the he received another one. Let me just say, when he received the replacement phone it was a refurbished item. And guess what happen when he powered it up? That's right, it had the previous owners personal information including banking stuff. And guess what will happen to his phone also? They will refurbish it and give it to someone else. So he called Apple to let them know what was going on, and to cover their A$$ they said that it was probably a mistake and that maybe when they refurbished the phone they didn't clear the data. Anyhow, 2 days of downtime and a couple of headaches later he finally had to re enter everything again. Point of the story, if something goes wrong with your Iphone you are pretty much screwed, specially if it is related to your battery. So you can keep your cheap Iphone but when something goes bad you will remember my post and say I WISH I HAD A STORM!! Because the Storm can do everything the Iphone can including about 35% more features that are important. So big deal, it doesn't have wifi. The 3G network is very fast and comparable to a wifi connection, and it's not a deal breaker by any means. So IPHONE people good luck with your inferior phone :D

[fastnas]

I just watched a little of the video with the "Senior Editor" and stopped. It had nothing to do with the Storm. It was the lady. She was reviwing the Phone and had no idea about it. She said that when you want to type and need a number you click the Numbers and have to click back and forth. She did not know that if you hold the icon for the numbers for a few seconds it will lock on the number screen. PC World needs to get someone who knows the device before talking about it.

[Paradoxicated]

I actually registered here at PC World just to reply to this review. I see that so many people already said what I was burning to say as I read the review which is, "learn how to use the device before you review it". Then I saw that she had said she didn't have time to read a 96 page manual to learn how to use it. Obviously another jab at BB Storm as she was trying to indicate that you HAVE to read a huge manual to use it - you don't. You need all of about 2 seconds of common sense. Now, for those of us that don't have a whole lot of common sense when it comes to electronic devices, RIM included a very small, quick start brochure that gives you some basic instructions, including how to operate the keyboard and num lock feature. The brochure is smaller than a normal 8.5x11 piece of paper and would have taken less time to read it than it would have to write and film the part of the review that criticized that feature.

The other feature she criticized was the address book, just type the first letter of the contact person you're looking for and presto magico - you're there!

Clearly she was in a hurry to get her review out there, and that haste/deadline/corporate pressure/whatever to write the review took precedent over writing a comprehensive, accurate and fair review - shameful.

It is astonishing to me that someone who gets paid to review a device, doesn't actually have the time or the inclination to learn how it works - first. But then again, I am easily astonished.

A few years ago I gave up my personal cell phone, but maintained the cell phone I have for business, a BB of course. The BB Storm actually intrigued
me enough to go out and get my own personal cell phone again - I'm so
glad I did, it's an amazing device! I also own an iPod, which now sits
envious as my alarm clock in my bedroom as the BB Storm has completely
replaced the need to travel with the iPod. Also my wife was a HUGE Treo
fan, and it now sits in a plastic baggie in a drawer filled with out
dated and unused electronic devices - she loves her new BB Storm (although
she struggles to actually admit it, note where the Treo is).

I have been using the BB Storm since the day of it's release, a few criticisms (deeper than just a surface review after only opening the box and "playing" with the phone for a few minutes are as follows:

1. Once you drag-n-drop files (like pictures) in to the BB from your computer, BB "reorganizes" that data and you can no longer locate/find that data in an explorer window to navigate that data from your computer.

2. The only method for sending/forwarding the videos you take on the BB is to 'Send using Bluetooth".

3. Speaking of the Bluetooth, the software is VERY glitchy. After 5 hours on the phone with Verizon and BB support, 2 of the issues we have (on identical phones and identical laptops) remain unresolved. Apparently there is a problem with the driver software for Windows Vista and the BB Storm. Windows keeps prompting for a driver, and the driver doesn't exist, so you always have "Found New Hardware" message that is unresolved. However your data will still synchronize via Bluetooth, but you will still have that "Found New Hardware" message every time you start your laptop. Windows Vista only recognizes BB Storm as a "Other Device - Bluetooth Peripheral'. BB analysts are working on it now... stay tuned.

4. The Storm does not support the "Music ID" feature available on other Verizon phones which is really cool. That's the feature that allows your phone to identify the song and artist of music you hear, like in a store, or on the radio by simply allowing your phone to "listen" to the song.

5. The keyboard DOES take some getting used to, but once you've used it a little bit, you're good to go. Having the on-screen touch keyboard versus a physical textile keyboard in favor of that glorious display is well worth it! Notice I didn't use the worn out reviewers term "real estate".

6. Lack of preferences for auto caching/cleaning your browser activity. In other words options that allow you to schedule the cleaning of your cookies, history, etc. You can go in and manually do this of course but an option that allows you to even "Turn Off History" or clean it daily automatically would be nice.

7. No external access to the Micro-SD card. Not really necessary but would have been nice/convenient. Access only through the removal of the battery cover, and the Micro-SD card is so small, you fear you're going to damage it, or lose it to easily.

8. Lack of integration with current software applications like games (that will be resolved with time - we hope).

9. Only 1 available "theme" for the home page.

And lastly, no it's not about lack of wi-fi because so many reviews have been written about that insignificant matter...

10. Not necessarily a BB "Storm" criticism but an industry criticism; and that is the whole "sync-ing problem". This reply really isn't the place for this criticism but the short of it is, with my work BB phone, I have BES and it is AMAZING! The BES is how IT (pun intended) should all work. IT being our communication devices being "real time" sync'd with our PIM programs, via the Internet. We have the technology but for the average John Q Public to use it and access it, it is costly with the need to have a couple monthly 3rd party services like an Exchange Server Host, and of course BB's BES services. EVERYONE does want it whether you know it or not. If you've used it, you know how great it is, and if you haven't used it and don't know what it is; think of like the Matrix - it's that which you don't know you've been seeking, but have been dying to find (ok that was a little cheesy, but you get the jist). Ultimately, in order for the BES model to become available to "us" a collaboration between all the various softwware, hardware and service providing companies needs a great unifier.

Even with some of these "short-comings", that in time most will be worked out, the BB Storm is an awesome PDA in so many ways!

[bluemsw]

I think PC World should have done some homework on the blackberry storm phone. The video is like watching a first time user of a blackberry device giving instruction on how to use it when she doesn't know how to use it. The Blackberry storm along with all other blackberry devices and a lot more then just a phone that anyone can pick up and know how to use it fully. Although it doesn't take much time to read the manual and do some experimenting to figure out how to use this phone easily. Perfect example that she doesn't know what she is doing is when she is talking about using the number part of the keypad. People that learn about their storm know all you have to do is hold the button down that gives you the numbers for about 2 seconds and then the number pad is locked and you can hit as many numbers as you like. I am very disappointed in PC World releasing a video that didn't have any research done into the operation of the phone before they started bashing. I am sure they would like people bashing their magazine without ever reading an article.

[gwhiteVT]

What an ignorant review. Learning curve is not taken into account and the features were never really discovered. In the video she mentions that you can do one number at a time flipping back and forth between the keyboard styles, ...try holding the number key button down to lock....RIM actually put some R & D into this.
If you are used to a different keyboard, change takes time, but I can type faster on this device then my friends on their iphones or tactile button devices.