Review: BlackBerry Storm

At long last, the first-ever BlackBerry smart phone- Research in Motion’s iPhone competitor- has arrived. The second most eagerly-awaited phone product of the year, the Verizon Wireless-exclusive handset is undeniably cool, and gets a lot of things right. But it’s no iPhone.

The Storm, which arrived just before Thanksgiving, marries the BlackBerry’s recognizable operating system with the touchscreen of the iPhone and its many imitators. It’s also the first RIM product to replace physical keyboard with a touchscreen style. To that mix it adds speed, as well as a “click” that goes with the touchscreen—essentially one big button, which presses down when any part of the screen is clicked.

The positive parts first: the Storm looks awesome. It’s an absolutely beautiful device, as gadgets go, and the colors just gleam on the screen. Its designers deserve commendation just for that.

When it comes to function, the device is more mixed.

The Storm handles calls just fine; making a few of them, I never lost a single one; Verizon’s 3G network is not a concern. Contacts are easy to manage and save, and e-mail is both easy to use and to set up (the device allows up to ten accounts.) It’s also much easier to download attachments and image-filled messages on the Storm than on a whole lot of other smartphones. The Storm also offers cut-and-paste functionality, which the iPhone lacks.

The device’s other great strength is Web browsing. Despite a lack of Wi-Fi, the Storm surfs around the Web very fast on the 3G network; there’s very little waiting around for sites to load. And not only that, but virtually every major Web site shows up looking great, regardless of whether or not it’s a mobile-only version. (Looking at the electoral maps on FiveThirtyEight.com- a site unreadable on my Motorola Q- I felt a lot like CNN’s John King, zooming in on the Palm Beach County exit polls.)

However, the Web sites only look great if you can get there. The Storm’s primary Achilles heel is that parts of the touchscreen- especially the keyboard- are exceedingly difficult to use. On the keyboard, the keys are very, very small, and for those of us who prefer to text or type with our thumbs, it’s hard to type a Web address -or an e-mail password- without getting at least a couple of letters wrong. This problem also creeps up while talking on the phone, as it’s difficult not to press keys with the side of your face.