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It seems that mobile phone manufacturers are busy designing and preparing “iPhone killers”, mobile phones that use a touchscreen instead of a keyboard. Until now Apple’s iPhone has proven to be a real success and it proudly stands above all smart phones.
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Storm has just been released and people are very excited to try it out and are actually thinking that the new BlackBerry might pose a real threat to the iPhone. On the other hand, The BlackBerry Storm is not an attempt to create a true iPhone killer, but to give BlackBerry users and fans the possibility to enjoy the newest technologies that are available at the moment.
The price of the new device is set at $199 through a
two-year contract with Verizon and a $50 mail-in rebate and it is expected to
become the first real competition for Apple’s iPhone, not only considering the
price but also the features offered.
The minimum plan offered for this release is $49.99 for data
only, without any voice services. For both voice and data, users will pay a
total of at least $69.99, with $29.99 for the personal data plan and $39.99 for
the 450-minute voice plan. It includes e-mail and Web browsing, but the SMS
text messaging features will only be available for an additional $5 to
$20/month, depending on how many messages they include.
Storm is BlackBerry’s first device that features the
touchscreen technology and the market’s expectations are extremely high. The
Storm has a large display of 3.25 inches, with a resolution of 360 by 480.
It has a 3.2 mega pixel camera with flash and a 1400 mAh
battery that will ensure about six hours of talk time on 3G networks or 15 days
of standby time. The screen supports multi-touches, taps, slides and other
gestures, which will allow users to highlight, scroll, pan, and zoom. The
device is equipped with an 8 Giga Bytes microSD memory card, which can be
exchanged with a 16 GB version.
Critics who have tested out the Storm have generally given good reviews, mentioning the phone’s smart SurePress system, that was designed to give the user the feeling that he’s actually using a keyboard and not a touch sensitive screen. SurePress allows the user to actually press the screen down in order to give certain commands.
The only problem with this is that SurePress has a weird learning curve that might not appeal to some. After a while, controlling the phone becomes natural and pretty intuitive, but a small amount of time is, indeed, needed in order to get familiar with the controls.
A thing that received many good grades was the phone’s Internet browser, which works very well and its cursor hovers above the user’s finger an not underneath it, like it is the case with other similar phones. This is a good thing because one knows exactly what he’s pressing, the view not being obstructed by the user’s finger. BlackBerry Storm also has its downsides and, maybe, the most noticeable is the lack of Wi-Fi.
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