Hands-On Look At the BlackBerry Storm 2 213
Barence writes "PC Pro has had time to play with the new BlackBerry Storm 2, and came away impressed. The new touch system garners the most praise, doing away with the mechanical click screen of the original Storm — the new screen gives a kind of localised haptic feedback which 'feels just like clicking a button.' The phone, announced today, also includes Wi-Fi, BlackBerry OS 5, and increased storage, so it's looking an enticing prospect. After the disappointment of the Palm Pre, could this be the smartphone to beat?"
Blackberry would be more compelling (Score:5, Informative)
If there was more direct data in/out to the device, versus "securely" routing everything through RIM. That model seems like it makes sense in a 1999 way, but now it just makes it awkward to use them outside of a BES environment.
The iPhone may be a closed platform, but at least data I/O isn't forced through Apple's servers.
Re:Disappointment of the Palm Pre? (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, I don't get that. I absolutely love my Pre. And to answer your question, Exchange syncing works great.
Re:"feels just like clicking a button" (Score:5, Informative)
I am so used to the iPhone "keyboard" now that I can essentially touch-type. Sometimes I fat-finger it and hit the wrong key, but the correction feature is pretty good about that. I'm not saying the iPhone is better or worse than other smartphones; merely, it's what I have now, and the typing does not feel much different than when I had a Blackberry.
FWIW, I type roughly 85 words a minute on a full-size keyboard (with 95% accuracy).
Palm Pre (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Disappointment of the Palm Pre? (Score:2, Informative)
I'll second that, and I also appreciate being able to connect to the wireless network at my office with it (WPA Enterprise), which nobody's managed to do yet with an iPhone/iPod Touch.
Pardon me? Nobody? This has been a feature since iPhone/iPod OS 2.0 came out and I have been running it ever since then.
As a former Storm owner (Score:4, Informative)
Clarification (Score:2, Informative)
When I say above "being able to connect to the wireless network at my office with it (WPA Enterprise), which nobody's managed to do yet with an iPhone/iPod Touch", I'm talking about a specific network (at my office), not all WPA Enterprise networks. For whatever reason, a Pre can connect with no problem, but iPhones/iPod Touches do not. Oddly, OSX laptops connect just fine as well, so I was surprised when other Apple products had trouble.
Re:On VZW do I want the Storm 2 or Android? (Score:3, Informative)
despite the HTC Touch Pro2 [verizonwireless.com] running WinMo, you won't know it unless you intentionally go there. VZW already has a Winmo 6.5 update, and the XDA chefs are great as always. I had an older WinMo phone and I absolutely, unquestionably understand your aversion to the platform. But unless your concerns are philosophical (i.e. ABM), go give it a look. Seriously. I had an iPhone and couldn't believe I had tortured myself with one for as long as I had. A co-worker of mine owned a Curve and a Storm. He played with mine for all of 90 seconds and said "does Verizon have it?" (I've got the T-Mo version). He had one the next week and couldn't be happier.
And I'm not employed by any company involved, nor am I a $PLATFORM fanboi. The TP2 is simply the best phone that I have ever owned.
Re:"Developers, Developers, Developers..." (Score:3, Informative)
data [mactropolis.com]