Hands-On Look At the BlackBerry Storm 2

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?"

Re:Disappointment of the Palm Pre?

[NiteShaed]

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.......

Now, hopefully the apps will start to flow a little faster. There are some nice ones out now, and more every day, but I particularly would like to see the Sirius/XM player, Skype, and eReader come out soon.

Re:LOL

[Anonymous Monkey]

Yeah, let's not talk about Android. Actualy the way I cut up phone users by what they do with their phone:

1) Cell Phones: people who make calls and take some pictures (aka my mom and dad)

2) Cell Phones with Keyboards, text heavy IM users who make calls, (aka me, my wife, ect).

3) Smart Phones: Appointments, e-mail, text msgs, perhaps twiter, and phone calls (My boss and his blackberry buddies)

4) The iPhone: People who mostly use internet access and send messages.

And on a related note, I was out for pizza the other night and counted over 10 iPhones. The reason they were so easy to spot was that people who had them were face to the phone and not talking for most of the night. Once it was the joke that Nerds would prefer to IM than talk, but in the collage/partying side of the restaurant it was all nose to phone, and in the back their was a Magic the Gathering group that was laughing and talking and interacting with each-other. Perhaps the next joke will be that every one likes IM and txt better, but nerds are trying to be all smart practice using their vocabulary and talk face to face.

Re:"feels just like clicking a button"

[bluesky74656]

I think there's something to the fact that the iPhone's auto-correction is more suited to a touchscreen than the Blackberry's. I've found that while the Blackberry's spell-check is very good for people who sometimes make spelling errors, the iPhone's is much better about fixing fat-finger syndrome.

I would almost be tempted to say that the iPhone's spell-check puts more weight on where keys are located, while the Blackberry's is more of a straight dictionary search

Re:"Developers, Developers, Developers..."

[mafian911]

I agree completely. To me, the blackberry is a bit of a relic. They can dress up blackberry's with new tech and a fancy new OS, but I have to say, the developer experience remains horrible. I'm surprised that Blackberry still has the reputation it has, to be honest. They may have been the first "cool" smartphone, but they can't ride that wave forever. If they want to continue to be a player in the smartphone market, they may need to reconsider their content strategy. I suppose they can survive by holding their place as the "corporate phone". Corporations don't need content for their employees. They don't need data plans. They may be able to hang on in the "boring" smartphone space for a while, no doubt... Windows Mobile will be there only competitor there. As for unseating iPhone... no chance. Not with their content model. It won't touch Android either, in my opinion.

On VZW do I want the Storm 2 or Android?

[edmicman]

Serious question - I'm a dumbphone user finally wanting to move to a smartphone, and in the next couple of months. I have to (read: want to) stay on Verizon, and don't want a Windows Mobile phone. I've decided on either the Storm2 or the upcoming Android phones, but am not sure which to go with.

Essentially what I want is a phone that I can email/message/facebook/twitter/do tasks/organize my life with. I want to be able to browse the web, but I don't see myself spending lots of time doing that; usually I see it just looking up something quick. I also don't see myself as a big apps/games user, but then again having never had that experience I don't know - maybe I would if the opportunity were there.

From what I can tell, my impressions are:
BB pros:
better build quality
good (best?) messaging/email ability (I don't really know, but figured that was their background so it must be very good?)
relatively proven track record for phones like this

BB cons:
lack of webkit browser (aren't they supposed to be working on this? when? would the S2 get it eventually?)
generally "closed" system
I have the perception there's less consumer app development for BB than with other platforms

Android pros:
webkit browser
open system
app development seems to have more potential, especially with consumer apps

Android cons:
how is the messaging? Does it work well?
still young...although that doesn't bother me that much
from what I have seen of the VZW leaks, the form factors don't seem as nice as the BB.

Having experience with neither, I don't really know if I have a preference between hard or soft keyboards.

Thoughts or advice?