The BlackBerry Storm2 9550 finally delivers on the original Storm 9530's promise. It's a powerful device with an innovative click screen that really works—and it feels finished instead of like an engineering prototype. Having said that, the Storm 9550 is now a proper version of last year's groundbreaking smartphone. Is that good enough for an Editors' Choice award, given all that's happened in the wireless industry in the past year? It's a tough call, but we have to say no because of its unimpressive Web browsing and underpowered camera.
Design and Touch Screen The click screen—the source of so much controversy surrounding the original Storm—is entirely new. It's a 3.3-inch, 360-by-480 pixel SurePress glass touch screen that supports 65K colors. The four front-panel function buttons are now touch-based and integrated with the rest of the glass. Colors appeared a little warmer and more natural, with less of a bluish cast. The Storm2 also supports multi-touch, but only in certain cases. You can copy and paste text by holding two fingers on both ends; double-tap a word and drag handles appear. It's buggy, though; the drag handles jump around and sometimes leave graphic "ghosts" of themselves in spots. Double-tapping also zooms, which isn't as natural as the iPhone's two-finger zoom or the Imagio's touch zoom slider, but it works in a pinch. The scrolling is also inertial: you can swipe the screen, let go, and watch it roll to a stop. As before, turn the Storm2 on its side and the accelerometer calls up the landscape QWERTY keyboard; stand it up and you can choose portrait QWERTY or SureType arrangements. Voice Quality, Messaging, and Web Browsing Web browsing isn't one of the Storm2's strong suits. Its HTML browser renders desktop sites well, but slowly (even in 3G). It also streams audio and video but lacks Flash and two-finger zoom. Scrolling around Web pages felt jerky. Plus, the bottom icon bar was finicky; it didn't always appear on cue. Safari on iPhone, Android, and Opera Mobile all offer better mobile browsing experiences. On the other hand, messaging capabilities rule—just like on all BlackBerrys. The Storm hooks into ten e-mail accounts and pushes full HTML messages. Text messages are now threaded and color-coded. For instant messaging, RIM pre-loads BlackBerry Messenger, but also throws in shortcuts to download clients for Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, and AIM, and even Google Talk this time. DataViz DocumentsToGo is on board for viewing, editing, and creating Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. The A-GPS radio works with VZ Navigator for voice-enabled, turn-by-turn directions (at $9.99 per month extra). The Storm2 features BlackBerry OS 5.0, along with the same 528 MHz CPU as before. You can buy third-party apps through BlackBerry App World; there are about 2,000 in the catalog currently. Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions The 3.2-megapixel camera includes auto-focus, image stabilization, and an LED flash. The operative word is "dark." Instead of collapsing into excessive noise, the Storm2's camera simply refuses to reproduce anything without enough light; all you get is black. In sufficiently bright environments, photos looked OK overall, without any glaring faults. Shutter speed was just over a second; I didn't see much motion blur with or without image stabilization. The Storm2 also geotags photos, displays maps alongside pictures, and shares geotagged photos with Flickr and other services. Recorded videos—now at 480-by-352 resolution—were very smooth at 26 frames per second. But the same problem persisted; crank the lights or forget about seeing anything in the recordings. In short, the shrewdly updated Storm2 is easier to recommend than the first model. Just a few weeks ago, we awarded the HTC Imagio with our Editors' Choice, as it was the best of an otherwise unremarkable bunch of Verizon smartphones. The Imagio includes true broadcast mobile TV (in appropriate coverage areas), a larger screen with much higher resolution, a better Web browser and camera, a more attractive and responsive UI (at least before you hit all the horrid Windows Mobile dialogs), and it weighs slightly less. Even if you think Windows Mobile 6.5 is a five-year-old OS with a fresh coat of paint—and you'd be correct—that's a lot for the Storm2 to overcome. The Storm2's screen is much better than before, but the UI still lacks the intuitive response of a device designed with touch in mind from the very beginning. If you're iffy on the touch screen, the BlackBerry Tour 9630 is your model. It's still an excellent smartphone and packs a stellar QWERTY keyboard, although the screen is smaller (albeit at the same resolution as the Storm2). Verizon really needs at least one more smartphone OS, be it iPhone, Android, or webOS. Until then, the Storm2, Tour, and Imagio are all solid choices. BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
The Storm2 looks a little sleeker and more refined. Essentially, it consists of fewer moving parts. The Storm2 measures 4.4 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.6 ounces. It's heavier than the HTC Imagio, our current Editors' Choice, even though the Storm2 has a smaller screen and no mobile TV tuner or kickstand. Touch keys on the top edge handle power, ringer mute, and screen lock functions. Other shortcut and volume buttons are now rubberized. The Storm2 is still mostly black, although RIM darkened the chrome accents. The brushed aluminum back panel feels classy, and remains as before with the exception of the speakerphone (more on that in a moment).
As a dual-band EV-DO Rev A (850/1900 MHz), quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), and single-band HSDPA (2100 MHz) device, the Storm2 is a true world phone that hits high speed data networks here and overseas. It also works as a data modem with the appropriate BroadbandAccess Connect plan. The Storm2 finally includes Wi-Fi; I didn't think this was a big deal given Verizon's pervasive 3G coverage, but many folks clamored for it, so there it is. Voice calls sounded superb, with a bright, edgy tone that accented each syllable clearly. There was no hiss, static, or other untoward background noise in either direction. Reception was questionable; a nearby BlackBerry Curve 8330 on Verizon hung onto EV-DO mode more tenaciously in rural areas. This grossly affected data speeds but not call quality. The new bottom edge-mounted speakerphone is loud and clear; you can plop the Storm2 on a table face up without muffling the sound. Calls through a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset sounded fine, and the Storm2 includes visual voicemail and nuance voice control. Battery life was good at 5 hours and 44 minutes of talk time, though that's an hour and a half off the pace of the original Storm. (And that was with the new Wi-Fi radio off.)
The Storm2 includes 2GB of on-board memory and a 16GB SanDisk microSD card in the box; the card slot is underneath the battery cover, which pops off smoothly. A proper 3.5mm headphone jack is on the right side near the top. The Roxio-based Desktop Media Manager comes along for the ride, and RIM finally unveiled a proper Mac syncing app. AAC and MP3 tracks sounded bright and a little hazy over Motorola S9-HD Bluetooth headphones. The Storm2 syncs iTunes and Windows Media Player music files; it also displayed large, beautiful album art thumbnails when available. Verizon also offers its Rhapsody-based subscription service. Standalone video playback was superb. While the Storm2 choked on my WMV and HD files—the former was unexpected, since the original Storm played them—it played 3GP and MP4 video very smoothly, with vibrant color and clear stereo sound through the headphones.
Continuous Talk Time: 5 hours, 44 minutes
