RIM's Storm is a Washout 15 comments
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Last night I thought I’d get around to checking out the BlackBerry Storm (RIMM) that got so many rave reviews when it was announced by bloggers (like me) who’d never seen one.
In a word, it was disappointing. The performance of the network (1x not 1xEV) inside the Circuit City store was sluggish. As reviewers have noted, it was really buggy (a firmware update is apparently out but was not installed).
The browser was particularly awful. It updated the screen in splotches (almost as though it were doing server-side rendering). When I rotated the device the splotches (or tiles) got out of sync and so the screen was unreadable. I haven’t been able to find who made the browser, but this is not the WebKit-quality browser found on the iPhone and S60. The performance claimed in Endgadget was unrecognizable:
Thankfully the browser has been considerably updated. If you have any experience with RIM's last attempt at mobile browsers (the Bold), then you know what manna from heaven any fixes would be. 4.6's browser is, in a word, unusable. Load times are painful, rendering is only sometimes accurate, and mostly it's just a tortuous mess to get around in. We can honestly say that the Storm's implementation is leaps and bounds beyond what the company has previously offered.
The sales clerk rationalized the network performance — not implausibly, that there was poor radio reception inside a large 2 story building. But he said it was the worst BlackBerry he’d ever seen.
The reviews have been even more harsh. The most often quoted is the NYT review by David Pogue, which is relentless. Here is just a miniscule excerpt:
It can take two full seconds for the screen image to change when you turn it 90 degrees, three seconds for a program to appear, five seconds for a button-tap to register. (Remember: To convert seconds into BlackBerry time, multiply by seven.)
In short, trying to navigate this thing isn’t just an exercise in frustration — it’s a marathon of frustration. I haven’t found a soul who tried this machine who wasn’t appalled, baffled or both.
Apparently, Storm owners wrote in droves to agree. While I lack the BlackBerry benchmark to compare, there’s no way this device has the user experience of the iPhone (AAPL) I’ve borrowed or even the Nokia E65 (NOK) I bought last year with my own money.
Why did RIM ship a buggy device that would damage their reputation? Were they that worried about missing the Xmas sales season? Was it just an ordinary case of marketing promising a date that engineering wasn’t sure that it could make?
The other major disappointment was the virtual keyboard. Supposedly the clicking of the touchscreen was supposed to find a more realistic feel than regular touchscreens like the iPhone or Nokia N810. But it lacks the patented iPhone gestures for screen navigation.
Not only was the feel inadequate, but as with the iPhone — the screen goes away when you need the virtual keyboard. What’s the point of having a large LCD if you can’t use it?
The Google (GOOG)/HTC (HTC)/T-Mobile G1 and Nokia N97 (like many LG (LGERF.PK) and Samsung (SSDIF.PK)) phones have it right: a slide out keyboard is the real answer. However, I'm curious as to why there aren't more Bluetooth external keyboards available or in use.
Ideally, there would be something that 's portable enough to fit in a briefcase, but fast enough to support 60-80 wpm typing that an experienced computer user can hit. Something like the old GoType keyboard for the Palm PDAs, which I used for a couple of business trips and conferences. A Nokia guy told me he uses a Bluetooth keyboard with his S60 phone. Apparently one has been promised for the iPhone but not released.
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This article has 15 comments:
I have been using a STORM for about a week and a half, and it is clearly the most powerful smartphone on the market (no lag or loading issues on mine). As for the keyboard, you have a choice of horiz full qwerty or the vert suretype. OBVIOUSLY the keyboard will take some screen space (as with the iPhone), but it is not a hinderence (just a matter of preference for phone users).
It is really disturbing to see many reviewers just "follow the herd". Do you even care about the 3.2MP autofocus camera? The user replaceable battery? The memory card slot for microSD cards? The enterprise server flexibility? The robust email system? (All of which are missing or weaknesses of the iPhone).
Again, you have to spend more than 3 seconds with the phone to learn its shortcuts, and to understand all the really unique things "it can do".... but of course, you are in a rush to JOIN THE HERD! By the way, not all of had the lag or loading issues. Like I said, do a FULL review with the 3G coverage, and while using it for more than a few seconds in a store (try a week, and learning about it), lol :p If new users on youtube where whipping it out and typing with no issue....
I can't believe people get PAID for 5 second reviews.
It will teach RIM not to be so arrogant as to do everything itself. Why don't they use Safari WebKit from Apple, even Nokia does?
RIM becomes a bigtime sell.
And removable battery? Essential when your phone crashes and it becomes the only way to reboot...
Etc.. etc.. the arguments FOR the 'features' of the Storm are non-existent.
> these people have nothing better to do, all week long. this guy looks
> like his wearing his shorts, david pogues cuzzen or something. seriously,
> the storm is rimms is beta device, rims try at the consumer market,
> there are bugs but the fixes are coming. so far i am pleased i havnt
> had any of the issues you complain about. and no one gets it right
> the first time even the first generation iphone had its quirks...and
> even today the iphone crashes.. at least with this thing i can take
> the battery out-- cheers
Taking the battery out is supposed to be consoling? It's more than a quirk. It's a data loss problem! Doesn't it bother you what this quality issue brings up in terms of RIM's priorities?
And, to the fellow who thinks having a 3.2Mp camera is a big woop, well, I can assure you that camera doesn't hold a candle to my $100 Fuji F20. Good images require a large chip, just like film used to. The bigger the film, the better the underlying image quality.
A large imaging sensor, aka chip, requires depth between the sensor and the lens, so that the light from the lens can cover the whole sensor. Because the cellphone has a limited depth, (you don't want a superfat cellphone do you), there's a physical limitation on how big that chip can be, and ultimately a limit on actual image quality. As pixels get smaller, in the same size chip, they get hotter. Heat creates noise in an image and blurs pixels. The fact is more pixels IS NOT necessarily better for your image. That's a physical truth.
The ideal pixel size for a minimum of noise is about 6 microns. That's what you'll find in DSLRs. Given the typical chip size in a cellphone, the optimum chip is for the best pixel quality is 1 megapixel. Got that? The optimum chip size based upon optimum pixel size of 6 microns is 1 megapixel for a cellphone.
On Dec 05 02:20 PM KenC wrote:
> LOL, @lcpcp, you DON"T NEED To take the battery out of the iPhone.
> You can easily reboot it by holding down two buttons. You know, you
> called the Storm a "beta device". That's an indictment right there.
>
>
> And, to the fellow who thinks having a 3.2Mp camera is a big woop,
> well, I can assure you that camera doesn't hold a candle to my $100
> Fuji F20. Good images require a large chip, just like film used to.
> The bigger the film, the better the underlying image quality.
>
> A large imaging sensor, aka chip, requires depth between the sensor
> and the lens, so that the light from the lens can cover the whole
> sensor. Because the cellphone has a limited depth, (you don't want
> a superfat cellphone do you), there's a physical limitation on how
> big that chip can be, and ultimately a limit on actual image quality.
> As pixels get smaller, in the same size chip, they get hotter. Heat
> creates noise in an image and blurs pixels. The fact is more pixels
> IS NOT necessarily better for your image. That's a physical truth.
>
>
> The ideal pixel size for a minimum of noise is about 6 microns. That's
> what you'll find in DSLRs. Given the typical chip size in a cellphone,
> the optimum chip is for the best pixel quality is 1 megapixel. Got
> that? The optimum chip size based upon optimum pixel size of 6 microns
> is 1 megapixel for a cellphone.
I was new to Blackberry (and touchscreen keyboards) so I was excited to get a storm.
It was a horrible experience trying type on it. I practiced for 2 weeks and just couldnt do it. But I learned the blackberry OS and fell in love with features. (BTW, I was the 3rd person returning a storm today at the Verizon store.)
The curves keyboard looks small but i can type on it with VERY FEW mistakes. It is a pleasure to reply to emails (couldnt with the storm) and navigation is soooo much easier with a trackball than with sliding your fingers around the storm then depressing the whole face.
Storm tried to be an iphone and it just idnt make it. LOVE RIMhowever, and will be a crackberry addict in about 2 days.
Buy the curve. Forget the storm.
Hope this helps you.
Having to press on the screen as if it were a button is a deal breaker.
Give me a real internal battery anyday. If I ever drop the device, the last thing I want is the batter coming out, loosing my data, and the flimsy little door breaking off. Besides it makes for a really fat, ugly device like the blackberry (any model).
They may be flying off the shelves but good thing Verizon has a 30 day return policy. I imagine a lot of these phones being returned. I'm actually glad they sold out and I never got one. Think I'd be really disspointed. RIMM was clearly trying to amp up there last quarter sales before the holidays but RIMM is expierencing
Personally, my mom works for Verizon, so I was told that I would be disowned if I had any other wireless carrier. I've always liked the idea of the iPhone, and the Storm is the closest thing that I can get. It should arrive some time this week, and then I will know whether I made a good decision or not.
But in the mean time, I don't think you should be fighting with each other over what phone you like better. Some people want the iPhone with those cool Apps they show on TV (my favorite is the Urban Spoon App commercial!), and others like the Blackberry name and the e-mail applications they offer.
It all boils down to preference. You can't argue with someone about their likes and dislikes. I like blue and pink, but orange and yellow are not my favorite colors. Anyone wanna tell me how stupid I am for not liking yellow? I didn't think so.