Mobile Version
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Mar
12
Why I Returned the Blackberry Storm
March 12, 2009 | Tagged Apple, att, blackberry, iPhone, iphone alternative, macintosh, mobile, return, review, storm, Verizon | Leave a Comment
In a previous post, I talked about Why I got the Balckberry Storm. A couple days ago, I returned it and went back to a non-smart phone. Let me tell you why.
Over the course of the last year and a half, I have gotten quite used to (and fallen a little in love with) my iPod Touch.
When my Motorola Razr finally died about a month and a half ago, I toyed with the idea of switching to AT&T just so I could get the iPhone. In my research, it seemed that AT&T cell & 3G coverage just does not compare with that of Verizon (whom I have been with for nearly 8 years now).
I decided to try out the Blackberry Storm (see the post to know more about why).
- From the very first day I had it, the Storm gave me trouble. I was not used to the ‘click’ touch screen. it required that I touch-select, then click the screen to activate. This is supposed to help avoid unwanted activations, but I just found it created a more frustrating and time consuming interface.
- Dialing phone numbers required additional layers of menus, click the phone icon, then click the contacts, or click the recent calls, then searching, which was not as simple as the ’swish’ glide you get with the iPhone, but instead, required multiple strokes across the screen to move to each new name.
- Downloading music and other applications was a time consuming, and ultimately pointless endeavor as there wasn’t really a good media browser on the Storm anyways.
- The Storm would not sync with my Mac laptops without downloading and installing additional applications (either free or paid) and having to get multiple applications to all work together and I do most of my computing on the Macs these days so this was a major frustration.
- At this time there are no (supported) third party applications for the Storm. Supposedly there will be a RIM Application store available by Spring 2009, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
- The fact that Blackberry is just trying their hand at touchscreen interfaces, the Storm was still extremely buggy. I am a bit of a power user and pushed the device (obviously) to its current limits with downloads, applications, internet browsing and streaming of music. It was crashing and freezing up multiple times each week I had it.
Are these reasons for other people not to get it? Absolutely not. Overall, I think that as an alternative to the iPhone on the Verizon network, the Storm is a good phone. For those that are used to the RIM style of organization (I actually really like the smart menu button) the Storm will satisfy.
For those that are looking for something similar to the coolness and usability of the iPhone, the Storm still has not got what it takes. Maybe give it another year to work out the bugs, clean up the interface and make some usability changes.
