Re: Anyone got a BlackBerry Storm2?

Post #318,553 by jones 12/14/09 10:11:29 AM Reply	Re: Anyone got a BlackBerry Storm2? I've had the Storm for the past year and have not used the Storm2, or for that matter never used an iPhone for more than a few minutes, so not sure how valuable this information is, but these are my thoughts: If you really like the iPhone, you will probably not like the Storm2. The best analogy I can give the Storm/Storm2 is it's a business man trying to be hip and cool. It gets the business end of things done well (email rocks, it multitasks 3rd party apps, you can put apps on it whether RIM approves them or not, you can tether, and it's pretty darn reliable), but doesn't do hip and cool well (multimedia is ok, camera and video are good though, not as many cool and fun apps as iPhone, web browser plain sucks). Web browser they are working on, supposedly currently in the process of developing a webkit based browser for the BB platforms finally. There are really only two big complaints I have about my Storm and that is not enough memory (Storm2 doubles this), and the typing is mediocre (Storm2 has improved significantly, but without trying it I'm not sure if it's almost as good as physical significance). But bottom line, it's a different beast than the iPhone, it doesn't have near the application support, and it's just one of a long line of BlackBerrys that are not touchscreen so the amount of good application support will probably always lag some. But for business use, I still would pick a BB as my primary choice. That all said, I'm seriously looking at that Droid or a successor in the Android space when my contract is up next year, now that I don't need my personal phone for primary business usage (I have another BB that is job supplied for that now).
Post #318,554 by pwhysall 12/14/09 10:33:27 AM Reply	I do love my iPhone. But two things are killing me right now: voice quality (outgoing) and battery life. Battery life is unchanged since I got it 18 months ago. My current work patterns involve possibly being away from a charger for 18 hours plus. This poses no problem for my work phone (a Nokia E51) but the iPhone - well, I'm forever turning 3G off and on, and the Bluetooth, and the wireless. Can't be bothered with all that. But the real kicker is voice quality. I don't know what's different about the iPhone mic, but it seems to be very good at picking up everything except me. If I'm not in a reasonably quiet situation (say, I'm walking down the street and traffic is passing by) then people simply can't hear me very well. Not a problem on the Nokia. The Storm2 has been receiving good reviews, and I've been interested to note that the numerous problems with the Storm seem to have been rectified, especially around the touchscreen. What I'm currently looking for is a better comms platform than the iPhone (I have a 16GB iPod touch to which I'm going to transfer all my apps), with more integrated messaging and more work-friendly battery life. Don't get me wrong: I love the iPhone. I think it's a huge step forward in usability, it's easily the best gaming phone out there and the web experience is second to none. But I can do all of that on the iPod touch which I already have, and get a better messaging platform to boot. Tethering may be a big deal. Dunno yet, since the company provide me with a 3G dongle for my laptop. Might be nice to have a choice (O2 in the UK have absolutely piss-poor 3G coverage). What version of the BlackBerry OS are you running on your Storm? I'm led to believe that version 5, which Storm owners can install, rectifies a lot of the shortcomings of things like the web browser. In the worse-case scenario, I'll just sell the Storm2 on eBay and put the Vodafone SIM into my iPhone.
Post #318,555 by beepster 12/14/09 10:36:20 AM Reply	Bberry web browsing is painful iPhone still has the web, hands down. Bberry still has the office connectivity, and apple hasn't been able to clear up some nagging outlook issues. I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose freewill.
Post #318,566 by jones 12/14/09 12:57:10 PM Reply	Re: I do love my iPhone. I'm running version 5 of the OS. And the problems with the web browser are mostly just it's not that good of a browser although it has improved. But once RIM releases a webkit version of the browser (hopefully next year) it will improve significantly. That said though, I don't browse much on my phone anyway, as I use RSS feeds or apps for most of my data, and whip out the laptop and tether for real browsing. Battery power is good on the Storm, I'm not sure how much it has improved on the Storm2. I can kill the battery in 12 hours if I do a lot of bluetooth tethering, but if I'm just using the BB for regular use and phone calls, you could probably last that 18 hours (more likely with the Storm2). But is it still no multi-day phone by any means. I have to charge the Storm nightly. But... unlike the iPhone, you could get a spare battery if you wanted to. Call quality I have never had an issue with. Seems to be quite good, and that's from experience being on both ends of the call (my wife has the Storm too, as we got the BOGO deal).
Post #318,580 by drook 12/14/09 3:10:29 PM Reply	Have you tried Opera? Installed that during the day-and-a-half after they gave me the phone but before they applied the policy that disabled 90% of the features. -- Drew

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