BlackBerry Storm appears on video, sucks*
128 comments
Filed in 1xRTT, BG's Corner, BlackBerry, CDMA, HSDPA, Handsets, UMTS, Verizon
*According to the “ninja” who “reviewed” it. Like we reported, the whole screen is a button, and the method of navigating the phone involves using the physical buttons, and then touching and clicking the screen to select something. Basically a hot mess. Man, that on-screen keyboard looks like death ran over twice. Skip to around 2:55 for the BlackBerry Thunder / Storm action. Comments please…. ?
Thanks, R.!
Tags: BlackBerry, RIM, storm, thunder, Verizon
It’s ok so far, to be honest. At least it doesn’t have a stylus (as yet!), so BB is making this all thumb-usable. If the scrolling through menu’s and UI is as receptive to touch as the iphone is, I would seriously consider switching over to Verizon.
I’ve had a Treo 680, and a Nokia N95. And The only devices to catch my attention so far have been, in order:
a) The Andriod “G-phone” for T-mob
b) Nokia 5800/Tube
c) Blackberry Storm.
The 2 htc’s, well…not up to my taste, simply because they contain WinMo
….not to mention the UI lag. Another mistake that companies of these touchscreen phones make is add really crappy input options (other than the touchscreen) to hide the clunkiness of their own OS.
For eg: I owned the samsung Omnia for a week. The stylus was ghastly dangling from the side, and thumb scrolling was possible in only 2-3 places. So they had to make a mouse-pointer like device which doubled as a 4-way scroller as well. And I needed that because scrolling up and down through menu’s or selecting something would 50% of the time be unresponsive at first touch, or select the wrong function.
Similarly for the HTC touch Diamond with it’s “touch pad” and scroll wheel. To be honest, I kinda like the ‘zoom-in’ ability of the iphone, and to select a wheel thingy to zoom-in, then select something else again while browsing a webpage or whereever else the scroll-wheel is used…it’s just clunky.
So I really hope this Storm becomes more touch-responsive, and has capacitive touchscreen which’ll make it more thumb-friendly, imo.
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Get used to the BGR love for At&t… Use this site for the pre-release pics and launch dates. Anything beyond that simply accept their biased views as a comic read. I am hearing more and more people turning against this site and it will show in the future. BGR could care less if their integrity is slowing fading, they feel Godly.
As for the Storm, there is no way this will be the finished product. This phone will be a huge success. I don’t think it will be an Iphone killer, but still a success.
I have a friend who told me earlier tonight he was pre-ordering the new Palm simply because he was so tired of no MMS on his Iphone. If the other carriers would launch ad campaigns on this one feature it would make a difference in sales. Everyone one that tells me an iphone is in their future and I inform them of “can’t send pics to another phone” it’s a deal breaker.
Storm will have a more polished product for us I am certain.
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Its obviously not the final version. You can actually see for a brief second when the on screen keyboard shows up, how it switches from a better looking one to the grey dull one we’ve seen. It just look buggy over all as well. Also I don’t see where BGR got the info from that vid confirmed that the physical buttons did the navigating. Nothing there confirmed that. Nothing there confirmed anything worthwhile, as a matter of fact. Horrible “review” if you wanna call it that.
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So BG,
One other thing, this guy is a Mobile QA Engineer for Yahoo supposedly. If that’s true, unless I’m wrong, these types of individuals often times only have early prototypes of devices because they only need to have them with a working version of the software to make sure that their software is compatible, correct? Meaning, what he’s holding is by no means a finished or even closed to finished product. This is definitely most likely an early prototype with just a working version of whatever OS is on the phone because that’s all they need.
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Wow is it just me or doest the Storm look thick? I hope that’s not the final version… I am looking forward to it even though this “ninja” didn’t like the touchscreen.
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I don’t see how anyone can come to the conclusion that the thunder sucks after a 30 sec intro by a retard wearing a rag on his face.
From what I see the device looks very promising.
At least its on a network that you can actually MAKE a phone call on.
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Are we really going to trust some dude who said that the Touch Pro has a 2 megapixel camera when he was holding the device in his hand, looking at the back of the device where it clearly states 3.2 megapixel? He lost all credibility in that one instant. As for the BB Storm. Well to each his own. To me, it looks alright, but I surely wouldn’t switch back over to Verizon to use it. And also, RIM has their own little niche carved out in the Business Enterprise area. So I’m having a bit of trouble understanding why they feel the need to compete directly with the iPhone.
And lastly, sure maybe the site is a bit biased towards AT&T as of late, but wasn’t there an article yesterday written about how they were dead last in every category for JD Power and Associates? Just checking.
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Well I would hardly call that a review. It was if it was the first time he had ever touched a BlackBerry. Hell he couldn’t remember the name of teh device when he picked it up. It was good to see it in brief action, but like everyone else I am sure - We’re looking forward to a real review and true hands on.
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I hate to admit it, because I’m a huge fan of BlackBerries, but I am pretty disappointed with what I saw in that video. I know that some of you guys are saying to wait until the final release is out, but the news that we’ve read about this device thus far has been pretty congruous. The head of RIM publicly talked about how he feels it’s difficult to type on glass, suggesting that there’s a better way to do it (although I’m not so sure making the whole screen a button is the solution), and BGR reported that this device would work this way. Now we’re seeing it in action. The whole screen moving up and down (it’s been reported to be glass) seems like it would be so awkward, not to mention that it’s just going to create another avenue for dust and lint to make its way into your phone. Can anyone say, “too many moving parts”?
The fact that Brew Ninja is referring to this device as the “Thunder” and not the “Storm” gives us a little hope that what we just saw was an older video of a possibly early prototype device, but something tells me that this is asking for too much.
I commend RIM for trying to do it differently, but I don’t think this type of hardware was the best way to do it. It just doesn’t seem very quick to use, especially that scrolling you have to do just to reach the lower icons in your home screen. I hate that shit, where you have to pause and wait for the device just to be able to do something. How did anyone feel that was a good idea?
Also, many of us have seen the stills of the Storm in both qwerty and SureType mode, but this video made the keyboard look much more convoluted and harder to type on. Maybe it’s just me.
Based on this video and putting together what’s in it with what I’ve read so far on this device, there is nothing about this phone that makes me want to buy it — other than it’s a novel BlackBerry that I expect won’t last too long in the marketplace. I don’t expect Verizon to meet its quota but I also don’t expect to see other carriers rushing to get this phone into their catalog, since from what I can tell it looks like a real dog.
Oh, RIM, why couldn’t you get it right? I was so looking forward to having a touch BlackBerry. But in a way I’m not surprised. I’ve often wondered how BB was going to pull off a touch UI with the existing OS. Apple did a great job reinventing their existing computer OS for a mobile device, and I was hoping I’d see likewise a unique OS made just for the Storm. Yes, RIM made one, but this video made it look like more time was spent on the hardware than on the software. I think they should have taken another year to develop this thing further. It’s going to be an embarassment and may turn consumers who are new to BB and starting with this device, away from BB.
I will wait and see but, like BB King (pun intended) said, “The thrill is gone.”
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Have you not checked BBerry’s website to find that they have the software to synch to your Mac?
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Nokia E71 is the best phone out there.
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I have high hopes for the Thunder/Storm. My only fear is that there trying to rush it out when its not done. Yeah I know about the delays and stuff but there still pushing to get it out soon. I would much rather wait an extra few months for them to fix it up and make it as close to perfect as they can. They just need to say something about so that people who are ready to upgrade now know that this is something worth waiting for.
@jspeed04
Ita about the bias stuff. Yeah they a little slanted but almost every site is like this now. Plus if people really knew BGR, they would know how many BB scoops they had and how many posts have been dedicated to BB. Its like if BGR says one bad thing about another phone/company all the crazy people come out. I just tend to ignore them and they’ll go away eventually.
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It’s cool to hate stuff.
The Storm ‘Review’ was destined to fail as he only identified the things he ‘didn’t really like’ on early code. Using the keyboard from behind like that shows us nothing and only real hand-on with gold code will tell.
I hold no stock in this ‘review’ and nor should anyone else.
BG needs to check his BB hate. BlackBerry made him. Does he resent that?
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Oh wow, I should of read over that before I pressed submit.
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See, you could be lying to me, you know, but that would make some sense. You’re telling me “companies better watch out” meaning that there are loads of informants out there?
A ton. Nothing is safe. And to clear something up, people said I work for RIM, I do this, I work for Cingular (NOW ATT) - I have never worked for any company in the tech world, ever. I am under no NDA so anything and everything is open season. People said RIM gave me the Pearl, etc.
RIM is probably the tightest company I have seen - the fact they didnt sue over the Pearl showed the transition they are making. 5 people get fired over leaking one photo, so that was huge. Good job RIM. They understood “viral marketing” and how it played a big role.
Wait, I said multiple Boy Genius‘ ? There’s like a 100, man…Or maybe only one. Who knows? Also, I want to shoutout the Engadget team. They are part of the reason I have been so vocal, they gave me an avenue to speak.
THIS EXLAIN THE FACT OF THE LOVE FOR AT
&T ON THIS WEBSITE…. BIAS.
http://www.blackberrycool.com/2006/12/exclusive-boy-genius-interview-white-pearl-8800-and-9xxx-information/6/
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I dont know whats worse thenew os or that ninjas annoying voice
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that wasn’t a real review of the phone. i see it has potential and looks great! get a real review before you say it sucks
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All I have to say is “Ha Ha Ha”. The new RIM should be called the RIM Joke, not the Storm. Rotating the phone 180 degrees makes no sense, especially if you get a call… “… can you hear me now, ah good, I had the phone turned around and was talking into the ear piece.”
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I don’t know - If the only problem was that you actually have to push a button (instead of just touching it) it may be good for people who’s fingers are too large for the iPhone. Combinded with a landscape keyboard it might actually be decent for typing.
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having to push the button hard is not good, seems like its unnecessary. Definately let down by this but will needs to see it in action again.
All the BG haters are still traffic, BG wins again.
and the ninjas voice was soo annoying.
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I wonder if there are some sensitivity settings for the screen that Mr Ninja didn’t adjust before the review.
I’m not headed for a touch-screen device. However, I think that I will wait for a comprehensive review, of a known current model, by someone without a facemask before passing jugement.
This thing may be really good or really bad. We need to learn more.
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See, I kinda like it, for two reasons, mainly:
1.) It retains a degree of familiarity for the die-hard physical QWERTY keyboard users.
2.) It bypasses one of the biggest problems I had with WinMo: accidentally selecting things when I moved a finger or stylus across the screen.
Also, I echo the others who said that it’s possible that this is/was an earlier model and that the device is leaps and bounds beyond that at this point.
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The whole point of a BlackBerry is to have the tactile feel of a keyboard. I’ve tried typing on an iPhone and I keep missing keys and constantly misspelling everything. On a BlackBerry it’s quite easy to type. In going with making the screen a “giant button” they have kept the tactile feel of a keyboard while producing a wonderful touchscreen. I say kudos to RIM for not being a lemming and following the iPhone crowd and doing things the way they feel is right. I’ll be trying out a Storm when it hits Verizon. I can’t wait to see how it performs.
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RIM is the Microsoft of the phone world. Yes they have the most popular product in its class but people are sick of the old and non-innovative approach.
Just like Windows is facing threats from Apple, so is the BlackBerry. BB nails email and stability among other things, but it lacks polish, fun, and has too steep of a learning curve (for the general public). The iPhone wins because it’s the first phone that can make a regular person setup email, browse the web, load mp3s, install apps, use wifi, sms, etc. Phone manufacturers have been trying for years (and failing miserably) to make people want to do this stuff on their phones but the user experience was total shit. Now Apple comes along with their very first phone and absolutely nails it.
Like it or not there is a HUGE untapped group of customers with extra cash to burn that don’t own a smart phone. Apple is snapping them up one by one. RIM has to be scared as hell that after so many years of attempting to perfect a phone Apple comes along and with one shot proves to the world how far behind we really are with phone technology. As a sales rep for at&t I find it really hard to recommend the BlackBerry to a non-business consumer who is thinking about stepping up to an email capable device. The iPhone is simply too easy to use and provides a way better overall experience all things considered.
And lastly it’s say to see RIM fail miserably at trying to branch out of their comfort zone and deliver what people actually want. Well LG and Samsung too for that matter.. well… everyone but Apple
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Phone looks great. Usual BGR bashing. AT&T and iPhone hugging is the norm around here.
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