The BlackBerry Storm 9530 will be released very soon from TELUS. The first touchscreeen by RIM is an incredible starting point and while playing around with this beast we found it incredibly easy to use.
In our first review we took a general overview of the device – everything from the 3.25 inch HGVA display (480×360), the cut and paste features, the 3.2 megapixel camera (with flash and autofocus)… all the way to the fast browser and dominant media features. This certainly has it all, plus the assurance of its e-mail backed by BlackBerry.
The keyboard can either be used portrait (20 key SureType keyboard which I’m not a fan of), or landscape with its full QWERTY keyboard. The touchscreen features are well designed as you actually have to click the letters or numbers you want so it still feels like the BlackBerry with physical keys. . I actually like this feature compared to other touchscreen devices as you will not hit a key by accident. The cut and paste feature is simple to you by simply highlighting the areas you want and with a couple clicks you are into typing your message. Other cool additions are when you hold your finger over a message it searches your inbox for similar messages and groups them together.
The weight is at 155 grams and feels good in the hand. It comes with 1 GB internal memory and can pack in another 8 GB which TELUS is throwing in when they officially launch.
The browser is a full HTML browser and we tested our site and a heavier site (CNN.com) and the speed was impressive and showed the pages as if they would on your computer at home/work. All you have to do to zoom in is click the screen, or use the magnifying glass shortcut on the menu bar.
There is only one key are that I saw that was questionable: Since you have to physically tap the screen continually it will be interesting to see how long until the mechanism gives. Also, if you are putting this in your pockets all the time I’m positive dust will gather between the keys and make them unresponsive at times. This of course is too early to tell.
Overall, in our first review there is not much that we can say needs improving. The speed was good, accelerometer was responsive, music was loud (comes with a 3.5 mm headphone jack), the pictures were good quality and the device as a whole was solid.
We’ll follow-up with our second review shortly. Enjoy the video:
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