BlackBerry Storm 9500

SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions (WxHxD): 62.2x112.5x14 mm; Weight: 155 g; Display: 3.25-in, 360x480; Memory: 128 MB RAM, 1 GB storage; Camera: 3.2 MP; Network: Quad-band, 3G, EDGE and Bluetooth.

 

The Storm 9500 exudes sturdiness with slim chromed lines and you just cannot miss the brilliant 3.5-inch SurePress touchscreen display. It sports a resolution of 360x480 pixels and an accelerometer for screen rotation. Though it is 3G ready, video calling might be a bit of a problem considering there’s no secondary camera. The 3.2 megapixel AF camera comes with a single LED for a flash and is located at the back. Even though there seemed to be plenty of place for a hot swap slot, the Storm, like all other BlackBerry devices has its microSD card slot located under the rear panel.

 

Features

Running on a BlackBerry OS with a 624 MHz CPU the Storm is decently quick, but like most other touchscreen handsets, it does have a few kinks that need to be worked out. There’s sometimes a bit of lag when it comes to typing in certain fields. Even though the phone has tap-screen technology, you can still swipe your finger over the screen for navigation though and this is one of the better features of the handset.

‘Documents to Go’ is the software used to support Word, Excel and Power Point. The absence of a PDF reader, however, is still painfully evident but like with the other handsets, those files can be opened and viewed when sent as an attachment. The Blackberry Storm is a 3G device not unlike most of the other new handsets out there in the same class. The BlackBerry Browser’s rendering of pages was also faster on this device, as compared to some of the others. Strangely, the phone has no Wi-Fi capability.

Aside from USB 2.0 connectivity, the Storm is also fully Bluetooth 2.0 ready with an A2DP profile for use with Stereo Bluetooth headsets and of course all regular functions like file transfer etc. Part of the Storm's arsenal is a built-in GPS antenna with A-GPS support.

A handy Facebook application is available and although it’s well designed it does not have basic functions like checking out what other people have sent you or notifications you received. What it allows you to do is update your profile in all ways possible – send messages, invite friends, poke people, write on walls, and even upload images taken with the handset's camera.

 

Performance

The Storm’s audio player is simply brilliant. We didn’t think that the bundled hands-free earphones were the best choice for listening to music as they began to jar a bit at peak volume. The Storm’s 3.2 megapixel camera is quite good. There are limited settings though. Aside from image stabilizing, there’s white balance, geo-tagging and color type. Images taken in normal daylight settings look pretty good with a fair amount of detail retained. Colors do seem to get a bit dulled but not completely washed out. The handset’s autofocus lens also allows for macro without a dedicated setting that needs to be activated. We were expecting a fairly decent talk time from the 9500 and it delivered. With a full two day usage of the handset that included surfing the net, messaging, a little music and calls, we were quite happy. Talk time on an average clocked in at about 4 hours and 10 minutes (give or take a few minutes), which is not too bad.

Overall it’s great with multimedia and email but the lack of Wi-Fi, Maps and the few odd glitches we encountered were an issue for us. It’s otherwise on the whole quite a well equipped, well rounded device for social networking, media and business. To be brutally honest, we didn't find anything special about this device, to make it seem more productive for existing BlackBerry users.