Blackberry Storm2 9520

Product: Blackberry Storm2 9520
Website: Vodafone Blackberry Storm2
System Specifications: Blackberry OS 5, 3.25-inch 480x360 touch screen, 3.2MP camera, 3.5mm audio jack, email, SMS, MMS, internet access, mp3 player, video player, 2GB memory, microSD slot, Quad band, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi
Price: Free on a £35 contract with Vodafone from October 26th

RESEARCH IN MOTION abandoned its model of producing physical keyboard based handsets in 2008 and released a full touchscreen device called the Storm, with only a virtual keyboard for text entry.

The Canadian company has now unveiled a second full touchscreen handset, imaginatively called the Storm2. It is to be the successor to the original Blackberry Storm, with new touchscreen technology, an updated operating system and most importantly WiFi, which was sadly missing from the first handset.

We recently spent some time with the new Storm2 mobile, enough to compile this Brief INQpression of the handset without thoroughly benchmarking and testing the device.

To the untrained eye the new and old models look the same with their large screens, same form factor and the same core email and text messaging functionality. It's only when we look a little deeper that we find the handset has changed somewhat for the better in most areas.

The Storm2 touchscreen is the first of the significant changes from the original Storm. Underlying the surface of the 3.25-inch display is an electro-mechanical mechanism for interpreting the touchscreen requests, whereas the previous handset had a purely mechanical mechanism. The original Storm had one large plate suspended just under its raised screen for reading touchscreen inputs. When pressed, the screen moved inwards a slight distance.

Selecting an application or any item on both the original Storm and the Storm2 is still performed by just touching the display, while launching that item is done by pressing down on the moveable screen which retracts slightly and then returns back to its starting position.

RIM has done away with the large plate under the screen and has replaced it with four smaller sensors. These sensors are located under each corner of the display for a more accurate reading and interpretation of the user's touch request as compared to the earlier single large plate.

Both of these technologies provide tactile feedback and fall under the RIM technology name Surepress. In the prior version of Surepress the mechanical mechanism had its flaws and critics. On the first Storm the interpretation of touch requests was not entirely accurate all of the time. We've been a Blackberry Storm user since it launched, and we were also one of its harshest critics. Upon using the two Storms side by side, we found that the new electro-mechanical mechanism is much more precise compared to the first mobile, by a large measure.

This new Surepress technology also makes for faster typing, where you are now able to press down on the screen in rapid succession, while in the past you really couldn't mimic typing on a real keyboard. These four sensors also offer the capability of multi-press on the virtual keyboard, with the combination of holding down the shift or alt key plus another, which also wasn't possible with last year's Storm. We've seen multi-touch used on the Storm2 to zoom in and out of images; although it's not the Iphone's ‘pinch to zoom in and out', it's still a move in the right direction for RIM.

There are some miscellaneous benefits to the new touchscreen. On the previous handset the screen moved in and out whether the phone was powered on or not. As the new Surepress technology isn't just mechanical but is electro-mechanical, the screen doesn't move with the handset powered down or even in standby. This could very well help prevent wear and tear in the long run, or even help avoid general faults with the movable part of the screen in everyday use.

If placed side by side the screens appear to be the same, although the clarity and sharpness on the Storm2 (seen on the left in the picture above) is much better. The resolution of 480x360 is the same as before, only the picture on the Storm2 phone is distinctly clearer in every respect, to the point that it comes across as if you are viewing an SD TV picture on the Storm compared to an HD TV screen on the Storm2.

Other notable changes in the Storm2 are the omission of the physical send, menu, return and end call buttons from the first Storm. These have been replaced by touchscreen versions in the same place on the phone, only they're seamlessly integrated into the display. There are also some subtle aesthetic changes to the Storm2 case, with improvements that make the rear shape more curved and easier to hold. The speaker is moved from the rear of the phone and is now placed on the bottom of the mobile. Also the Storm case back's two fingered latch removal mechanism has been replaced with a regular one fingered latch on the Storm2. Internal memory has been upped from 1GB to 2GB. RIM has also adopted the microSD 2.0 spec with the Storm2, using 32GB microSD card storage devices.

The volume, voice command and camera buttons have been changed from metal into rubberised black versions and are still embedded in the case's side. This change does blend well with the new design and colour scheme, along with being more comfortable to use.

RIM has also moved the 3.5mm audio jack from the side of the phone. It's been moved more around to the rear, where it's now a seamless addition with its bulky rim removed. We feel it would have been more preferable for RIM to put this on the top of the handset, which would have been better positioning for plugging in earphones for listening to music in or out of a pocket.

There has also been some curious movement of the power buttons on the Storm2. The red 'end call' button was previously used to power on the mobile, where in the Storm2 its non-call related feature is just to lock the handset. Pressing down on the top of the first Storm locked the mobile, but that operation is now used to power on the Storm2. We asked why this particular change was made, with no real reason being the answer.

Research in Motion has bundled in with the Storm2 a brand new operating system, which will be made available to the original Storm after the newer model hits the shelves. The new platform, known simply as version 5, appears to be an improvement over the 4.7 mobile OS shipped in the first handset model. Storm2 seems to respond better and function faster than the Storm using the original OS if the two are matched against each other in operation. However this could also very well be down to a new processor or chipset that RIM hasn't disclosed to the press.

Noteworthy mentions in the new OS are the multi-threaded text and instant messages, for keeping easy track of those many SMS and Blackberry IM conversations. There's better auto completion and spell checking during text entry, which coupled with the now faster method of typing offers a better all around experience. The menu animations or transitions now maximise and minimise in a way similar to that of the Iphone, rather than just appearing full screen when launched. There's also kinetic scrolling on the new phone, much the same way as menu scrolling is performed when sliding a thumb down the Iphone screen. Searching on the Storm2 has been greatly improved, where holding a finger over a person's name in the inbox automatically pulls up all their emails, a method that also works with the subject line.

Lastly is the cut and paste feature on the new Blackberry handset. In the past text selection for cut and pasting has always been rather clumsy and a bit hit and miss, where it didn't work a great deal of the time and was rather awkward to use. RIM has vastly improved the overall method in version 5 of the OS, where selecting text is performed by marking where to start and then where to end, with everything in-between being copied. It is now much easier to use, where previously cut and paste led to headaches and simply not using it was the more preferred option.

RIM has told The INQUIRER it has improved web surfing speeds by up to 20 per cent with a new web browser, compared to the first Storm. Sadly Flash is still missing from the bundled browser, although RIM recently purchased the company Torch Mobile, which is known for its Iris web browser for mobiles. This webkit-based browser features Flash integration, so we could be seeing Flash featured in the new rev of the OS or an update to the platform in the near future.

One of the biggest changes from the first Storm handset to the Storm2 is the addition of WiFi. It's been a feature of other RIM handsets for a while, although not strictly needed in those workhorse corporate mobiles. Accompanying those models and also nearly all Blackberry phones is unlimited email access as a part of the contract, although it might be argued that, in a handset that is supposed to be used for email and calling, WiFi could be seen as redundant.

RIM and Vodafone are aiming the Storm2 at more of a consumer market where surfing the Internet and getting apps and media onto the handset can be greatly improved by WiFi's better downloading speeds. It's here we believe that WiFi will show its true worth in the Storm2. 

In Short
The Blackberry Storm2 comes across as a better handset than the first Storm, but it does appear to just be a service pack rather than an entirely new handset. It's almost as if this handset directly addresses the flaws and problems that users of the original Storm complained the most about, especially where those issues couldn't be fixed by software updates. The touchscreen now responds better, features and capabilities of the OS that irked many users are now fixed and RIM has included WiFi, all of which were faults in the first model. What the Canadian company really hasn't done is improved upon the handset to make it really stand out as a compelling advance from the Storm, a trick we believed it has sadly missed. µ