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Cell phones blackberry, Cell phones, cellphone, rim, storm

The good: The HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint offers better performance and supports Sprint’s EV-DO Rev. A network and multimedia services. The Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone also features the cool TouchFlo interface and has integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

The bad: While performance is greatly improved over the unlocked Touch Diamond, there’s still some sluggishness. The virtual keyboard is cramped and may give some users problems. The Touch Diamond also doesn’t offer an expansion slot.

The bottom line: The HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint brings some nice additions and improvements over the unlocked GSM version–most notably to performance. It’s best suited for first-time smartphone buyers or light users, while business customers should wait for the Touch Pro.

Specifications: OS provided: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1; Band / mode: GSM 900/1800/1900; Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth; See full specs

Price range: $249.99

The HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint showed up a little early to the CTIA Fall 2008 party, after a certain news outlet leaked the information prematurely. However, our concern wasn’t so much over the broken news but, rather, would Sprint’s version be better than the unbearably slow unlocked Touch Diamond we reviewed back in late June? And the answer is yes. The Sprint Touch Diamond is noticeably snappier, though the Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone can still get bogged down when too many applications are running. You do get the boost of Sprint’s EV-DO Rev. A network and wireless options aplenty, with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. There’s plenty to keep you entertained, too, with support for the carrier’s multimedia services and a dedicated YouTube application.

Now, whether we like it or not, the Touch Diamond will and already has drawn comparisons to the Apple iPhone. Is the Touch better? Well, it has many good points. The TouchFlo 3D interface is cool and helps make the Windows Mobile device more intuitive, but you still can’t beat the iPhone’s ease of use and Web browsing. That said, for Sprint customers looking for a smartphone to balance work and play (serious business users may want to hold out for the HTC Touch Pro) and want more functionality than the Samsung Instinct can provide, the Touch Diamond is a good choice. The HTC Touch Diamond will be available for pre-order starting September 14 and will cost $249.99 (after rebates and discounts) with a two-year contract.

Design
By name, the HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint is the same as the unlocked GSM version. However, a number of design changes inside and out make the Sprint model almost like a new device. First, the smartphone has more rounded edges and gets a splash of color with a burgundy back cover that features a smooth soft-touch finish. We were a little torn since we liked the cool prism effect of the GSM version, but also liked the color and feel of the Sprint model. Obviously, style is subjective so your preference may differ, but in general, we’d say both are attractive devices.

The Sprint Touch Diamond is slightly thicker and heavier than the current GSM Touch Diamond, but overall it’s still a very compact smartphone, measuring 4 inches tall by 2 inches wide by 0.6 inch deep and weighing 4.1 ounces. It feels solid and comfortable to use, and you should have no problem slipping the handset into a pants pocket or purse.

That said, we recommend using some kind of carrying case in order protect the gorgeous 2.8-inch VGA that dominates the front of the smartphone. The touch screen displays 262,000 colors and has a 640×480 pixel resolution for an extremely vibrant and crisp screen. It was definitely easy on the eyes whether we were viewing images, e-mails, or Web sites.

Of course, the allure of the Touch Diamond is the 3D TouchFlo interface. In general, it works the same way as the unlocked Touch Diamond. There is a toolbar along the bottom of the screen that lets you scroll left to right and launch applications with one touch. In several of the programs–more specifically e-mail, the camera, and music–you can go through your files and messages by swiping your thumb/finger up or down the screen, all with a cool animated 3D effect.

The Home Screen and interface has been tweaked and customized for Sprint. You still get the larger clock and you can view such information as upcoming appointments, missed calls, and new messages. The toolbar icons are slightly different, a little more aesthetically pleasing in our opinion, and you also get a dedicated Sprint TV shortcut. As far as ease of use, there’s a slight learning curve to the TouchFlo interface. Basic navigation is pretty simple to master, but once in other applications, it can be confusing as to how to return to the previous screen or which swipe motions apply to the specific app.

As for text entry, you can use the onscreen keyboard, which you can switch from full QWERTY to compact QWERTY to phone keyboard or other formats, depending on your preference. Most of the time, we used the full QWERTY mode. It’s pretty cramped; we had a number of mispresses and we weren’t able to fire off text messages or e-mails with as much confidence or as fast as we could with a tactile keyboard. The other nuisance is when you have the keyboard open, it takes up about half of the screen, so if you’re entering text into any field on the bottom half of the screen, it’s covered up and you have to use the scroll bar to get back to the section.

Below the display you get some tactile controls, including Talk and End buttons, a Home shortcut, a back key, and a directional keypad with a center select button. The latter is also touch sensitive in certain applications. For example, you can use your thumb or finger to make a clockwise or counterclockwise circle to zoom in/out of Web pages. In addition, you can press the navigation keypad up, down, left, and right.

On the left spine, there is a volume rocker, while the mini USB port and stylus holder are located on the bottom. A power button is located on top of the unit and on the back you’ll find the camera lens. We think there are a couple of flaws. First, the USB port serves as the audio jack and though Sprint includes an audio adapter in the box that has a 2.5mm and a 3.5mm headphone jack, we’d rather have the 3.5mm jack just built into the device. Also, like the unlocked GSM version, the Sprint Touch Diamond is not equipped with an expansion slot. True, there’s 4GB of internal memory, but for those who have large multimedia libraries, this might be an issue.

Sprint packages the HTC Touch Diamond with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a wired headset, a headset adapter, a belt holster case, an extra stylus, a software CD, and reference material. For more add-ons, please see our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.

Features
With the flashy TouchFlo interface, HTC Touch Diamond doesn’t seem like your typical Windows Mobile smartphone, but if you dig deeper you’ll find the usual suspects. The Touch Diamond runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition with the full Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for editing native Word and Excel documents, and viewing PowerPoint presentations. In addition, the phone features Windows Live integration, and while you can use Internet Explorer Mobile, Sprint’s Touch Diamond also ships with the Opera Web browser, which many argue is a superior mobile browser than IE. Other PIM tools include Adobe Reader LE, a Zip manager, a voice recorder, a calculator, a notepad, and a task manager (located at the upper right-hand corner of the screen) to help optimize CPU and memory usage.

The Touch Diamond supports Microsoft’s Direct Push Technology for real-time e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization with your Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts via Exchange Server. You can also configure the smartphone to access POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, which, in most cases, is a simple process of inputting your username and password. We were able to set up our Yahoo account on our review unit with no problem and started receiving e-mail within a few minutes. Sprint offers a download that installs three of the major instant-messaging clients–AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live Messenger–onto the phone.

Voice features include a speakerphone, voice dialing and commands, speed dial, and text and multimedia messaging. The address book is only limited by the available memory and you can store multiple numbers for a single entry, as well as home and work addresses, e-mail, IM screen name, birthday, spouse’s name, and more. For caller ID purposes, you can pair a contact with a photo, a caller group, or one of 64 polyphonic ringtones. The smartphone also has Bluetooth 2.0 that supports mono- and stereo-Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, file sharing, dial-up networking, and more. If you want to use the Touch Diamond as a modem for your laptop, you will need to sign up for a Sprint Power Vision Modem Plan, which runs $39.99 per month for 40MB or $49.99 per month for unlimited.

Whether you’re using it as a modem or just cruising the Web on your device, you should get some good speed given that the HTC Touch Diamond works with Sprint’s EV-DO Rev. A network. The Rev. A bumps up download speeds to the 600Kbps-to-1.4Mbps range versus 400Kbps-to-700Kbps, while upload speeds will average around 350Kpbs to 500Kpbs (compared with EV-DO’s 50Kpbs to 70Kbps). In short, you’re going to get faster Web browsing, e-mail, and downloads–that is, if you live in a coverage area (you can find a coverage map from Sprint’s site. Alternatively, you can also hop onto any available hot spot, since the smartphone also has integrated Wi-Fi.

The final wireless feature on the Touch Diamond is GPS. A utility called QuickGPS is also installed on the device to speed up the time it takes to find your position; it works by downloading the latest satellite information via an Internet connection. You can get some basic navigation tools with Google Maps but for more robust capabilities, you’ll have to turn to a location-based service (LBS) like Sprint Navigation. The LBS offers turn-by-turn text- and voice-guided directions, traffic updates, local search, and more. Sprint Navigation is free for the first day of use, but afterwards, you will have to pay $2.99 per day or $9.99 per month for unlimited use.

The HTC Touch Diamond wants to provide you a nice balance between work and play, so there are plenty of entertainment features on the smartphone. To start, there’s support for Sprint’s various multimedia services, including Sprint TV and the Sprint Music Store. Sprint offers these services as part of the Sprint Power Vision pack, which ranges in price from $15 to $25 per month. Sprint TV gives you access to programming from a variety of channels, including CNN, Comedy Central, and Sprint Exclusive Entertainment. In addition, you can listen to live streaming music and talk radio from Sirius, VH1 Mobile, and MTV Mobile. Meanwhile, the Sprint Music Store offers simultaneous track downloads both to your PC and wirelessly to your phone. Songs cost $0.99, or you can get a six-pack for $5.94.

You can, of course, transfer your personal library to the smartphone. Windows Media Player 10 Mobile supports a number of audio and video formats, including AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, WMV files, and more. The HTC Touch Diamond also has some multimedia extras, including a YouTube-dedicated app, a streaming-media program, and a utility called MP3 Trimmer that allows you to cut and trim MP3 files and make them into ringtones. Given all this multimedia goodness, we have to say again that we’re disappointed by the lack of expandable media.

Finally, the Touch Diamond is equipped with a 3.2-megapixel camera with up to 4x zoom and video recording capabilities. There are six capture modes (photo, video, panorama, MMS video, contacts picture, and picture theme). For still photos, you have a choice of five resolutions and four quality settings, in addition to white balance and brightness controls. Other tools at your disposal include a photo counter, a self timer, flicker adjustment, and various effects. In video mode, you get four resolutions as well as white balance, brightness, and effects.

Picture quality was a little disappointing, since colors looked very dull and flat. It’s too bad since objects were clearly defined and otherwise looked good. Video quality was also pretty poor with very dark and grainy clips.

Performance
We tested the dual-bad (CDMA 850/1900; EV-DO Rev. A) HTC Touch Diamond in San Francisco using Sprint service and call quality was decent. On our end, the audio was mostly clear but at times we could hear a slight background hiss. It wasn’t anything that interrupted the conversation, and we had no problems using an airline’s voice-automated response system. Meanwhile, our friends had no complaints and were impressed by the clarity of the phone call. Unfortunately, speakerphone quality wasn’t the greatest for either party. Volume was pretty weak on our side, our callers said we sounded tinny, and there was a slight echo. We had no problems pairing the Touch Diamond with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset or the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.

The most impressive thing we noticed about the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond is how much more responsive and snappier the smartphone felt in general usage. We didn’t experience any of that frustrating delay when trying to perform simple tasks like switching between menus or launching applications. That said–as with other Windows Mobile devices, the more applications we had in use, the slower the device responded, particularly some of the multimedia features like Sprint TV.

As far as multimedia performance, music playback through the phone’s speakers sounded a bit tinny and harsh. There wasn’t very much warmth or bass to the songs. Video quality was mixed. We watched some clips using Sprint TV and YouTube and the picture quality was pretty atrocious, with lots of pixelation and some interrupted playback. However, when watching a WMV clip from our personal library, it was perfectly fine. We used both Wi-Fi and Sprint’s network to connect to the Web and had no major issues.

The HTC Touch Diamond’s 1,340mAh lithium ion battery has a rated talk time of 4.2 hours. In our battery drain tests, we were able to get 4.5 hours of talk time on a single charge. According to FCC radiation tests, the Touch Diamond has a digital SAR rating of 0.85 watt per kilogram.

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Product summary

The good: The RIM BlackBerry Storm features an innovative touch screen that provides tactile feedback to confirm your selection. The Storm offers dual-mode functionality for world-roaming capabilities as well as EV-DO Rev. A and UMTS/HSDPA support. Other highlights include GPS and a 3.2-megapixel camera.

The bad: The Storm’s SurePress touch-screen takes some acclimation and the onscreen keyboard is a bit cramped. The smartphone can be sluggish and buggy even after the firmware update.. Speakerphone quality was a bit choppy

The bottom line: The RIM BlackBerry Storm may blow in a frenzy for Verizon Wireless subscribers wanting a touch screen similar to the Apple iPhone. However, there are bugs and performance issues that prevent the Storm from delivering its full potential.

Specifications: OS provided: BlackBerry Handheld Software; Installed RAM: 128 MB; Band / mode: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / UMTS 2100 / CDMA 800/1900 (Dual Band);

Price range: $199.99

CNET editors’ review

Editors’ note: We have updated the review since its original publish date to include changes to performance after installing the official firmware update for the BlackBerry Storm released by Verizon Wireless on December 5, 2008.

The RIM BlackBerry Storm brewed up a lot of hype and excitement as the first touch-screen BlackBerry. The touch capabilities were news enough alone but add to that Research in Motion’s SurePress functionality (the technology that makes the screen clickable), an impressive feature list, and the competitive $199.99 pricing, and there were a lot of expectations for the BlackBerry Storm to succeed. However, when the Storm finally blew into town, it was a definite letdown because of the phone’s sluggish performance and bugginess.

Verizon Wireless has since released a firmware update that improves some of the issues but not completely. The Storm is a faster, better device after the upgrade, including the responsiveness of the accelerometer, and improved battery life. However, the phone still has various bugs and just doesn’t feel quite like final product. There may be subsequent updates that resolve all the problems, but we would have preferred RIM and Verizon waited a while longer to make sure the BlackBerry Storm was stable and solid before releasing the device, even if it meant missing the holiday rush.

Design
In terms of form factor, the RIM BlackBerry Storm doesn’t stray far from the other full touch-screen smartphones on the market today, including the Samsung Omnia and Apple iPhone. Sporting a black casing with silver accents, the handset is a bit blocky and heavy at 4.4 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch deep and weighs 5.6 ounces, so it feels a bit wide when you hold it in your hand and it’ll make for a tight fit in a pants pocket. That said, the Storm is a well-constructed smartphone. It has a nice, solid feel and the edges have a soft-touch finish to provide a better grip.

While the Storm’s design might not be the most inspiring, the smartphone’s display is another story. Obviously, the fact that the Storm is the first touch-screen BlackBerry is news enough, but its 3.25-inch VGA glass display also demands attention for its sharpness and brightness, showing 65,000 colors at a crisp 480×360-pixel resolution. We weren’t as impressed with the Storm’s screen as the BlackBerry Bold, but it’s still beautiful. You can also adjust the backlighting, font size, and type. The Storm is also equipped with an accelerometer, so the screen orientation will switch from portrait to landscape mode when you rotate the phone from a vertical position to a horizontal one, left or right.

Moving onto the touch-screen capabilities, the BlackBerry Storm uses SurePress, so that when you select an application or enter text, you actually push the screen down like you would any other tactile button. You can see a bit of a gap at the top and bottom of the screen, which but makes the phone. In terms of text extry, the BlackBerry Storm features a SureType keyboard when the smartphone is in portrait mode and then switches to a full QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode (See Performance section for more information). When using the keyboard or selecting applications, you do a simple finger touch over the item until it’s highlighted and then you press down on the screen to register the action.

In addition to the SurePress technology, you can also use a number of finger taps or swipes to perform certain actions. For example, you can tap on the screen twice to zoom in on a Web page or map, or do quick finger swipes to scroll though a page. Also, to copy/paste text, you just touch the screen at the start of the text and then with a second finger, touch the end of the block of text you want to copy. You can adjust the tap interval, hover point, and swipe sensitivity in the Options > Screen/Keyboard menu.

While the SurePress technology is cool, it definitely takes some acclimation. It’s not a natural feeling to physically push down on the screen, and we often found ourselves forgetting to actually press down; instead just tapping or double tapping on the letter button or link. You do get used to it after a while though, but as far as e-mail creation or text messages, we missed having a tactile keyboard. We couldn’t comfortably type long messages as fast as we wanted and when we tried, the message was riddled with errors. The keyboard buttons are just a bit too small and cramped. If I had problems with my small hands, I can only imagine it would be worse for users with larger thumbs.

Below the display, you do get a set of tactile navigation controls that consists of Talk and End/Power buttons, a Menu key, and a clear button. Unlike other BlackBerry models, there is no trackball navigator and we have to admit that we missed it. It may be that we’re just used to having the trackball, and often we found our thumb automatically looking for the control while trying to scroll through pages and menus. However, even beyond that, we think it wouldn’t hurt to have a trackball navigator since it allows for easier one-handed operation. Also, you wouldn’t always have to rely on the touch screen and it would be useful for certain operations like for selecting links on a Web page.

On the left side, there’s a user-programmable shortcut key and a micro USB port, while the right spine has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a volume rocker, and another customizable button, which is set as the camera activation/capture key by default. The camera lens and flash are located on the backside, and behind the battery cover, you’ll find the microSD/SDHC card holder and SIM card slot. Finally, though not readily apparent, there is a device lock and mute button on the top edge of the Storm.

Verizon Wireless packages the RIM BlackBerry Strom with healthy set of accessories, including a travel charger with various adapters, a USB cable, an 8GB microSD card, a SIM card, a wired headset, a software CD, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check our cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.

Features
While the RIM BlackBerry Storm might be the first touch screen for Research in Motion, the company wanted to make sure the smartphone offered the same feel and functionality of previous and current BlackBerrys. The Storm runs the latest BlackBerry OS 4.7, bringing an updated user interface much like the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Pearl Flip. You now get DataViz Documents To Go Standard Edition, so you can now edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files as well. If you want the capability to create new documents, you will have to upgrade to the Premium Edition. We had no problems opening and working on Word and Excel documents, but we can’t imagine doing more than minor edits on the Bold or any other smartphone for that matter. Other PIM applications include a Calendar, a task list, a memo pad, a voice recorder, a calculator, a password keeper, and more.

The BlackBerry Storm also has the new BlackBerry Application Center where you can download more programs and utilities to your device. The full store is anticipated to launch in Sprint 2009 (though developers can submit their applications in December for approval), but there are eight applications currently available, including Facebook, Flickr, and various instant messaging clients.

For e-mail, the Storm can sync with your company’s BlackBerry Enterprise server, with support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise, to deliver corporate e-mail in real time. You can also access up to 10 personal/business POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail accounts via the BlackBerry Internet Service. Like all recent BlackBerry models, the Storm has a spell-check feature that will look for errors in e-mails and memos, but not text messages. There’s also an attachment viewer for opening Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect, PDF, JPEG, GIF, and more.

As a phone, the BlackBerry Storm offers dual-mode functionality, so the phone switches automatically between CDMA and GSM networks to offer seamless international roaming–all while keeping the same phone number. (Note that the phone does not support domestic GSM bands.) In all, you get voice coverage in 157 countries (22 of those on CDMA) and e-mail coverage in 62 countries. Just be aware that you’ll still incur roaming rates, which range from $0.69 to $2.49 a minute. Verizon also offers technical support if you need help while overseas. First, there’s a 24-hour Global Help Desk that’s open seven days a week. In addition, you get a calling card for free support calls while traveling outside of the United States from any landline phone to technical support your BlackBerry Storm is lost, broken, or stolen.

The address book is only limited by the available memory with room in each entry multiple phone numbers, e-mail addresses, work and home address, job title, and more. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a photo, group category, or one of 32 polyphonic ringtones. Other voice features include a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dial, and text and multimedia messaging. You can also download Visual Voice mail from the BlackBerry Application Center. Bluetooth 2.0 is onboard with support for a mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, serial port profile, phone book access, and dial-up networking. To use the Storm as a wireless modem for your laptop, you will need a subscription to one of Verizon’s BroadbandAccess plans, which start at $15 per month.

The BlackBerry Storm runs on Verizon’s EV-DO Rev. A network, which allows for faster Web browsing, e-mail, and downloads. The Rev. A offers an extra boost over regular EV-DO, bringing download speeds up to the 450Kbps-to-800Kbps range versus 400Kbps-to-700Kbps, while upload speeds will average around 300Kpbs to 400Kpbs (compared with EV-DO’s 50Kpbs to 70Kbps). Of course, this is all dependent if you live in a coverage area (you can find a coverage map from Verizon’s Web site. The smartphone also offers support for the 2,100MHz UMTS/HSDPA, so you can get 3G support while overseas. Unfortunately, there’s no integrated Wi-Fi, which we find disappointing. We realize and understand the argument that the 3G radios does away with the need for Wi-Fi, but we still like having that option, especially if you drop out of range or don’t live in a coverage area.

The BlackBerry Storm has a full HTML Web browser that you can view in Internet Explorer or Firefox mode, depending on your preference. You can check out sites in page view or column view, and navigate via pan mode or cursor mode. In pan mode, you can move around pages simply by dragging your finger and then double-tapping the screen to zoom in. To select a hyperlink, you just highlight the link and then click. Meanwhile, in cursor mode, you can just place the cursor over the link and click or use the onscreen magnifying glass to zoom in. There’s also a collapsible toolbar along the bottom that lets you go to new sites, change views, and more. There is support for streaming media, including YouTube’s mobile site. As we’ve said before, the BlackBerry browser has greatly improved over the years, but it’s still not as easy to use as the iPhone and its multitouch screen.

Last but not least of the wireless radios is integrated GPS. You can use the BlackBerry Storm as a handheld navigator, but to get real-time turn-by-turn directions, traffic data, and more , you will need to subscribe to Verizon’s VZ Navigator location-based service, which costs $9.99 per month or $2.99 per day.

Moving onto multimedia features, the BlackBerry Storm is equipped with a 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, as well a flash, auto focus, 2x zoom, and image stabilization. In camera mode, you get a choice of three picture sizes and three picture qualities. There are white balance settings, and you can add various effects to your photos, such as black and white, and sepia. With the built-in GPS, you can also geotag photos. As usual, options are more limited in camcorder mode as you only get a choice of two video formats (normal and MMS) and three color effects. The volume rocker can be used to zoom in and out in both camera and video mode.

Picture quality was subpar. While we could identify objects in the picture, they looked a bit soft and the colors were completely washed out. Video quality, on the other hand, was pretty impressive with good light and better image quality than other smartphones we’ve tested.

The Storm’s built-in media player can play various music and video formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI music files, and MPEG4, WMV, DivX4, XviD (partial support), and H.263 video clips. There’s a search function, playlist creation, shuffle and repeat, and you get a full-screen mode for video playback. The included software CD also contains a copy of Roxio Easy Media Creator, so you can create MP3s from CDs and add audio tags. Like the latest BlackBerrys, the Storm also works with the BlackBerry Media Sync application so you can load your iTunes library. There’s 1GB of onboard memory and 128MB of flash memory onboard, while the microSD/SDHC expansion slot can accept up to 16GB cards. Unfortunately, for now, it looks like the BlackBerry Storm will not support Verizon’s V Cast music and video services.

Performance
We tested the RIM BlackBerry Storm in San Francisco using Verizon Wireless service, and call quality was quite good. We enjoyed clear audio with no noticeable background noise or voice distortion, and we didn’t experience any dropped calls during our test period. There were also no problems using an airline’s voice automated response system. On the other end, our friends reported similarly positive results and said they had no problems hearing us. Unfortunately, the speakerphone didn’t fare as well. Both sides experienced choppy call quality as words occasionally were cut off. There was also some slight voice distortion on our end. Overall, we were able to carry on full conversations and volume was not a problem, but we definitely had to ask our callers to repeat themselves on more than one occasion. Finally, we successfully paired the Storm with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.

The firmware update definitely improved performance, but there are still multiple issues. We downloaded the software upgrade using the desktop manager, and the entire process went smoothly with no problems. The biggest improvement we noticed was the improvement in the accelerometer. The Storm was much faster to change the screen orientation when we rotated the phone. However, page redraws are still on the slow side and there’s continued bugginess. For example, while checking out a Web page, we turned the phone to check it out in landscape mode and the screen went on the fritz for a couple of seconds and went completely blank, though eventually the site came back up. Also, when we were listening to music, we changed orientation and the player controls started to flicker. Launching and using multimedia applications like the camera and multimedia player were definitely better, however, with faster response times and the problems with the inconsistent camera toolbar looks to be resolved.

Music playback through the phone’s speakers sounded blown out, though there was plenty of volume. Thankfully, the built-in 3.5mm headphone jack so should allow you to enjoy better sound quality. Video performance wasn’t quite as dazzling as the BlackBerry Bold’s. There was a bit more pixilation, but we still enjoyed smooth playback. Web browsing was pleasantly swift thanks to Verizon’s EV-DO Rev. A network. It took about 25 seconds to 30 seconds for graphics-intensive sites such as CNET to fully load, while the mobile sites for CNN and ESPN loaded in about 10 seconds.

The Storm’s GPS capabilities were great. It took the smartphone only about two minutes to get a fix on our location, and we used VZ Navigator to plot a course from the Marina District of San Francisco to CNET’s downtown headquarters. Route creation was quick and it was able to get us back on course in a timely matter after we purposely missed several turns. That said, the voice-guided directions sounded blown out at the medium-high level and too soft at the medium level, so that was a bit of a struggle.

The BlackBerry Storm comes with a 1,400mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 5.5 hours and up to 15 days of standby time. In our battery drain tests, the Storm offered 7 hours of continuous talk time on a single charge. The battery performance in day-to-day usage was better. Before the firmware update, the battery would already be at 50 percent after just a couple hours of using the phone, Web, and multimedia applications, but after the update, it would only be drained about 25 percent. One thing we noticed, however, after a period of use the phone gets a bit warm where the battery is located on the back.

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