So the Storm arrived on Monday morning, and I was very excited while opening the box and getting ready to play with it. I promise you I will try to minimize the times I mention the words "iPhone" and "iPod Touch" in this post, because if we take them away I can make a truly honest review of the Storm. With them, things are just not fair. Anyway, I was expecting a lot... kinda like that "wow wow" moment when I first saw an iPod in Texas or when I bought my iPod touch last year. As a result, when I finally had the Storm in my hands the first thing I could say was "it looks... so.. fragile." The screen is one big button, and in order to click it has to be separated by a few millimeters from the body of the phone, and then on the back we have the battery cover, which is actually removable. It felt shaky and wobbly, and not a solid one piece device like the you know whats. When I turned it on, after reading the brief and not very detailed manual that comes with it, something very strange happened. I was feeling like an idiot. I was frustrated because Verizon/the Storm were not doing what I expected. First, I tried to transfer my contacts from the backup assistant online tool, since I have been paying for this service. No such luck, as Verizon Blackberrys are not compatible with it. Well, I had to re-enter my contacts manually one by one (I know some magicians at Verizon stores do this with other software, but I see no reason for going to the store when you buy the phone online. That defeats the purpose). The clicking was complicated, and some of the links are too small. I kept clicking in the wrong place and fighting with the text-entering modes. Once my contacts were in, I called someone and the sound quality was worse than what I had with my Motorola KRZR. Plus, those hard to click icons are suddenly super easy to click with your cheek when you are on a call, and that activated my speakerphone over and over again.
Ok, time to play with some media. Let's add some music and songs. First try: bluetooth. No such luck. The phone didn't let my Mac send files to it. Second try, connect it to the computer. No such luck. It only plays with Windows. Ok, let's go to Windows then. Wait here 20 minutes as Vista starts up and updates all the things it needs to update. I installed the Blackberry desktop software and then... for the first time I said "wow." I could just drag and drop mp3s from my computer to the Storm's memory card. No need for iTunes or other middleman software.
That's when it clicked: the Storm is a nice little Smartphone. Emphasis on phone. It is not a portable mini Macintosh like the iWhatevers. If I expected it to behave like a portable computer, then it would never make me go "wow." As a phone, the Storm has a lot of cool features, but it also has a strange interface of clicks and touches. The video and audio quality in media is very good, and once I spent a few hours customizing many features, I am finally happy with it. Anyone who comes to the Storm looking for an iPhone under Verizon is a moron. And anyone who spends too much time in a love affair with a Mac and forgets that Windows, ugly slow and buggy as it is, can have good things, is also a moron.
So.. I guess I do like the Storm. Part of this feeling, of course, comes from the fact that I am stuck with it for two years, but I don't think it's a bad smartphone. If you ask for my advice on buying a Storm or an iPhone, I will send you to get the iPhone. Regardless of its performance as a telephone (or AT&T's service), the iPhone is truly a revolutionary device. The Storm is not. It is a nice and fancy phone with more emphasis in play than in actual call quality sound.
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