Blackberry Storm: The only real competitor to the iPhone. (Blackberry Storm)

Member Name: aimeeMLVC

Product:	Blackberry Storm
Date:	09/10/09 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great variety of features, easy to use, up to 10 email accounts can be used.

Disadvantages: Battery life!

The Blackberry Storm is one of only a few touchscreen mobile phones currently available on the market, with the handset being exclusive to Vodafone.

RIM are known for their tailoring towards the business market with their Blackberry models that are all very email and web based. The Storm is no exception, with the ability to keep track of ten email accounts at any one time and the ability to purchase both Microsoft Word and Excel, which come built into the phone on purchase. The Calender is also a superb feature and is one of the better versions I've seen, whilst remaining simple and very easy to use.

However, with this model, they've tried to appeal to a wider audience by adding the novelty touch screen, which is a very nice addition, even if it sometimes freezes. There is 1GB of onboard memory on this device which is a very generous size that will allow you to store many thousands of texts and emails before it becomes full. But If you plan to use this device for a place to store alot of music and photos, you can also purchase a Micro SD card that will easily allow you to vastly increase the size of the phones memory.

Another very useful feature is the built-in GPS, which is the perfect addition if you travel alot, for business or personal reasons, and find yourself in an unknown place that you need to navigate. It has prevented me getting lost on many occasions and is also very useful when abroad and no-one speaks English! The only slight disadvantage of this however is it's tendency to drain the battery very quick, so is best used sparingly.

The Blackberry Storm comes with a very reasonable 3.2 megapixel camera aswell as the option to video record in high quality. Understandably, this isn't the best camera available due to the phones tendency to be for business uses, but it serves it's purpose.

Another fantastic feature is its built in instant messanger services. You have the ability to communicate via MSN (Windows Live Messenger), AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Google Talk, ICQ and even RIM's very own Blackberry messenger. These are all very easy to use and function very much the safe as they do on a PC or laptop.

With all of these advantages considered, there is one major flaw with the Blackberry Storm. The battery life. Granted, one expects that the battery life to be on the short side considering the phone has an integrated touch screen, but it is extremely poor. If I use the phone constantly for email, internet and phone calls, the battery lasts 9 hours at maximum! However, If you are considering purchasing this phone, a good trick is to phone up RIM and complain about the battery life and they will send you another battery free of charge, which is not ideal, but a perfect back-up if you are caught short.

Overall, I would thoroughly recommend this phone that was considering purchasing a new phone, as long as you have the option to charge the device up every night.

Summary: An excellent phone for business or personal use.

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