BlackBerry Storm 9530 - 1 GB - Black (Vodafone) Smartphone

I have always owned Nokia N series range of mobile phones in the past, but decided that I needed a larger screen for internet access and reading lengthy emails. The Blackberry Storm I bought is simply superb, it certainly comes very close and in some aspects exceeds the iPhone without the price tag. Vodafone offer unlimited internet access for £5 a month that I have added to my contract, the email services that you need to request from your operator forward all your emails in real time, rather than an application asking to receive them The Blackberry storm had a great camera and video, with flash and powerful LED lights. The touch screen typing is very fast with version 5 operating system installed, it takes a day or two to get used to it, but once you've practised you can wizz through emails and texts a lot faster than conventional predictive text. I would highly recommend this phone to anyone wanting an all round mini laptop computer, there are thousands of apps for it, the media player is a class leader and the feel of the phone is high quality. Buy one and give the iPhone a miss !

The 9530 is the US version of Storm 2 known in Europe as the 9520, probably made in their factory in Hungary or Mexico...

It doesn't support GPS fully so Google Maps isn't possible to utilise however you can use the wonderfully inadequate Blackberry Maps which is frankly, well pointless really. So ok there's some restrictions but being here in Europe and that being the USA version it is cheaper on Ebay than the official European model so who's moaning. The 'double tap' screen takes some getting used to and as a bloke with average size fingers I find it difficult to use, as a Curve users of some years there's no physical feel and you need to look for the blue glow around where you touch and that's not always easily visable. The screen is good for browsing etc but poor in my opinion for text messaging and emails which now take me five times as long to write, no kidding and I type fairly fast on a keyboard.

Overall, stick with the Curve if you text and go with the Storm if you browse. Vocal quality is fine but the navigation can be overly complex.

The Storm's 9530 touch-button screen is the focus of this device

There are two options for working the screen. Using one of these, you slide your fingers across the screen to select an item or to shift between two items like the iPhone. Switching to the second setting allows you to select items by depressing the screen. Pushing the BlackBerry key (one of four keys on the front of the device) pulls up a list of menu items. You can navigate the menu by dragging your fingers to move across rows or columns and selecting items with a tap.

When I first picked up the Storm, I would just click right onto a button to select something the way I'm used to on an iPhone. I've since learned that I can rest my finger on the button first and then press in the screen to select. This doesn't take much longer than pressing the button right away as you would on an iPhone, and it greatly increases accuracy when selecting or typing. When you rest your fingers over a button to select it, it highlights blue. Although this is helpful in confirming your choice, it is also a little counter-intuitive because the letter or item that lights up is the one that your finger is on. If you have larger fingers, this could be a serious problem.

Though there are some inconsistent screen features that need development, the brightness of the screen is rock solid. The screen is so bright that I reset it to 10% and even at this level the screen is readable indoors and out.

Under ideal conditions, the screen works well, and is pretty fun to use. It's evident that the folks at RIM did their due diligence in researching and designing what the screen should do, how it should do it, and had a clear vision for the Storm's screen experience.

But there are two things to consider about the Storm's screen: One is how it looks and the other is how it functions. Does the screen look good? Yes, absolutely. Does it function the way it should, every time, without any frustrations? Absolutely not.


There are a number of other smaller issues with the Storm's display, too.

One of its quirks reveals itself at night. Because there is a gap around the screen -- about four paper-widths' wide -- when it's dark, you can see light around the edges of the screen. It doesn't distract from the Storm's functionality or impact its performance, but it is noticeable. Like seeing a light around the cracks in a door frame, I wondered what's going on behind it, and seriously considered opening it up to find out. In the end, rationality prevailed and I simply accepted it.

An oversight with no easy solution is the inability to use this phone when wearing gloves. The touchscreen is unresponsive, and even pressing the screen to select whatever is currently highlighted doesn't work. This is an issue with the iPhone as well. The hard buttons on the front of the phone mean you can still pick up and end calls, and even call the last person in your call log.

The Storm's creators kept its design simple and functional.

It has a trapezoidal shape with rounded edges. The screen dominates the front of the phone, and there are four simple buttons on the bottom: "talk", the BlackBerry menu key, "return", and "end/power". These keys, unlike those on the Bold, are proportional and do not take up more space than needed.
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The sides of the phone feature one convenience key on each side as well as volume buttons.
The back of the phone boasts a brushed metallic finish,with the camera lens and flash near the top of the devic

What a wonderful piece of technology. The phone arrived in good time well packed and as new, however it was locked to Vodaphone. First stop my local unlocker, having unlocked the phone I found, to my dissapointment, the phone would only function in GPRS mode i.e NOTHING MORE THAN A PHONE. All be it a very good looking phone. I then rang my service provider ORANGE, what helpful friendly advice they gave. I was informed that I would need to activate the Blackberry service, so feeling I'd made a mistake,as I am a pay as you go customer, I asked about the contract. To my amazment NO CONTRACT REQUIRED, just a £5 top up each month to keep the Blackberry service. EXCELLENT VALUE. So with the phone fully functional I was impressed.

The phone gives real time Email account access, very usefull, even has built in sat nav,word document reader, excel document reader and even a power point viewer.All this on top of the usual pda type aplications.

The phone itself is quite large, compared to a normal hand set, however the touch screen is amazing, and the clarity second to none. However the touch screen facility was a bit hit and miss and took a bit of getting use to. I fitted a screen protector and the touch screen function was improved beyond belief. Having used the phone for a few weeks I am still impressed, but the battery life is poor neading charging every 48 hours. If the excellent media player, that plays music, video, picture slide show and any voice notes that are made,is used the battery will nead charging daily. I have updated the phone to the latest software version, a painless task, using the excellent desk top software. The Blackberry Apps store is now open with many apps free. The range of apps is quite limited to date, however it's early days and hopefully they will fill the store with new and exciting apps to compare to the iPhone apps store.

So over all an EXCELLENT PHONE well presented WELL DONE Blackberry RIM.

This is my 3rd Blackberry in 3 years and I bought it because since purchasing my first one, I think I'll be a Blackberry user forever more. I have previously purchased/upgraded to Blackberry's via my own mobile phone provider, but I've been advised that the Storm will remain a Vodafone device so purchased this one from an eBay seller (and an excellent seller at that!)

The Storm or 9500 is Blackberry's first touchscreen device. Gone are the trackballs of old. I was surprised that the functionality of the phone was so good considering that RIM (Research In Motion) relied on the trackball for several of device models previously.



For those people that have Blackberry's already, scrolling around the browser pages takes some getting used to. The trackball would normally would have made it a doddle, but you have to use just the right fingertip pressure when 'clicking' the touch screen.

I love the way that the device recognises whether you are holding it in landscape or portrait view and changes the location of the icons/clock etc much like an iPhone. The Storm allows you to type on a normal qwerty keyboard as well as the Suretype version that many previous Blackberry users may be familiar with.

This is obviously RIM's answer to the iPhone. There is a Blackberry Appworld which delivers applications to the Blackberry. There are fewer applications than iTune and the majority are of a business focus rather than for fun, but the number of applications becoming available is increasing every day. There are some applications for mobiles that are not Blackberry or iPhone specific like Google Maps and YouTube. There is also facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. I personally have Google Maps, a Weather App that updates based on your closest City every 30 mins and an RSS application for news etc. I view facebook via the browser rather than an application as I personally find Blackberry's application a bit antiquated.

One other application that I would recommend that you purchase (for around £2.50) is one called TalkLock. Obviously when you make/receive a call, your cheek is normally touching the screen which can do a number of things such as continuing to dial, cutting off the call etc. TalkLock automatically locks the screen whilst the call is in progress. You simply unlock it when the call is finished. I find it invaluable.

I recommend that everyone who has a blackberry, regardless of whether it's a storm or not starts looking at the www.crackberry.com which is a site dedicated to the Blackberry. It very often leaks details of new apps as well as help and tips for all models.

This device is definitely a step in the right direction for RIM and the Blackberry and should keep blackberry users faithful to the brand.

Happy Storming