Can you find it now?
I tried out the new Blackberry Storm at the Verizon Wireless store in the Boca Park shopping center. I got there after the 20-plus people who lined out outside -- in the dark -- this morning, waiting to purchase the latest and greatest smartphone. Company-owned Verizon stores across the valley sold-out of the $259 unit quickly. Some stores had more than 40 people waiting for the doors to open, which happened about an hour earlier than usual due to the waiting customers.
Once the stores ran out, managers pointed folks to the nearest Circuit City store, which have Verizon-owned sales locations inside. I drove by the Circuit City at Sahara and Decatur just after 9 a.m., and found four people waiting for the doors to open. One guy assured me he'd called ahead and had verification that the store had at least 30 Storms ready for sale.
I'll be getting mine Tuesday, and will have it for a few weeks to test and report back to you about. I am also testing the Google phone right now, so look for a column and more blog posts in the weeks ahead where I'll share my opinions on the devices.
While neither Blackberry/Verizon or T-Mobile/Google phone say they are out to beat the iPhone, it's very obvious they are. Yes, they resemble the Apple unit, they each have their own pros and cons. My first opinion of the Storm is that the accelerometer (the part of the phone that moves the display from vertical to horizontal and back when the unit is rotated) is no where near as smooth as the Apple version. Same said for the finger-scolling on the touch screens of each device.
The Storm's keyboard, which features tactile feedback, is quite good. I could feel the keys being depressed, which was more satisfying than the iPhone keyboard, which has no similar response. Those using Blackberry's with the shared keypad (each key hosts two letters), will like the same display while in the vertical orientation. Rotating the phone left, or right, to the horizontal position results in a traditional QWERTY keyboard. I took to this one quickly, and I'm confident I will adapt to the feel of the keys and navigation of the menus and applications after I use it for a few days.
Other pluses include the ability to add a micro SD card for expanded memory (the iPhone doesn't have this) and an excellent speaker for music or movie viewing/listening.
As a reminder -- I still carry a Palm Treo 680 as my primary mobile device and have AT&T as my service provider. I probably make a change to anything until I upgrade my home computer, which may happen in the next few months. In the meantime, I'm happy with my service and my phone.
