Friday, November 21, 2008

Sorry, the Storm is no iPhone

I had very high hopes for the BlackBerry Storm. I had the opportunity to play with one this morning, thanks to one of our great employees (and her husband) who stayed in line since 5 am today...

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. That happens when you have high expectations, I know. But I had super high expectations for the iPhone and it flew easily beyond them...

Simply, the key feature - the screen with tactile feedback - is just bad. That is the one that should have been its flagship one, the better-than-the-iPhone one... However, it is not convincing at all.

First, you have visual feedback (box around the key turning blue) even when you do not click. So you think you clicked but you actually did not. Why they did not build the device to have the box turn blue when you actually click is beyond me...

Second, it take physical effort to press the key. You have to press the entire screen. It is heavy. I typed for a minute and my muscles were sore (ok, I am exaggerating, I am in good shape, I can handle a good five minutes of it :-) It should be mandatory for 24 hours fitness centers: train your thumbs...
Thanks, but I want my BlackBerry keyboard back.
On top of it, the scrolling is not smooth. If you accelerate the scrolling, like you would do on the iPhone, nothing changes. It always scrolls at the same speed. I do not expect the nice visual effect of bouncing at the end (although it is one of those that wow people on the iPhone), but it takes forever to scroll.
Thanks, but I want my BlackBerry navigation ball (or even the wheel) back.
When it comes to switching between portrait and landscape, the Storm is slow. A fraction of a second too slow. But still too slow.
Thanks, but I want my old BlackBerry back (or I would take an iPhone for it)
Oh, what about everything else? It looks good... but you can't go for the kill, miss it completely and then say "well, look at the rest". It just does not cut it.

BTW, for those interested, the Funambol sync client appears to work, but the email client needs a few touches. Too bad, but you know we'll get them working before you say "what?" ;-)