BlackBerry Curve 8900 is recommended if BlackBerry Bold is too bold for you and if the BlackBerry Storm isn’t enough to keep your boat floating. BlackBerry 8900 review says that this is the latest email centric handset from this manufacturer. It is one of the most compact phone I have ever seen from this company and looks really great. It is available from Carphone Warehouse and T-Mobile and you can get it for free on monthly contract.

My BlackBerry 8900 review model had a few design characteristics of both the BlackBerry Bold 9000 and BlackBerry Curve 8310. It is an attractive looking compact handset which shows off the aesthetic prowess. The device feels and looks like a quality product and also fits in the pocket comfortably. The dimensions of the phone are pretty good, it is neither too big or small and it isn’t too light or heavy either. 8900 looks smart but certainly isn’t boring and is recommended for both businessmen and teenagers.

My BlackBerry 8900 review model had a large and bright screen and the full QWERTY keyboard had straightforward and reliable typing experience. The buttons on the keyboard are raised adequately at an edge and it gives good definition for finding them easily by the thumb. Just like previous handsets from this manufacturer, the BlackBerry 8900 comes with a trackball which is great for scrolling through Websites, e-mails and other such areas on the interface. It does not take a lot of time to master the trackball and you will surely take it as a useful tool for navigation.

BlackBerry 8900 review says that the phone has two hard buttons on the left and right sides of the phone and you can configure them with a lot of apps. By default, they are set to activate the camera and voice commands of the phone. There is a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back close to the LED light. I was also glad to see that the manufacturer gave a 3.5 mm headphones jack but wasn’t quite impressed by the lock and mute buttons on the top. Because of their lack of definition and flat design, it isn’t really easy to press.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 is designed very well but it isn’t a radical breakaway from other RIM phones. The manufacturer has followed the formula of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ and the mantra works really well here. I think this handset will be one of the best selling ones from this company.

OS 6 works really well on the non touch screen display of the RIM BlackBerry Style and I was pretty surprised by it. The design is really practical. This handset costs $99 after $100 mail-in rebate. You will have to sign a two year service agreement with Sprint.

RIM BlackBerry Style is the first BB phone to have QWERTY keyboard in a flap-model body. This design is more common in basic messaging phones like the Motorola Rambler and the LG Lotus Elite. Hence, I think that the Style is targeted towards entry level users. Sprint says that clamshell design is really popular amongst its users because of two reasons – it reduces any accidental presses and the call can be ended by just closing the lid. Whatever the reason might be, I must praise the manufacturer for the new design, it is quite good. Old BB fans will be pleased and the design will attract new customers as well.

The full QWERTY keyboard gives the RIM BlackBerry Style square kinda look. It is 3.78 inches long, 2.36 inches wide, 0.73 inch thick and weighs about 4.62 ounces. The handset is a bit wider than most clamshell phones and the width is the same as most of the candy bar BBs out there so I wasn’t bothered by it much. It has curved sides, rounded corners and the smooth back gives the phone a high end feel.

The display on the lid is two inches big and has a resolution of 240×320 pixels. However, the screen is glossy and hence I had a hard time viewing the screen in bright sunlight due to the glare. It shows time, date, signal strength information, and battery life. You can set it to show called ID, SMS preview for e-mails or text messages and the volume key can be used to scroll through the list. Also, it shows the music track if you are running the player.

RIM BlackBerry Style has Micro-USB charging port, microSD card slot, and 3.5mm headset jack. The card slot is covered tightly and you will have to remove the battery cover for accessing it. On the right, there is a volume rocker and a shortcut key for any of the phone’s functions. The camera lens along with LED flash is located on the back.

The hinge of the phone is pretty solid and it closes the phone securely in its place. Flipping the phone open will show you an attractive 2.7 inch screen. It has a resolution of 360×400 pixels with support for 65,000 colors. The images look bright and sharp and I didn’t have any problems while viewing the Web pages or reading the text. The display quality is as good as other BB phones I have previously seen like Curve 3G. Users can adjust the style, size, and family of the font, brightness, backlight timer, display theme and screen dim timer.

Like most other BlackBerry’s, this has a trackball located right below the screen and the menu and back buttons have a concave shape and aren’t difficult to pres even if you have large fingers. A quick peek at the left side reveals a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a mini-USB port, the volume controller and two customizable keys in all, the second of which is on the right side. We couldn’t find the MicroSD slot at first before locating it behind the battery bay, so that’s a big negative in our books since it’s inaccessible while the phone is on.

On the rear is the ubiquitous camera and video recorder with flash and LED mirror, but the photos taken by the 2 megapixel lens showed weak colors and I wasn’t pleased with the results. The integrated GPS unit is a bit of a saving grace though as you can use the turn-by-turn text and voice directions to navigate through unknown places. The lack of wi-fi was a major letdown, but the presence of EV-DO makes up for that somewhat, with the promise of a strong web browsing experience in the offing. The phone is also a versatile multimedia performer, supporting MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MIDI music files, and MPEG4, WMV, and H.263 video clips. The 64 MB of on-board memory will be quite inadequate, so splash some cash on a MicroSD card.

The Curve’s strength is its messaging functionality and it can sync with your company’s enterprise server or use BlackBerry internet service to access up to 10 personal or business email accounts using POP3 or IMAP4. And then there’s the BlackBerry Messenger, ably supported by Yahoo! and Google Talk messaging clients just so you can stay hyper-connected. The attachment viewer software can open Microsoft Office files, PDF’s and standard image formats among others. Editing documents on the fly is not a possibility, but third party applications solve that issue. All in all, the Curve 8330 is a solid performer with a reasonable set of features but wouldn’t recommend it over competing smartphones from Motorola, Samsung and HTC, to name a few that offer more value for money.

Has Wi-Fi, onboard memory is doubled, SIM can now be unlocked, offers world roaming capabilities

Against:

Browser could have been better

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 has a high resolution color display of 480×360 pixels. You can adjust the font size. The phone is 4.43 inches high, 2.4 inches wide, 0.56 inch deep and weighs 4.8 ounces. The device has 3.5 mm headphone jack, supported video formats are H.363, MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, and WMV. Supported audio formats are WMA, Eaac+, AAC+, AAC, AMR-NB, MIDI and MP3. On the back, there is a 3.2 megapixel camera. The rated battery life is five hours for talk time and standby time is 13 days. For storing your data, there is 512 MB internal memory along with 2 GB seperate memory card included.

Razzle Dazzle:

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650′s function and design is typical of BlackBerry devices. This handset is a bit heavier than Tour but the size is exactly the same. Apart from that, the keyboard, external controls and display too are similar. We are not complaining about the repetitive looks especially because the Tour looks very attractive.

Inside Dope:

This is not a new phone in our labs, we previously reviewed the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 from Sprint. But now we got a Verizon Wireless handset in our labs and thought of doing a separate review since the service provider gave it to us in our labs. There are no drastic changes done to this phone but some subtleties are apparent like Wi-Fi, optical touch pad and more internal memory. We have written this review for Verizon’s model only and we will feature on the performance and features by the service provider. If you are looking for a detailed review, check out our Sprint’s RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650. Verizon Wireless is selling this phone for $149.99, it comes with a 2 year contract and after $100 mail in rebate. This smartphone now offers world roaming capabilities and you can also unlock the SIM card. The design of the phone makes it comfortable to hold in the hand. There are a few downsides though, the browser is not that good. BlackBerry phones have never been browsers, they have been working hard to improve but it is still not up to the mark

Networks

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 has dual mode functionality as it is a world phone. It supports both GSM and CDMA networks. In the US, the handset works on Verizon Wireless network and it will revert to the GSM network when you are traveling overseas. So you can still make and receive calls when travelling aboard. This device supports 2100MHz UMTS/HSDPA band which means you can access 3G overseas also. Apart from that, the 9650 is the first smartphone from Verizon to support GlobalAccess Connect service through which you can tether the phone to a computer to use it as a modem while travelling abroad. The least expensive plan is $65 with $5 GB data limit in Canada and US. Above that, you will have to pay five cents per MB. In some countries, the limit is cut to 100 MB and every extra MB costs you $5.12.

SIM card

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 comes with a SIM card and the service provider lets you unlock the SIM card after 60 days from the purchase. You also need to have a good financial record with the service provider. You get to use an international SIM card while traveling abroad but you cannot put in AT&T or T-Mobile card in the US. Voice coverage is provided in more than 220 countries and the data coverage is there is more than 200 countries for 2G and 110 for 3G. Check out the service provider’s Website for coverage map and roaming charges.

Wi-Fi

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650′s one big feature is the presence of Wi-Fi (apart from the double internal memory). Verizon has a good 3G network but still it is always nice to have Wi-Fi as an alternative to get online. Speeds for media streaming and browsing are also faster. There is also GPS and Bluetooth but you will have to sign up for Verizon’s Mobile Broadband Connect plans for using it.

Apps

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 comes preloaded apps like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Bing Mobile, and DataViz’s Documents to Go. You can get more from BlackBerry App World. Verizon provides some of its own apps like Visual Voicemail, VZ Navigator (both global and domestic), V Cast Video and Music.

Camera

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 comes in two models, one without a camera and one with a 3.2 megapixel camera. The camera has all the standard options for editing alogn with flash. The camera can also be used to record video. Picture quality is strictly OK. Indoor shots were dull in spite of the flash and the stills had hazy and dull effect to it. Outdoor shots, compared to this, were a bit better. Video quality is not bad, you can use it if you don’t have anything else at hand.

Call quality

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 has superb call quality. We didn’t have any problems on our side, the audio was clear and crisp. There was no voice distortion at the highest level either. The background noise was not pulled by the phone and hence we could talk easily. On their side, our friends too had words of appreciation. One guy said that the ends of our sentences were cut off but other people (with whom we tested the phone) didn’t complain of any such thing.

Verdict:

This is an excellent phone from Verizon Wireless. We will recommend this to people looking for a smartphone which has world roaming capabilities.

This phone has two times the onboard memory as compared to its predecessor and now also has Wi-Fi built in. The handset has world roaming capabilities, solid keyboard and strong messaging features.

Against:

Web browser still needs some improvement

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 is 2.4 inches wide, 0.56 inch deep, 4.4 inches high, 4.8 oz weight. The handset is GSM / CDMA / UMTS and supports GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / CDMA 800/1900 (Dual Band) / UMTS 2100 band. Wireless interface options include IEEE 802.11b/g and Bluetooth. Additional features include EDGE, GPRS support, Voice dialing, microSD card slot, GPS and speakerphone. Messaging / Data features include E-mail, Instant message, Multimedia messages (MMS) and Text messages. Battery and a 2 GB memory card is included with this phone. Rated talk time is 300 minutes.

Razzle Dazzle:

If you have used BlackBerry Tour then this design will be quite familiar to you. The function and design are pretty much the same. This phone is a bit heavier than Tour but the difference is not drastic. This phone has the similar display, external controls and features. We are not saying that BlackBerry is running out of ideas but we would like to see some up-gradation done in terms of hardware.

Inside Dope:

Last summer, RIM and Sprint promised us Wi-Fi enabled BlackBerry Tour and here they are with RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650. The Tour has been dropped from the name but this phone still is a better device than Tour, it now has Wi-Fi and the onboard memory is also doubled. You favorites like compact QWERTY design and world roaming capabilities are still there. This is definitely not the most cutting edge or exciting smartphone that is out there in the market but it is definitely a good choice especially for globetrotters. This phone will put you back with $199.99 and you have to sign a two year contract with the service provider after $100 mail in rebate.  This phone has a lot in common with Tour and we are not just talking about the looks or design. The internal features too are a lot similar. One thing that we would like the change here is the Web browser. It is very clunky. BlackBerry’s biggest weak point is its browser. There might have been changes done to over the years but it is still miles behind the awesome Safari from Apple.

Optical trackpad

This is a big addition to the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650. With this, the handset joins RIM’s latest handset which has replaced the trackball with trackpad for phone menu navigation and we really like this change. You won’t need much time to get used to the trackpad and we found it very easy to use in our lab tests. The sensitivity of the control can be changed (both vertical and horizontal) through the Options. Do this if you find it too slow or fast. Trackball sometimes stops working if it accumulates a lot of dust on its surface but with this trackpad, you will have no such problems.

Bundled material

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 comes with lots of accessories like travel charger, USB cord, 2 GB microSD memory card, SIM card, wired headset, belt holster and reference manual.

Connectivity

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 comes with lots of features which we saw on Tour but this phone has a couple of extras too. For instance, this phone now has 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi so you don’t have to depend on 3G for the data connectivity. There are a couple of Wi-Fi options as well, including DNS lookup, diagnostics, WEP encryption, ping test utility, etc.

Email

Email has always been BlackBerry’s strong point and the RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 delivers it well here too. You can use this handset to sync along with your company’s BlackBerry Enterprise server for delivering corporate e-mail in real time and it supports Novell GroupWise, IBM Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange. Through BlackBerry Internet Service, up to 10 personal or business IMAP4/POP3 accounts can be accessed. There is also a built in attachment viewer to checking out Microsoft Office documents, GIF, JPEG, PDF, Corel WordPerfect, etc. The PINs can be swapped with other BlackBerry devices for faster communication. For IM freaks, the phone comes preinstalled 5 instant messengers including Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM and there is also the standard BlackBerry Messenger.

Multimedia

RIM BlackBerry handsets have never been good in multimedia but there you do get barebones interface. Supported file formats are AMR-NP, MIDI, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, WMA and MP3 for audio. Supported video files are H.263, WMV and MPEG-4. The phone has 3.2 megapixel camera which can record videos too. Our indoor photos looked hazy but outdoor shots were decent.

Feature-set

RIM BlackBerry Bold 9650 comes with voice activated dialing, speakerphone, smart dialing, speed dial, conference calling, and multimedia and text messaging. Bluetooth and GPS are there the former’s supported profiles include stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets, AV remote, hands free kits, dial up networking and serial port profile. The phone also comes with lots of social networking apps like Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, etc. and there are Sprint services like Sprint Music Store, Sprint TV, Sprint Football Live, and Sprint Navigation

Verdict:

There is nothing out of the box done here but we still liked some of the new additions on the phone. Pick it up if you are globe trotter and need a good messaging phone.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has A-GPS, 3G support and Wi-Fi, which were not present in the Curve 8520 (T-Mobile). The compact smartphone has better messaging facilities and 2-megapixels camera.

Against:

The smartphone gives a cheap feel in the hand. It has a low-resolution screen. You can save the applications only to internal memory.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 is based on CDMA2000 1X technology and supports dual-band of CDMA2000 1X 1900/800. The operating system is BlackBerry OS 5.0. It has 256MB RAM and 256MB user-accessible Flash memory. A microSD card slot is located behind the battery door and accepts up to 16GB cards.

2.5-inch TFT based LCD display has 320×240 pixels resolution and 16-bit colors. There is a 2-megapixels camera with 5x digital zoom. The video recorder resolution options are QVGA 320×240 and 176×144. The navigation button is trackball. RIM BlackBerry Curve has inbuilt 32 polyphonic ring-tones. Its supported ring-tone formats are MP3 and MIDI.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 is capable of conference calling and it is also a Hearing Aid Compatible device. The supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.1EDR and IEEE 802.11 b/g. The inbuilt messengers are BlackBerry Messenger, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

The supported audio formats are eAAC+, AAC+, WMA, MP3, AMR and AAC. In addition, the supported video formats include MPEG4, H.263 video and AMR audio, and H.264.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has 1150mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 270 minutes talk time and 252 hours of idle standby time. The accessories supplied inside the package are user manual, software CD, headset, USB cable and AC adapter.

Razzle Dazzle:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has the design quite similar to the Curve 8520 (T-Mobile). It continues to have traditional candy-bar design. The Curve 8530 comes in black and smoky violet colors. It is 4.29 inches tall, 2.36 inches wide and 0.55 inch deep, and weighs around 3.7 ounces. Our test model had black color.

Inside Dope:

RIM BlackBerry is one of the most famous manufacturers in the smartphones business. Now, the company has released RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 for Verizon Wireless. It does not have some high-end features of BlackBerry Tour 9630 like high-resolution display and world roaming. The design and basic features of the Curve 8530 are similar to RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520 from T-Mobile. However, the Curve 8530 also offers some more features. The RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has various upgrades over its predecessor BlackBerry Curve 8330, like dedicated media controls, optical track-pad and latest processor. In addition, the Curve 8530 has Wi-Fi that was not present in the Tour 9630. RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 costs $99.99 with a two-year contract from Verizon Wireless, which is $30 less as compared to price of the Curve 8520 for T-Mobile. The phone feels a bit cheap in the hand due to the plastic exteriors. We also didn’t like the fact that you cannot save applications to the phone’s internal memory.

Display

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has 2.5-inch TFT based LCD display that has 320×240 pixels resolution and 16-bit colors.

Phonebook and PIM features

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 can store contacts in phonebook as per the available memory. Each contact entry can store multiple phone numbers, work address, home address, email address, and more. You can divide the contacts into group and pair them with a photo for Caller ID and one custom ring-tone.

The basic feature set of RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 includes speed dial, conference calling, smart dialing, calendar, calculator, voice recorder, memo pad, task list, multimedia and text messaging, threaded chat view, speakerphone and voice-activated dialing.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 is Bluetooth-friendly and has support for stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets, dial-up networking, serial port, audio/video remote and hands-free kit. The advanced features of the Curve 8530 are Wi-Fi, 3G support and A-GPS/GPS, which are not available in the Curve 8520 (T-Mobile).  We are happy to see more Wi-Fi devices by Verizon Wireless.

Applications

There is an inbuilt attachment viewer to open the files having different formats such as GIF, JPEG, PDF, Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The Curve 8530 also has DataViz Document Go Suite Standard Edition to open, view and edit Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents. However, you have to purchase Premium Edition to create new documents.

Verizon Wireless has also included its services to the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 such as VZ Navigator (for GPS), V Cast Music, MyVerizon (to provide information about Verizon account) and Visual Voice Mail (for $2.99 per month).

We tested the performance of RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530. It performed all the tasks with little delay. After ending a call, the screen froze when we tried to go back to Home screen. The Curve 8530 took one minute to restore it. We again tried the same step after ending some calls, but did not get this incident again. We also did not experience any crashes.

Messaging

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has better messaging features than all BlackBerry devices, which is a plus point. The Curve 8530 can sync with company’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). It also has support for Novell GroupWise, IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP. You can access up to 10 business/personal e-mail accounts.

Personalization

There is inbuilt Verizon’s VzwTones to download ring-tones. You can also download travel aids, games, productivity tools and more from BlackBerry App World. It is worth mentioning here that you can download and store applications to 256MB internal flash memory only, whereas, music and video files are stored on SD Card.

Media Player

The inbuilt media player of RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 supports the audio formats including MIDI, AMR-NB, eAAC+, AAC+, AAC-LC, WMA10, WMA9 Pro, WMA9 and MP3. The supported video playback formats are H.264, H.263, WMV2 and MPEG4. RIM BlackBerry is supplying one headphone inside the accessories. You can also plug any other ear-buds or headphones in this 3.5mm socket. The Curve 8530 has dedicated external media controls on the top to access the media player directly.

We played some songs on RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 for testing the music quality. The music playback was good and impressive on both inbuilt speakers and the included headphone.

Camera

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has 2-megapixels camera that has video recording capability and 5x digital zoom. It also has a photo-viewer that supports WBMP, TIFF, PNG, JPEG and BMP. The focus adjustment of the camera is focus-free. The video recorder resolutions are QVGA 320×240 and QCIF 176×144.

We captured some still images through camera for testing. The picture quality was poor. The indoor shoots had pinkish hue, they looked dark and dull.

Browser

The BlackBerry OS has better improvements in the BlackBerry browser like speed improvements and faster page-rendering due to quick CSS and JavaScript processing.

We opened some Websites in BlackBerry Browser for testing and got that Verizon’s swift 3G speeds were helping to provide better browsing experience. The complete Microsoft website loaded in 30 seconds, whereas a Google search loaded in 10 seconds. The Facebook.com worked fine also.

Call Quality

For testing, we made some calls using dual-band based RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 via Verizon Wireless service. We received loud and clear sound at our end with some voice distortion and background noise. We did not get any dropped calls while testing. The callers received muffled at their end and they asked us to repeat various times during conversation. The overall call quality was average.

The speakerphone quality was not good. We could hear the callers clearly at our end even in noisy environment, but the callers received garbled sound at their end. We have any problems pairing the Curve 8530 with Bluetooth headphones from Motorola S9 and Logitech Mobile Traveller.

Battery Life

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 has 1150mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 4.5 hours of talk time and 10.5 days of idle standby time. Tested battery life was 5.5 hours. The digital SAR rating of the Curve 8530 is 1.31 watts per kg as per FCC radiation tests. In addition, it has M4/T4 Hearing Aid Compatibility rating.

Verdict:

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8530 is a basic smartphone. If you haven’t used a smartphone before then this would be a good buy.

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has an updated operating system, supports cards up to 32GB, includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The latest electronic SurePress touch-screen and rotating QWERTY keyboard allows multi-touch, key rollover and more precision. The Storm 2 supports BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 for remote file sharing. It has full support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, IBM Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise.

Against:

The BlackBerry browser still needs improvement as compared to the browsers of other smartphones. The touch-screen still takes some acclimation.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 supports GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / CDMA 800/1900 (Dual Band) / HSDPA 2100. The service provider is Verizon Wireless. The basic features of the phone include a calculator, a voice recorder, a memo pad, a task list and a calendar.

2-inch diagonal display has a half-VGA 480×360 pixel resolution that supports over 65,000 colors. RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has a 3.2-megapixel camera, which has features of flash, white-balance settings, image stabilization, 2x digital zoom and auto-focus. The Storm 2 has a 256MB of Flash Memory and 2GB of onboard media memory. The microSD card slot supports card up to 32GB.  For navigation, there is electronic SurePress based touch screen buttons. The Storm 2 has on-screen QWERTY keyboard, which works in both portrait and landscape mode.

The Storm 2 has 3.5mm port for headse. The inbuilt media player supports audio of format eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, ProPlus, WMA and MP3, and supports the videos of format of H.264, WMV and MPEG4.

The supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth v2.1+EDR1 and IEEE 802.11 b/g/d/i. The inbuilt operating system is BlackBerry OS 5.0. The Storm 2 has inbuilt messengers which include BlackBerry Messenger, AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. It also support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP, Microsoft Exchange, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, IBM Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise.

The smartphone has inbuilt DataVz Documents To Go Standard Edition to edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. There is inbuilt BlackBerry Browser that supports Adobe Flash Player, CSS Rendering and JavaScript. For GPS, BlackBerry Maps comes preloaded with the phone and access to Verizon VZ Navigator is available on extra cost. The Application Center allows downloading of links for social networking website.

1400 mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 12.7 days of standby time and 5 hours of talk time on GPS. Whereas, the battery life is 11.2 days of standby time and 5.5 hours of talk time on CDMA.

The included accessories in the package are software disc, a stereo headset, a USB cable and AC adapter. The Verizon is the service provider for the smartphone.

Razzle Dazzle:

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 looks similar to its predecessors. The Storm 2 has exact same design as the original Storm. The Storm 2 measures 4.4-inch tall, 2.4-inch wide and 0.5-inch deep and weighs 5.6 ounces. The two phones look similar but you will notice the difference if you look closely. Storm 2 has shaded chrome ring around the edges. The side controls has a soft-touch finish similar to the controls on RIM BlackBerry Curve 8520.

Inside Dope:

RIM’s first touch-screen smartphone was not a great success. RIM BlackBerry Storm had various performance issues and bugs, which were resolved later by installing latest software updates. However, the original Storm still had numerous issues which remain unattended. Research in Motion (RIM) has launched the successor to Storm, which is RIM BlackBerry Storm 2. We agree that the BlackBerry has made a lot of changes to make it a better phone than the previous Storm. It offers a SurePress touch-screen with inbuilt BlackBerry OS 5.0 to provide better user experience. The additional features include Wi-Fi, more memory, enhanced core functions and a more stable system. RIM still falls behind in the areas of internet browsing and usability. Storm 2 has to face tough competition from Verizon’s other touch-screen phones including Motorola Droid and Samsung Omnia 2. The RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 is available for $179.99 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. The Storm 2 is the first CDMA BlackBerry to offer Wi-Fi with 3G support. Wi-Fi provides faster speed, you can use it in areas which don’t have 3G coverage.

Display

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has a 3.2-inch diagonal display having 480×360 pixel resolution. The glass capacitive touch-screen has inbuilt accelerometer and a proximity sensor that works for locking the phone while on a call to prevent accidental presses. Power/Lock button and a mute button are located on the top edge whereas Micro-USB port is on the left spine. Standard 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the right edge. The microSD slot and SIM card are located behind the battery cover.

Navigation Array and Touch Screen

The biggest change in RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 is that the manufacturer has modified the SurePress technology to replace the mechanical suspension controls with new electronic activators. These side controls are located beneath the screen. This change results in various advantages over the previous SurePress screen. It simulates the feel of a click across the screen. The electronic SurePress Technology allows for key roll over and pressing two keys at once. For example, if you want to capitalize a letter then you can hold Shift Key and then press the alphabet key.

The SurePress based navigation controls are Talk key, BlackBerry Menu button, back button and End key. The BlackBerry Menu button brings up the application switcher.  The RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 supports multi-touch for copy/paste, you can press multiple buttons at a time using your fingers. Its user interface includes more animated transitions, updated spin boxes for calendar, date, clock and scrolling with snap back.

Keyboard

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 a full QWERTY touch-screen keyboard that works both in portrait and landscape mode. This QWERTY keyboard works more accurate and easier than previous Storm’s. We tried to type messages with it but still had a few mishits. However, you will get used to it eventually. The Storm 2 offers auto-correction and predictive text for accuracy.

New electronic SurePress interface still does not match the features of other touch-screen smartphones. We tried to select some items from the list but ended up selecting something else.

Phonebook and other features

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has a phone book that is only limited by the memory. Each contact entry can save multiple numbers, work and home address, job title, e-mail addresses and more. The contacts can be paired with photo, group ID and custom ring tone.

The advanced feature set includes speed dialing, smart dialing, conference calling, text and multimedia messaging, voice-activated dialing and a speakerphone. The smartphone has inbuilt DataVz Documents To Go Standard Edition to edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. However, if you want to create the new office documents then you have to upgrade to Premium Edition on extra cost. The basic features of the phone include a calculator, a voice recorder, a memo pad, a task list and a calendar.

The Storm 2 has a 256MB of Flash Memory and 2GB of onboard media memory. The microSD expansion card slot supports card up to 32GB. Our test model of Storm 2 came with a 16GB SD card.

Camera

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has a 3.2-megapixel camera with video-recording feature. The camera offers variable resolutions and qualities, white-balance settings, image stabilization, geo-tagging capabilities, flash and more. The captured image quality was good. The colors were rich and nice; however, the image quality could have been a bit sharper.

Media Player

The inbuilt media player supports audio of formats of eAAC+, AAC+, AAC, ProPlus, WMA and MP3, whereas the video of formats of H.264, WMV and MPEG4 are supported. The features of media player include a search function, shuffle and repeat modes, play-list creation and full screen view mode for video playback. You can purchase and download songs over air through V Cast Music. The media player enables streaming music from various websites. The software CD has a copy of Roxio Easy Media Creator for transferring MP3 songs from CDs and adding audio tags.

Operating System and Web Browser

The inbuilt operating system is BlackBerry OS 5.0. The operating system has several improvements to BlackBerry browser, but there is no WebKit version. The browser renders the pages quickly and has speed improvements due to faster CSS and JavaScript processing. JavaScript is enabled by default. The browser has support for BlackBerry widgets and Google Gears. RIM has joined Adobe’s Open Screen Project that brings the Flash Player to its BlackBerry browser.  The browser supports real time streaming protocol to watch streaming videos from websites like mobile YouTube.com. The OS 5.0 does not have the tabbed browsing.

Network

The BlackBerry Storm 2 is a world phone and comes with a SIM card. The dual-mode functionality allows switching from Verizon’s dual CDMA network in United States to international quad-band GSM networks. It means that you can still send/receive data and make calls while traveling. In United States, you must use Verizon’s network while overseas the Storm 2 uses the Verizon’s roaming partners, which can increase the call charges. Verizon call rate is ranging from 69 cents to $4.99 per minute in some areas. In addition to it, the RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 supports 3G band. You will get voice coverage in 220 countries and data coverage (internet and email) in 175 countries.

Bluetooth and GPS

Bluetooth 2.0 is onboard and supports dial-up networking, serial port, phone book access, hands-free kits, stereo Bluetooth (A2DP/AVCRP) and wireless headsets. Dial-up networking allows us to use Storm 2 as wireless modem for our computer. However for the same, the user has to sign up for Verizon’s Mobile Broadband Connect plan ranges from $39.99 per month for 250MB data up to $59.99 for 5GB data.

The smartphone has GPS/A-GPS and comes with already stored BlackBerry Maps, where you can get maps, text-based turn-by-turn instructions and search for local businesses. BlackBerry OS 5.0 improves the Maps applications a bit. We still found BlackBerry Maps a bit frustrating to use because the maps redrew slowly. We recommend the Verizon’s VZ Navigator service to use as it provides real-time voice guided directions. However, this service costs $9.99 per month additionally.

Messaging and Email

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has modified the messaging features. With BlackBerry OS 5.0, Text messages have threaded chat view and inbuilt emoticons. The Storm 2 supports Visual Voice Mail, which requires additional service charges of $2.99 per month. The Storm 2 has inbuilt messengers which include BlackBerry Messenger, AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger.

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 can synchronize with your company’s BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server). It also has support for Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Domino to facilitate corporate email in real time. With BES 5.0, you will be able to get more email functionality as you can access remote file share, manage e-mail folders, forward and view calendar appointments, and more.

BlackBerry Internet Service allows access for 10 POP3/IMAP4 and SMTP based accounts. The another feature is the attachment viewer for viewing attachments of Corel Word Perfecth, PDF, JPEG, GIF, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and more.

Personalization

BlackBerry App World has a catalog from which you can download more applications. This catalog has easy to use interface and it features comprehensive database of applications. The catalog can be arranged by top downloads, category and featured items.

Testing

We made some calls from dual-band RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 using Verizon Wireless service. The resulting call quality was good. The voice and audio was clear and rich with minimum background noise. We did not get any problem while using bank’s voice automated system. There were no dropped calls during test period. However, the callers did not enjoy the same good quality at their end. They reported that our voice sounded distorted sometimes and the speakerphone gave muffled sound. We got nice call quality after pairing both Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth Headset with Storm 2.

We tried to load some websites like Google.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com using Verizon’s network. The websites took about 10-11 seconds to load. Meanwhile, a 3MB song from V Cast Music took 25 seconds to download. The BlackBerry browser is a bit faster and easier to navigate than previous versions. However, it still did not match the performance of browsers on HTC Hero, Palm Pre and iPhone.

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has the same processor as its predecessor. However, the smartphone felt snappier with updated software and increased memory. The accelerometer was fast to change orientation on rotating the phone. We did not get any problems while using applications except Bing. The Storm 2 shuts down and resets itself twice on trying to use Bing. However, we were informed that the Bing was a beta version. We did not get any other performance issues except this on.

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2’s GPS found our location on BlackBerry Maps and VZ Navigator in 30 seconds. The BlackBerry Maps redrew the maps slowly, so we tried VZ Navigator. The Navigator was fast to calculate the route and we got the accurate list of turn-by-turn directions. Even on the road, the phone’s GPS tracked the position and provided clear voice-guided directions. It also showed traffic incidents real time on our route. The route recalculation rate was a little slower than we hoped. VZ Navigator gave last-minute instruction right before the turn, but it always got us back on track.

Battery life

1400mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 5.5 hours talk time and 11.2 days of idle standby time.

Verdict:

RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 has some great additions like updated operating system, Wi-Fi, touch screen and better user interface. It will face tough competition with Verizon’s upcoming touch-screen smartphones. If you are a fan of BlackBerry and need a touch screen phone then Storm 2 is the finest choice.