Hands On with RIM And Vodafone’s Blackberry Storm2

Blackberry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has released a new Storm2 smartphone, available through Vodafone in the UK and most of Europe.From October

The phone is RIM’s latest attempt to compete with Apple’s iPhone, and is an upgrade to the first Storm, announced a year ago, which was criticised for its clunky touchscreen and sluggish performance.

Smartphones are intended to make users more productive – and Blackberry recently funded research which (surprise, surprise) claims to prove this. Apple’s iPhone is coming to new UK operators, the Palm Pre is generating excitement in the UK before its launch, and Microsoft has launched the much-criticised Windows Mobile 6.5 recently, so RIM is entering a busy market.

The new version has a redesigned screen, which keeps the original Storm’s tactile feedback. Unlike the iPhone, the screen gives a physical click when pressed, but this got criticism in the first Storm, because it was produced rather clumsily by a button “dome” under the touchscreen, making the whole screen work like a button.

This go around, the feedback is produced by a different technology – “SurePress” provided by piezoelectrics. This works more evenly across the screen. It’s much like a pocket-sprung mattress instead of an airbed – and in our very quick inspection, it gave a similar increase in comfort.

Crucially, it is nhow possible to touch in more than one place in quick succession.Typing on the new screen felt better than on most other touch screens we have used, and one advantage of the touchscreen is that users can choose between a horizontal qwerty, vertical qwerty or a vertical keyboard using the Suretype keyboard that has proved popular with the Pearl.

At the bottom of the screen are four hard buttons, but these have been integrated under the screen so they don’t interrupt the smooth face, like those on the first Storm

The device software is improved, with Blackberry 5.0, and the screen now allows more iPhone-like touches, like scrolling and flipping.

The browser also looks better than the original Storm’s browser – it’s still a RIM browser, and we would have thought a third party one might give better results.

We make no claims for the quality of this picture (above) – only that it proves we had the device in our hands today.

RIM’s own picture (left) gives a clearer view of the phone.

There may still be speed issues – the accelerometer didn’t seem to shift screen orientations very quickly. But the 3.25in 360×480 screen looks good and displays videos well, as we as the usual business functions.

The device also adds Wi-Fi – a disappointing omission from the original Storm. It has 256M of Flash memory and 2Gb of onboard storage which can be extended with a 16G SD card (or a 32G card when they become affordable)

Despite negative comments, RIM claims to have sold millions of the original Storm. On the basis of a quick once over, we think the new Storm2 has good prospects.