Client Support is testing out the new BlackBerry Storm. Smartphones are becoming more prevalent on campus and we want to be prepared when users come to us with questions. After his first day using it, Client Support manager David Ecker had the following to report. We’ll check back in with him in a few weeks to see if his initial impressions have changed.
"I like the device, but the learning curve is big," said Ecker. "With the old BlackBerry, I was used to a little scroll wheel and the keyboard being right in front of me. This device is completely touch screen. The screen is phenomenal and I love reading e-mail on it. What’s frustrating is that it has so many more features that I want to use, I just don’t know how to use them yet."
Ecker’s Pros and Cons of the New BlackBerry Storm
Pros
- Bigger screen size and touch screen allow you to view a complete e-mail message simply
- Screen resolution is impressive
- Integrated 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus is very nice
- Terrific zoom feature
- Using the Web is much faster than on the old BlackBerry and the zoom feature helps this. I hardly ever used the Web feature on the old BlackBerry because it took too long and you had to scroll all over the place. I can’t live without it now.
Cons
- The full keyboard is not accessible very easily
- There is a learning curve to use the keyboards. You have to turn the device sideways to get the full keyboard. The vertical keyboard has two letters on one key, which I don’t like. You have to learn how to type by pushing the screen. It would be nice if you just clicked the letter and it understood your touch.
- It takes more than 20 minutes to figure out how to use all the features
- Fingerprints show up easily and the screen gets dirty quickly. You definitely want to put something on it to protect it
If you have a BlackBerry Storm, let us know what you think!
