Here’s my review of the Blackberry Storm 9550 (the Storm 2):
Click more to see a quick summary of my thoughts.
First and foremost the Storm 2 has terrific on screen keyboards. The inclusion of WiFi is nice plus my Storm came with a nice bundle. Besides the charger, leather case and usb cable mine also came with a neoprene sleeve and a car adapter.
I wasn’t crazy about how RIM integrated the four buttons into the touchscreen though this is a minor complaint.
If you’re deciding between the Storm 2 and the Bold 9700 (you can get both on TELUS up here in Canada) it’s a really tough choice. I loved the 9700 but the Storm’s on screen keyboard is so good that I can’t decide…
While the only 2 major differences between this one and the original Storm are screen and the WiFi the screen makes the Storm 2 a major upgrade. You can now type really, really fast with the Storm.
While I really liked the Storm 2 I can’t help but think this is what RIM should have released when they came out with the original Storm. The first Storm didn’t feel like a Blackberry, this newer Storm does.
Bell just annouced that they’ll be carrying the Samsung Galaxy. The Galaxy is Bell’s first Android powered device. It’s as low as $99.99 on a 3yr with data.
Besides Android it has an 3.2″ OLED display made from scratch resistant tempered glass, 8GB of storage and a 5 megapixel camera.
click more to get a quick run down of what I thought:
BTW most of my reviews are in high definition so check that feature.
I liked the Bold 9000 and while it has been a long time since it came out chances were I’d like the 9700 as well.
Turns out it was true. Here are some of the improvements the 9700 brings ot the table:
trackpad (no more replacing trackballs)
smaller form factor
better build quality
slightly high resolution display
OS 5.0 (unless you upgraded your 9000 too)
3.2mp autofocus camera
You do lose a stereo speaker and I guess you might not like the smaller size if you have huge hands.
You still get
good messaging capabilities out of the box
pretty snappy performance (with the exception of the browser)
very efficient multitasking
reasonably good integration between apps
a good QWERTY keyboard
decent battery life for a HSPA smartphone
So while I really liked the 9700 I’d like to see a better camera. The 9700’s camera doesn’t really suck but it could be better. Especially 3.2mp is basically status quo. The browser needs to go – RIM, hurry up and bring a new faster browser out!
So I just posted my review of the Samsung Omnia 2 (please be patient while YouTube processes it). Hit read more to get a quick summary.
While the Omnia 2 is a dream phone on paper in practice I was a little disappointed. Samsung has really gone all out customizing the Omnia 2. While I liked the customization they made the Omnia 2 and it’s 800Mhz processor feel slow. This really diminished the added value of the customizations. The screen is beautiful as long as you’re not in bright sunlight. Sound quality and RF and both top notch.
In the end the screen is nice enough that I’d recommend the Omnia 2 to some people. Also, if you’re the type of person who doesn’t care about the customizations you can turn them off or better yet you can probably flash the ROM to remove them completely.
I recently had a chance to play with the LG IQ aka the Monaco. Here’s the vitals: 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, WinMo 6.5, 3.2″ WVGA screen, 5 megapixel camera, slide out QWERTY keyboard, finger print reader, HSPA and an optional projector that mounts on the back. It also has LG’s S-class UI. If you don’t like it you can also use the WinMo 6.5 UI.
I didn’t really play with it enough to form a lot of opinions on it but here are some:
WVGA on a 3.2″ display is really crisp but it’s also pushing it unless you have a stylus (sort of like on the Xperia)
The projector is really cool. While not cheap at ~$150 it’s not horribly expensive either. I can see kids buying them and projecting ‘kick me’ on each other with it.
I’m not a fan of the S-class UI nor am I crazy about the LG apps. S-class is just weird and the LG apps (such as the phonebook, media player, photo app, etc) look kind of cheesy. That said they generally have nice big text which is good if you don’t like small text.
The 1Ghz Snapdragon processor is snappy.
I played with the LG Xenon a while back (a feature phone) and it had an excellent keyboard – the IQ also has an excellent keyboard.
More details to follow but the Milestone is basically the Motorola Droid but for GSM/HSPA networks.
It’s an Android 2.0 powered phone with a 800×480 display, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, removable memory and a 5 megapixel camera with flash all in a form factor slightly bigger than an iPhone. Yum!
It should be coming to TELUS (and possibly other compatible carriers) in early 2010.
I played with one the other day and couldn’t stop drooling
I just got a Omnia 2 today. Here are my first impressions:
It’s kind of hard to tell but the screen looks amazing, stunning, incredible. Not only is it high resolution but the colour just blows me away. It’s easily the best thing about the Omnia 2.
Other random thoughts. While it has a 800Mhz processor Opera still feels kind of slow. The hexagonal button in front isn’t a navigation pad – instead it’s a single button that looks like a nav pad. It’s a waste of space.
TouchWiz 2.0 is nice but having the Windows Mobile menus and TouchWiz makes for a inconsistant user experience.
The camera is very similar to the camera on the Samsung i910. It’s very good except when you’re trying to take close ups where the flash is needed. In those situations it blasts the subject out – that said you can raise the ISO to 800 so you don’t need to use the flash as much.
In the past, whenever I tested a Bell CDMA phone there was always very low signal levels in my house. The Omnia 2 runs on Bell’s new HSPA+ network and it too gets very little signal – FYI.
Anyways that’s all for now. I’ll have a full review up later after I’ve had a chance to play with it more and drool at the screen some more.
