Hedone Design’s Se7en Theme Review for Storm Too

Theme: Se7en
Designer: Hedone Design
Customizable: Yes
Overall Rating: 10/10
Functioning Speed: Normal
Price: $7

Purchase Se7en by Hedone Design here

Download the expansion pack for user customizable icons and backgrounds.

Initial look:

This is one of the themes that I have been waiting to review since I got my new BlackBerry Bold, and as I thought, it is amazing.  The theme is called Se7en and is modeled after Windows’ new desktop OS  Windows 7.  Now let me note a few things; first this is available for all devices 8100 and up including the Storm, but excluding the 8900 for now (it should be available next week).  Also the Bold and Storm versions have a few extra interactive features that the other versions to not.  If you see on the video, the three small icons on the bottom right; the battery level indicator, service indicator and profile icon are all active icons.  The battery icon takes you to your main options (the same place as your options/settings icon), the service icon takes you to your manage connections, and the profile icon lets you manage your profiles.  These features are not on OS 4.5 versions and below, however with Curve 83xx and 88xx version, you get one extra icon space on your home screen which is nice, but on the Pearl 81xx you only get 4.

The video basically runs you through the features and the look of the theme and there is a gallery of screen shots from all the different versions. This theme is detailed like Windows 7 right down to the Windows logo for when your phone is working to the Internet Explorer browser icon.  All of the standard icons are different and very Windows like, but not actual Windows icons.  The home screen is very open and well designed.  It keeps the zen style formatting for the icons but squeezes the time, alarm indicator, service provider, unread message icons,  and date in the top right hand corner.  With all the rest of the open space at the top and left side, the shows you a message list when you get a new SMS text, MMS or email and they disappear once you open them.

Storm

This section is a separate section for the new BlackBerry Storm version so I can note the visual defferences between the icon layout.  As with the normal Storm Precision Zen theme the portrait home screen layout of the icons has them in two rows with one less icon space due to the extra mini icons.  With this particular theme, the battery, service and profile icons are all on the bottom right of the screen and are interactive just like the Bold.  Other than that, the only differences in all the versions of Se7en is that the icon borders and spacing is a bit different on each version.  Okay, finally on to my pros and cons.

Pros

First, this theme is awesome!  When I first saw it, I was impressed and when I first used it I was even more impressed.  The detail that Hedone Design puts into their themes is ridiculous.  I have used a bunch of premium themes that at first sight look amazing, but fall a bit short when I use them.  This is definitely not the case with Se7en.  The first thing that got my attention is the design flow.  This may be partly due to Microsoft’s design of the real OS, but Hedone has interpreted it very beautifully on to the BlackBerry OS.  The icons have a smooth flow, floating but boxed in with a semi transparent white.  The clock area on the home screen is very well placed keeping the home screen uncluttered but keeping everything you need up there.  My favorite part of the theme is the interactive home screen battery, service, and profile icons.  The reason that I like this feature so much is because it keeps me that much more productive to be able to access my options, profiles, and connection manager right from the home screen.  I know this may sound stupid because to get to them otherwise would take like a second more, but you can’t put a price on convenience.  Now on to my cons.

Cons

Although it seems like there is nothing about this theme I could possibly dislike, there are a few things that bother me.  First, the part I like most about this theme also annoys me at times.  the battery icon is so small that it is difficult to gauge how much battery you have.  The same thing with the service icon,  it is just too small.  You know when you have full service because it looks like a mini triangle, but when you have 1 bar it looks like you could have none.  I understand that there are space issues to deal with and that is why they had to be so small, but still, it bothers me.  Now with the Storm, this is not as big of a deal because the screen is just so much bigger that everything is bigger.

One bug that I found for this theme is on the Bold.  When I get a mesage and it shows me the line preview on the top of the home screen, if I do not open it from that source, once I read it it stays up there.  To get rid of it, I have to scroll up to it, reopen it and then exit out of the message for it to disappear.  This is a bug that hopefully you can fix Hedone.

The other thing that I don’t like, is not limited to this particular theme, because this issue will come up with me on many themes; but the icons.  It takes me a while to get use to which icons are for what.  I will not babble on about this because in order for a theme to be thorough, everything must be unique.  The reason that I will put this under the cons is because I want to be as objective with this theme as I am with any other, so it does not mean that I wish this had standard BlackBerry OS icons.

Overall

In conclusion, I love this theme.  It is definitely one of my top 3 favorite themes that I have ever used.  It works great, the design flow is so smooth and it puts all the conveniences that I love, on the home screen.  The only thing that I fear is that if used on a device like a Curve 83xx or Pearl, that the detailed GUI will bog down the device because this happened with the Underwater theme when I switched from my 8820 to 8320.  Hopefully all you Curve and Pearl users don’t have any issues.  So overall, this theme is a must have for any Bold or Storm users!  It is sooo detailed and beautiful that $7 is cheap!  I honestly would pay $10 for it.  I hope this review helps.  Enjoy!