BlackBerry Storm 2 Reviews

We just knew this had to be the week when everything came together for the BlackBerry Storm 2. We had all those rumors of release dates and announcements but no evidence that we would see the Storm 2 anytime soon.  That all changed on Wednesday as the reviews were coming out from all over the place.

First it was Walt Mossberg from the Wall Street Journal who decided he just couldn’t wait to release his review.  Then the CrackBerry team revealed their very in depth review which covers almost everything dealing with the Storm 2.  Around the same time IntoMobile unleashed theirs and just recently PC World published another review.  Can you see the signs yet?

Yesterday we also saw the official BlackBerry Storm 2 site go live and it includes a video section and an overview of specs and features.  So if you’re keeping track the only thing we are waiting for now is the official announcement.  With all these new reviews to go over the key question everyone wants to know is, what’s the verdict?  I think it’s safe to say most are impressed by the new Storm 2 and love its new touchscreen.  Let’s take a quick look at each review and see what they each had to say.

From WSJ:

Walt wasn’t a big fan of the original Storm and in his review he points out its flaws.  He thinks it’s another good challenger to the iPhone but the browser still isn’t quite there yet.

“Overall, I found the Storm2 worked well in my tests. Battery life was decent, with 5.5 hours of claimed talk time, and typing was much improved, though I doubt it will satisfy lovers of physical keyboards.”

From CrackBerry:

As I stated before Kevin gives a fully detailed review and overall he is impressed with the new Storm.  He is also not very impressed with the browser but admits it’s getting better.

“The Storm2 fixes many of the BlackBerry Storm’s outstanding issues and makes a ton of incremental improvements, all of which add up to something that feels noticeably better. In a way that never quite applied to the original Storm, the Storm2 could legitimately be called the flagship BlackBerry.”

From IntoMobile: 4 out of 5 stars

Now were talking, IntoMobile also provided a pretty good video with their review which you can see below.  They seem to love the new multi-touch system but admit the SurePress still takes time to get used to.  They were also happy about all the connection options that are available.

“Being able to hit multiple keys on the virtual keyboard promises to improve typing speeds, and the inclusion of Wi-Fi is something that has been missing for a long time. Throw in a few stylistic changes, like rubberized buttons, and a new chrome trim, and you’ve got yourself an exciting sequel to a device that had previously failed to impress.”

From PC World: 80% Score

PC World also posted a pretty detailed review and many of their conclusions are like the others.  They seem to love the new display and think it looks a little better than the original.  They also raved over the call quality which is a great thing to hear.  Like others have stated they feel the new SurePress system takes some time to get used to and typing takes skill.

“One interesting thing to note: RIM studied the way people typed on touch keyboards, and found that, while typing quickly, they often briefly held down two keys at once. The Storm 2’s keyboard mimics that by having both keys respond when you press them, thus making typing faster. And of course, the keyboard has RIM’s excellent SureType predictive-text entry, which facilitates speedy typing.”