It’s Official: Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2 Releasing October 28th

It took longer than we all expected but Verizon has finally announced the BlackBerry Storm 2.  Along with the announcement comes an official release date and pricing details.  You will be able to get your hands on the Storm 2 in just two days on October 28th.  Verizon will be selling it for $179.99 after a $100 mail in rebate however the rebate will be issued to customers via a debit card.  The price is right around what we expected if not better.  If you can remember the Verizon BlackBerry Tour sold for $199 on a 2 year contract.

What’s interesting about this release date is it will be the same day that Verizon hosts the special Motorola Droid event.  Now the Droid clearly wants to challenge the iPhone but will it also cause competition with the Storm 2?  If so it is certainly an interesting tactic by Verizon and it will be interesting to see how well the Droid does.

From the Press Release:

Key Features:

Smooth design and premium finish with sloped edges, chrome accents, glass lens and stainless steel backplate

Large (3.25″), dazzling high-resolution 480 x 360 display at 184 ppi

Capacitive touchscreen with integrated functions (Send, End, Menu, Escape) and new SurePress technology that makes clicking the display practically effortless

3G and global connectivity support for making phone calls in more than 220 countries and accessing data in more than 185 countries (with more than 80 destinations in 3G)

Network Connectivity: EV-DO Revision A; UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz); and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks

Supports Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)

256 MB of Flash memory

2 GB of onboard media storage and a microSD™/SDHD memory card slot with a 16 GB card included

Software Updates on BlackBerry Storm2:

Features BlackBerry OS 5.0, which includes typing accuracy and selection improvements, as well as usability and visual enhancements such as inertial scrolling, spin boxes that make it easier to set dates and times, gradient shading on buttons, and more use of animation

BlackBerry^® Browser is improved with faster JavaScript and CSS processing as well as support for Gears and BlackBerry Widgets

Customers running BlackBerry^® Enterprise Server 5.0 will gain the ability to set follow-up flags, manage e-mail folders, access remote files (Windows Shares), forward appointments, view calendar attachments, and more