James Brindley - 08 July 2009

The Storm 9500 from Blackberry In the Box... Now not wanting to be petty from the off but the Storm comes in a pretty boring looking box and it lacks the prestige appearance of the packaging of similar spec handsets. However upon opening the box there is all the usual goodies you would expect - handset, battery, charger, USB cable, wired hands free kit, leather pouch, CD with all relevant software for you computer and the paperwork (manual etc). So a pretty standard line up aside from the headphones which are of very good quality (for both calls and music) and the leather case. Would have been nice to have got a memory card included with it being such an expensive piece of kit but you can't always get everything. 4/5 User Interface... The interface on the Storm was very sluggish to start with however a software update and removing the screen protector film will kill off a lot of your problems instantly. The menu is quite attractive and easy to use but lacks any innovative extras, like Samsung's Widget system for example. Menus can be changed with the many themes available for the phone so the level of customisation is very high. It's navigated in the standard touch screen way of finger swipes and touching icons, but this is where the Storm really excels. The "clickable" screen basically stops you accidentally selecting icons by accidentally brushing past them - you have to touch but the click the screen down to confirm a command. Just finish off the UI section I found that the Storm has a couple of on screen keyboard options which are quite good it has the full QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode which is easy to use and you can actually type quite fast on there. It also has a Suretype (Pearl Style) keyboard in portrait mode which is quite clever and learns your writing style and unique words the more you use it, also the Suretype keyboard has much bigger buttons so it opens up the handset to even the most sausage fingered phone users (like myself!). 4/5 Communication... Now this is the Storms dominant area. You have access to SMS, MMS, Push Email, Social Networking (e.g. Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter etc), instant messaging and PIN messaging. All messaging options integrate with the phone seamlessly and you always have an option at your disposal to get in touch, and with the ability to customise each alert tone for each type of message you will never mix up what messages you're getting. On the voice side of things its clear, crisp and with shortcut buttons for loudspeaker, mute, conference etc it's easy to operate whilst on the call. 5/5 Multi Media... Now the Storm is a multimedia double edged sword. In terms of video playback and viewing pictures it is immense - the screen is huge and sharp so things like films are a pleasure to view BUT (and its a big but) pictures and video taken with the phones 3.2MP camera are very disappointing and with the likes of the Omnia HD on the horizon the Storm will soon look very dated. On the audio side of things I was pleased with the clarity if music on the phone, even at high volumes. The only criticism I picked up on was that Drum 'n' Bass enthusiasts would feel let down by the phones poor handling of heavy bass through the loud speaker - it does get abit distorted in extreme circumstances. 3.5/5 Connectivity... The Storm has super fast HSDPA capability so mobile internet feels swift and the strong 3.5g signal Vodafone throws out very reliable. The Bluetooth is easy to use (IF YOU READ THE MANUAL!) and file transfer with my old Blackberry Curve was fairly rapid and also it supports my Bluetooth sound system which is a bonus. The thorn in the Storm side is its lack of Wi-Fi - all the major players at the same level (and even some lower spec handsets) have Wi-Fi so the Storm looks a bit out of place. To most its not a problem as all Storm price plans have unlimited mobile internet but to those who may use the handset abroad or those who like to go overboard on OTA downloads this is a colossal loss. 3/5 Extras... The Storm does have a arsenal of extras at its disposal which are too vast to mention but the key areas are the A-GPS (which I have tested on a drive from the Midlands to the Pennines and back without a single fault). The Vodafone Music Store is also a great little app that allows fast OTA music downloads at less than a £1 a pop, and cheaper rates if you download full albums. I did also like the powerful, but admittedly not Safari standard, browser is included which is easy to use and navigate and very quick. Also the Blackberry Store Front is just around the corner and if it is as good as Blackberry are saying the iPhones app store may have a run for its money. On the downside though the phone lacks a Video Out line so gone are the days of slide shows on my TV that my N95 gave me - however with the Storms poor camera facilities maybe I would not of used it much anyway. 3.5/5 Overall... The phone is a great piece of kit that will generally do anything you need it to. It obviously wants to heir to the iThrone and it some areas it does dominate but at the same time falls short in others. Overall I am happy with the phone and expect it to do me right until I get a new phone but I do feel it will soon be in the Shadow of collosuses like the Omnia HD so if you want one, and don't want to feel like its dated - buy one now!

Amy Martin - 08 July 2009

The blackberry storm is an amazing phone with its fully touch screen which has the unique "clickable" screen, making texting on a touch screen handset far easier than other models such as samsung and nokia. With the facebook application this phone is the ultimate smartphone for facebook freaks! with contacts synced with their facebook names and networks, pictures can be uploaded straight to facebook from the mobile using the unique app, also with the ability to tag people in the photos. Not only that but facebook syncs with your calender, so events, birthdays, and reminders all sync with the calender so you will never forget about any of these! The blackberry storm enables you to recieve upto 10 email accounts on any one device, including your mobileemail.net account. All emails are seperated into folders for each account, so easy to go into each individual folder and look for those important emails. The camera is your average 3.2mp camera which is good but takes a while to take a picture, one downside to the storm. Also a downside to the storm is the speed of the interface. When you have alot of history (i.e web pages, messages, emails, facebook notifications, msn conversations) the storm becomes very slow indeed, this soon speeds up once the handset has been cleared. I have had no issues with the handset and would now not be without it! its and awesome handset!