• The touch screen-The Storm is the first phone produced by Research in Motion to feature a touch screen.  This allows the phone to look and function similarly to the iPhone, but the Storm has a lower price.

• The Storm can play MPEG4s, Windows Movie Files, and several other types of audio files.  This means you can leave your MP3 player at home.

• The Storm’s 3.2 megapixel camera records both still images and videos.  The videos can then easily be transferred to your laptop or PC for editing and sharing.

• The Storm includes a built-in GPS and a suite of programs, Blackberry Maps, to assist you in navigating to your location.

• The Storm features quad band architecture and will function normally in over 200 countries.

• The Storm is capable of browsing all HTML webpage’s, allowing users full access to web mail, search engines, and more.  It also has improved JavaScript support, allowing the Storm to more quickly load scripts.  In fact, if you prefer, you can upload your videos straight to sites like YouTube without downloading them to your PC.

• The Storm features BlackBerry OS 4.7, the most recent version of the operating system that was specifically developed to function with a touch screen.  The OS also features built-in Microsoft Word document reading and editing support.  OS 4.7 is friendlier towards third-party applications as well.

• The Storm supports Ev-DO Rev A, quad band global EDGE, and high-speed HSDPA.

• The Storm is the first Blackberry to be fully compatible with Verizon’s V CAST Music for Rhapsody.  This allows you to sync your Storm with your Rhapsody account, transferring your music quickly and effortlessly.

To navigate the Storm, you move your finger around the touch screen.  This sounds simple, but it actually is a very different way of entering commands, and it takes people a few minutes to get used to it.  To move the selection, you slide your finger across the screen; to select something, you press down.  The problem with many touch screens, though, is that they sometimes read movement as pressing down, causing things to be selected that you didn’t want.  However, the Storm actually uses a series of small switches placed beneath the touch display.  This results in many fewer “accidental” selections.

This series of switches is very obvious when using the on-screen keyboard and creates a feeling of actually typing.  Many who have had the opportunity to try out demo versions of the Storm have remarked that it is much easier to type on it than it is on the iPhone or any other touch screen.  Another very cool feature is the way the keyboard changes – hold the phone horizontally and it appears as a full keyboard, but if you turn it vertically, it shifts to a SureType configuration very similar to that on the Blackberry Pearl.

On the downside, the Storm doesn’t enlarge or shrink the screen like the iPhone does; however, you can more easily cut and paste by moving your finger around the text you want to move, scroll up and down with a single flick, and very easily select items on the screen.  In fact, it’s pretty obvious what Research in Motion had in mind with the Storm: they didn’t build the phone with the intention of outdoing the iPhone.  Instead, they built it with the idea of making a great mobile device for those who needed to access documents and email while on the go.  In that light, the Storm is a solid success.  It combines Blackberry’s legacy of creating devices for mobile executives with many of the new innovations introduced with the iPhone.  Will these mobile executives enjoy using the touch screen over their physical keyboards, though?  From everything we’ve seen, the ease and efficiency with which the Storm’s touch screen works will wow them all.

(image from mobilegazette.com)