I’ve never been that guy — you know the guy I’m talking about. The one texting at dinner and checking his e-mail on his phone every five seconds at the movies. But we were up for new phones. My wife wanted one with a Qwerty keyboard so she could text a little. I was going to just get a newer version of the phone I had, pretty bottom-of-the-line, no Qwerty and no text plan.

Then I realized that I run an online magazine/blog with 35 writers and a Twitter team, and it occurred to me that having access to e-mail and the Internet when I’m out or on vacation would be good. Because I wanted the device largely for Internet access and not just e-mail, I was interested in the Blackberry Storm, the new touchscreen smart phone. Its larger screen and 3G connection (we have Verizon) make it easier and faster for browsing Web pages.

So I read everything I could about the Storm. Plenty of people don’t like it — see here and here and the hundreds of comments on each, though some of the complaints are addressing the Storm before the glitches were fixed (when it was first released there were software problems). Also, even with the fixes, you can’t type as fast on the touchscreen as you can with actual buttons, which other Blackberries have. Some complain that the product was rushed to market, that using it isn’t intuitive. There are also lots of people who like it, and a few who love it.

Whenever you read technology reviews and the hundreds of comments on those reviews, it is important to keep in mind that technology writers are usually already immersed in the technology, as are the people who regularly read technology magazines and comment on the reviews. They’re often hardcore about their preferences. They notice things that a novice user, such as myself, might not. Their expertise can be useful. What bothers them might bother me. But it might not. I might not be as picky. (There can also be underlying tension and loyalties at work. Some people love Macs and will criticize any challenge to the iPhone. Some people hate Verizon — the corporation — which can color their comments and make them less useful to people trying to decide what product to buy.)

The Verizon Wireless salesman in the mall advised against getting the Storm because you can’t text as fast. He told me that he sends something like 10,000 texts a month. You just can’t type as fast on the touchscreen and it frustrates him. He demonstrated the typing on the Storm for me. It just wasn’t for him, he said. Then I mentioned that while it is possible I will send a few more texts now that I was getting a better phone, I didn’t see myself sending dozens of texts a day. My primary reason for wanting the device was e-mail and especially Web browsing. That was different, he said. Only the Storm has Verizon’s 3G network. It loads Web pages on average in 4 seconds, while the Blackberry Curve takes 12 seconds. I had recently tried a friend’s non-Verizon Blackberry at a park, and was frustrated as it took forever to load up a Web page from some distant wi-fi signal. Verizon’s network, as far as I understand these things, is far superior to the competition. And the screen on my friend’s Blackberry is not huge.

I bought the Storm yesterday morning. So far it’s fantastic. It lets me surf the Web at excellent speed. I’ll be able to use it to play music (I don’t have an iPod). It has a 3.2 megapixel camera. It doesn’t have anywhere near the number of applications that the iPhone has (as recent ads are emphasizing), but there’ll be more applications available for it soon enough. Besides, I didn’t get it for games. It has a GPS navigator that I can subscribe to or that I can use for 24 hours for a small fee, if I’m traveling. The screen looks amazing. I can scroll up and down and left and right on When Falls the Coliseum and zoom in on text with a simple touch. I really like it. (Of course, I also don’t mind Vista, so you might want to take that into account.)

As for the complaints about typing speed and the benefits of having actual buttons, my lack of experience probably helps me here. I don’t have to unlearn the way I typed on my old phone, since I didn’t really text before. I’m learning from scratch on the Storm and getting better at using the touchscreen keyboard. I didn’t compose this blog post on my Storm. Maybe I’d use it once in a while to write a shorter post, if I didn’t have access to a computer. I think I will be good enough at typing for that. But writing full blog posts isn’t what I got the phone for.

My wife watched me twiddling away at my Storm while we sat on the couch last night. She said, “I can’t believe you’re that guy.” I don’t think I am that guy, even now. But I just might be checking my e-mail this afternoon while I sit in the parent section at karate class while my son learns to use nunchucks.

Update: SureType on the Blackberry Storm doesn’t suck

Photo from blackberry.com

About Scott Stein

Tags: technology //