BlackBerry Storm 2: Clickity-clack, the clicking touchscreen's back
Run to down to the cellar, kids, the BlackBerry Storm2 is rolling in! We're battening down the hatches for BlackBerry's second attempt at a touchscreen phone
RIM wants to elbow its way into the pockets of touchscreen-lovers, but it didn't make much headway with the original BlackBerry Storm. Plenty of bugs and performance issues led to a flawed drizzle rather than a perfect storm.
Now RIM hopes the BlackBerry Storm2 will prove a more reliable weather event. The new touchscreen smart phone is coming first to Vodafone and shall be with us this month.
Vodafone will sell the Storm2 for free on £35 per month on a 24-month contract that includes 600 minutes talk-time, unlimited texts and unlimited Internet.
The Storm2 looks just like its predecessor, with a 83mm (3.2-inch) screen and a shiny black bod. But it will improve on the Storm's paltry connectivity with Wi-Fi and HSPA for faster data over 3G. There's also a 3.2-megapixel camera with an LED photo light.
We're expecting 2GB of on-board memory, beefed up with a microSD card slot that supports up to a 16GB card.
The first Storm introduced SureTouch SurePress, which meant you could press on the touchscreen to click icons or type, and the screen actually reacted by bouncing up and down slightly. BlackBerry says SurePress gives more accurate feedback because it lets you touch the screen to highlight things without clicking them until you're ready. We stay props for innovation, BB, but -- huh?
The Storm2 uses a new version of SurePress, which is apparently less clickity and more clackity, or something. We'll let you know as soon as we get our hands on the phone in mere moments, so stay tuned to Crave.