BlackBerry Storm vs. iPhone 3G

[ Music and cheering ] ^M00:00:03 >> What is up, Prize Fight fans. I'm Brian Tom, and we've got a battle between two phones that you've all been dying to see face off. And this week's Prize Fight is a showdown between the Blackberry Storm and the Apple iPhone 3G. Now our judges for this fight are senior editor Ken Sherman, senior editor Bonnie Cha, and yours truly. We'll take all three judges scores and average them out to the nearest tenth. Then the final Prize Fight score will be an average of all five rounds using the same decimal system. You got that? Well, let's get ready to rumble. And round one, which phone is so hot you'll never take it out of your pocket. Without a doubt, this is Blackberry's sexiest phone to date, with its full screen and sleek design. The iPhone 3G is still the prom queen, and can you show me a phone that's hotter? I didn't think so. The Storm gets a 3.7, and the iPhone 3G gets a 4.3. The next round is navigation. The Storm's sure press click screen is a unique idea, but its execution falls a little short. Now when you type, you have to wait for the click screen after each press to type the next letter. It completely slows down any texting, which is maddening. And on top of that, the keyboard kind of feels cramped. The biggest is jumping through the OS. It's slow, and even after the Firmware update there are still some graphical bugs. The iPhone's touch-screen isn't for everyone, but you don't need a manual for it. Navigating is snapping, and jumping into the apps are smooth. You will encounter a crashed app once in a while, but its speed and ease of use shine in this round. The iPhone 3G gets a 4.7, and the Storm gets hit hard with a 2.7. After averaging two rounds, the iPhone leads 4.5 to 3.2, and that's a huge gap already. Next up is features. There is no Wi-Fi on the Storm, but it has stereo Bluetooth, you're getting a full GPS solution, the messaging capabilities that Blackberry users expect, and the basic users we keep beating on the iPhone for not having. Plus, their app store will be coming around spring 2009. Now the iPhone 3G has Wi-Fi, and the app store has taken on a life of its own. But it's been over a year and the iPhone still doesn't have basics like multimedia messaging, voice command, and video recording. The Storm finally takes a round with 4 points, and the iPhone 3G gets a 3.7. Next round is web and multimedia. The Storm using the Opera [Assumed spelling] web browser, so pages look good. But when you zoom in, it's slow to render. It has a 3.2 mega pixel camera and a Flash, you're get video recording, but the quality isn't that great. Now movie files look good, but it's not in the same league as the iPhone. Apple's multimedia phone has set the standard for a touch-screen browser. Safari is the best mobile web browser, its music player is easy to use, and video playback is unmatched in quality. I still can't get over how nice the movies look on this thing. The iPhone 3G lands another blow, taking this round from 4.7 to 3.3. Now after averaging four rounds Apple has a huge lead and Blackberry has a lot of catching up to do. The final round that decides it all is call quality and performance. The Storm sounds great on the Verizon network, but the weather report reads slow moving Storm. Don't believe the TV ads. Getting around this device is slow, and it hurts it from reaching its potential. The iPhone's call quality on AT&T is solid, but if you're using one you all know about the dropped calls. But its overall speed and performance give it the edge. The iPhone 3G gets a 3.7, and the Storm gets a 3.3. So let's average the scores, and after five rounds, the iPhone 3G runs away with this one, 4.2 to 3.4, and is your Prize Fight winner. The Storm is still the new kid on the block, but it needs to go back to the basics and get this one up to speed before it has a real chance of competing with the iPhone. I'm Brian Tom, thanks for watching. We'll catch you guys next time on another Prize Fight. Woo whoo! ^M00:04:14 [ Music and cheering ]