BlackBerry Storm 9500
- R
- Reggie
- Mf3
- 29 Nov 2008
Mine went back to Vodafone today after about ten days. They had a cupboard full of returned Storms!
Nice idea. Badly executed. I feel annoyed at Vodapony for making me pay £40 per month to test their beta software.
I hope they loose a fortune with people returning phones. They should have waited until it was ready. Disgusting behaviour.
To reward them, I'm out of contract and off to O2 and the iPhone, hopefully never to return.
- ?
- Anonymous
- mT5
- 28 Nov 2008
Anonymous, 28 Nov 2008are you serious? every blackberry requires a monthly subscr... moreI think you will find that that analogy is the phone and what you use it for ie making calls and texts.
With your analogy of the car - it is like having a car and having to pay extra to use the Radio!
Wifi is essential on all travelling (connecting to emails and internet - instead of being ripped off by vodaphone who will charge a fortune whilst abroad. Such a shame because i honestly think this phone in many ways has the potential to be better than the iphone.
- ?
- Anonymous
- Mx@
- 28 Nov 2008
Anonymous, 27 Nov 2008This is a typical case of an Operator namely Vodaphone tryi... moreare you serious? every blackberry requires a monthly subscription to an email service?!
do you expect to have free fuel for your car as well??
- E
- Expert
- M3g
- 28 Nov 2008
Rubbish phone! A rip off tool for Vodafone! Not only the phone is a simple disaster compared to any other phone, but you need to pay for everything else extra (GPS, storage... ) Back to the good old iPhone!
Only buy this if you have are an extremely patient man.
- g
- good
- Ygy
- 28 Nov 2008
Don't waste your mon, 28 Nov 2008I bought two of these last Friday and returned them on Wedn... morei feel ur pain~~this is not good~~i bought it to work with me( as the 8310 i had), but this "thing" keep disappointing me, im gonna return it too~~
- D
- Don't waste your mon
- k@0
- 28 Nov 2008
I bought two of these last Friday and returned them on Wednesday the following week. I had connection problems the whole time (Verizon), but Verizon techs said that BOTH phones were defective because they would not accept updates remotely to "Fix" the problem. The store had a different story and said that there was a Flash "Fix" coming in December. Like I'm going to keep it for a month or two and see if they fix it while I'm missing calls. The phone locks up a couple times a day. Different service areas does not fix the connection problems. No WiFi, geez. Hard to download a lot of pics or videos from the camera to the computer. You can only select a single pic at a time to attach in a email, and there is a limit of about a dozen before the "Max" file size is reached?!? (Why is there a maximum, I'm paying for this phone and service) The pre-touch feature to select a button is slow (this is done prior to actually selecting a button, you touch the screen first then actually press the screen to select the highlighted button) The camera is slow to acquire and shoot, I have kids.... it doesn't snap the shot quick enough before they move, then blur the picture. It has an "options" button, the little button with the dots on it, that selects things that you have highlighted or selected... this bites, needs a trackball or a up/down/left/right button set. You are constantly sliding your finger across the screen. No stylus, No drawing capability. Does not let you "explore" the device memory completely, there are hidden directories (I kept trying to browse the device files to find my pictures so I could copy them off of the device before returning it but was unable to; what a PAIN! even my Ipaq 111 does that) Does not have full MS office mobile apps, you have to pay extra for "Word-to-Go" crap software. Have to pay extra for Navigation program functionability. The hard case is semi-permanent, you can't get the battery off or better, can't easily remove the mini SD card to stick in a computer when it's in the hard case (I broke the clips on my cover the first time I removed it). I think from the blogs I agree that the hard case may be trapping heat and that is what was causing it to lock up... maybe. Win 6.1 Mobile apps that I came to know and love won't work on this. I did not see that you can "edit" a line that you typed, you had to backspace and retype the whole line (needs arrow keys and stylus, as stated above). I am confused now after owning a pda with the storm being in a pda form factor but not having stylus arrow key functionality, I am hard pressing my pda screen and trying to use the stylus on the storm... duh. Short battery life when actuyally using it, who cares how long a pda phone can stay on standby, if you own a pda phone, you are going to use the features like cam, pda, vid cam, notes, calendar, push email, texting... it won't last long. To earlier posts... yeah it gets a little confused on the whole G thing when you lay it down, it needs a tilt clip to hold the phone up at a little angle or something to help it decide which screen direction to display to (up/down/left or right). Yet another device that does not sync to iTunes, only Apple ipods and iPhone can do that I guess. You have to pay for Rhapsody, which is an app that I don't like to begin with, personal pref. No FM radio as some have. If it had WiFi, maybe I could stream a little music in for free while I am in the fast food joints or at home, nope, have to pay for every stinking little thing on the phone and service... no freebies here. Speakerphone audio strength is weak. The audio from the phone during a call was crappy too, don't know if this is the phone or Verizon.
I would rather stick with what I am used to and get a HTC Touch Pro. The device is more suitable to what I know: Win Mobile 6.1, full MS Office mobile apps, WiFi, prob works like my pda when connected to a pc while exploring storage card folders. I can also get a lot of free apps for the Pro wince it has Win 6.1. Battery is removeable on Pro, I hate this error on the iPhone (this is the primary reason that I did not buy the iPhone, I am not real good on batteries, so I feel more comfortable that I can replace them if needed or swap them between charges) I am not sure that the HTC can overcome the battery shortcomings that the Storm or iPhone has (or any other pda phone for that matter, suggestions anyone?).
RIM rushed this one, don't make a $200 mistake like I did (loss after returning on activation, restock, blah, blah, blah). I went back to AT&T without a prob, they even let me come back out of contract as I was before. (Thank you AT&T, you redeemed yourself on this one ;0) btw, great audio from our (cheap) Samsung phones and cell service, whatever makes it good, thanks. AT&T's service quality in the covered areas is great, but please add a few towers to the back roads, too, ok?
- J
- James RW
- n5H
- 27 Nov 2008
All, this device does have WIFI - I had lunch with someone from the device team at Vodafone and they said
"....as Vodafone does not have a WIFI strategy in the UK we felt that WIFI was not required."
Now, I'm not sure if you can enable the WIFI with a fone hack but for me personally, I need WIFI and will not be chosing this device for my employees.
- S
- Sak
- iA9
- 27 Nov 2008
Ive had my handset for a week from voda in the uk and i will be returning my handset. As posted a few comments below me the handset really is not user freindly. The main purpose of a blackberry is as an email device and on the storm it takes atleast 4 times longer to write an email compared to my curve. This really bugs me as i rely on my blackberry to check and reply to emails when im out travelling. Reading emails is fine but replying to them takes forever even if i turn of sure type.
Overall i would say using this handset is hard work. Do not get it if you are a serious blackberry user who uses it for emails. I will now be waiting for the new curve to come out. Hopefully it will be released on voda
- ?
- Anonymous
- mT5
- 27 Nov 2008
This is a typical case of an Operator namely Vodaphone trying to rip people off. Making them have to pay extra for their Mobile Broadband. They have quite clearly teamed up with Blackberry to make sure this happens. Blackberry grow some balls and dont let your product get dissed - instead get wifi on the otherwise slick and good phone!
- S
- SiCkBoY
- k9@
- 27 Nov 2008
I hate Blackberrys :)
And this one has no WIFI, in 2008, almost 2009 a phone without WIFI sucks!!
I prefer SE.
- m
- mack miller
- w9K
- 27 Nov 2008
i have never used it or seen but from what i have read at other places and from my friends i think it is a good phone. anyway i have already made a pre-order at puremobile.com. just waiting till i get it to test it. :)
- m
- mack miller
- w9K
- 27 Nov 2008
i have never used it or seen but from what i have read at other places and from my friends i think it is a good phone. anyway i have already made a pre-order at puremobile.com. just waiting till i get it to test it. :)
- ?
- Anonymous
- Y7D
- 27 Nov 2008
no wi fi lo hahahahahaha
- ?
- Anonymous
- myT
- 27 Nov 2008
Does any one know when a new version is out?? hopefully with all the problems ironed out!!
- a
- annonymous
- mT5
- 27 Nov 2008
I was very interested to buy this phone. However I have to agree with some of the comments...no Wifi means when i am travelling abroad I am going to be charged a fortune. As this phone is marketed for the business world i think Blackberry best get a Wifi upgrade quickly!
- s
- solidsnake
- Mx@
- 27 Nov 2008
Anonymous, 27 Nov 2008From hands on experience, the spec is actually fine, the bu... morethe blackberry enterprise will nto work till after x mas!!!!!
- ?
- Anonymous
- gZa
- 27 Nov 2008
Anonymous, 27 Nov 2008From hands on experience, the spec is actually fine, the bu... moreI too have owned my storm for just 1 week and its now being returned to Vodafone. I cant even get a day from the battery and the accelerometer works when the notion takes it. No wi-fi also??? Whats that about? All in all i'm very disappointed in the phone. Think carefully before buying one.
- ?
- Anonymous
- GLN
- 27 Nov 2008
From hands on experience, the spec is actually fine, the build quality is questionable... but the battery and software bugs are shocking. You may not wish to believe me on this one, but the phone is just not usable... I had to return my storm yesterday as a month of trying to stay hopeful for a fix would have locked me in to an 18 month contract.
If you do not believe me or some of the other bad press the phone is getting then order one over the internet or the phone (so you get the 14 day trial period) and judge for yourself. If your phone can make it through the day with one charge, you can type a email without it taking 3 to 4 times as long, you can connect to you enterprise server, the screen does not seem a little fragile, it does not crash, Blackberry/ Vodafone issue a software fix… and you think the handset feels like it would last over a years worth of the type of harsh treatment all mobiles phone go through following the 2 month honeymoon period, THEN KEEP IT.
I liked the phone, but I could not live it. I need a Blackberry work-horse, not a fragile fairy!
- G
- Geekdom
- 2CP
- 27 Nov 2008
Your average Joe Blow does not give a hoot about Wifi, let alone know how to set up one. Heck ask the average iphone user if they ever use their wifi and they will ask you where do you plug it in.
Wifi is overated and if you dont know the wep, wpa, and wpa2 keys it is pretty useless.
- ?
- Anonymous
- vab
- 27 Nov 2008
Vodafone ireland, 27 Nov 2008Guys i wouldn't be beatin on the guy who said it aint relea... moreAustralian launch put back to 5/12