IT Pro Verdict

The see-saw like depressing screen has gone in favour of a much better and more responsive way of entering text and commands. And, it’s this and such other enhanced usability features that are likely to make the Storm2 a firm favourite among business users. We liked the first-generation Storm as we thought it was innovative, but it wasn’t without kinks and we’re glad that these have been ironed out in the second generation.

By Maggie Holland

published 8 November 2009

in Reviews

A luscious, 3.25-inch (360x480 pixels resolution) is the star of the show, serving up great clarity when it comes to colour definition. There's no need to mind the gap as that's consigned to history and the hard call buttons are now part of the touch screen itself rather than on a conjoined but distinctly separate extension.

SurePress, the culprit behind the depressed screen in the first generation Storm, has been enhanced, in the direction of a much better user experience. This still results in a satisfying click as you press, thanks to four electrical actuators under the bonnet. As you'd expect, there's a choice of virtual keyboards, the full screen one of which is very easy to use. Auto correction is present and correct and it's well executed and likely to prove very useful to those who email (which is very easy to set up and works in the usual BlackBerry fashion) and text a great deal, as is the ability to send different messages (email, SMS, MMS) from within one menu. Copy and paste is also onboard as another handy, time saving feature.

The BlackBerry Storm2 also has another trick up its sleeve in the form of the latest version of the BlackBerry operating system. This brings with it a number of other user interface and usability enhancements. Scrolling is super quick and slick and users can easily search from with apps such as email for what they want, which should help keep track of conversations and threads. Some 256MB of Flash memory, 2GB of internal storage and the potential to store up to 32GB thanks to microSD only serve to add to the Storm2's appeal to business users.

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Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.