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Home » Gadget Reviews » Blackberry Storm 9500 Review

Blackberry Storm 9500 Review

The BlackBerry Storm is the first full touchscreen smartphone by RIM. Research in Motion (RIM) has made its mark in making great mobile devices for the business segment with its BlackBerry handsets. RIM’s signature work in most of its devices include a very dependable full qwerty keyboard and the push email technology that’s geared towards the corporate crowd.

It was then not surprising when RIM announced the BlackBerry Storm with a full touch screen interface — an arena that competing manufacturer Apple is making big waves with its iPhone. It was a move that RIM needed to do in order to slow down if not stop Apple’s attempt at eating away its long-dominated market.

blackberry 9500

The biggest challenge for the BlackBerry Storm when it shed the physical keys was the virtual keyboard. The screen itself is recessed so you need to press down on the display panel instead of just tap. Users familiar with other touch screen phones may find this mechanism a bit odd but for first timers, it only takes a little while to get used to (I still often forget to press down a bit harder every once in a while).

blackberry storm

Only four physical buttons are found at the bottom of the display panel that’s dedicated to Send, End, Menu and Return. The virtual keyboard also rotates automatically in landscape mode when the device is positioned sideways.

The Storm sports a large 3.25-inch screen with a resolution of 480 x 360 pixels of up to 65,000 colors. The display delivers bright and crisp details especially when playing video and multimedia files in MPEG4 format. The user interface is very similar to other previous versions of the BlackBerry but the touch navigation becomes a bit frustrating especially when scrolling webpages.

blackberry storm

For connectivity, the Storm is equipped with Bluetooth and 3G/HSDPA. RIM completely skipped WiFi functionality which could turn off a lot of data-heavy users expecting this feature to be there. As such, 3G (including GPRS) connectivity is practically essential as the BlackBerry relies on it for delivering push email. But as I said in the TV interview for QTube last week, the lack of WiFi is a deal-breaker.

The built-in autofocus camera is 3.2 megapixels with 2x digital zoom and coupled with a flash. It takes good pictures under decent lighting conditions although the shutter is a bit slow and could result to blurry images even with the flash activated. The handset has a 128MB flash memory and a 1GB internal storage that can be expanded to 16GB with an external microSD card.

The BlackBerry Storm has a 1400mAh battery with a capacity of 6 hours talktime and 15 days on standby. My experience with the push email set to “On” gave me about 2 days worth of usage. To maximize and use the push email functionality, the device requires a BlackBerry service subscription with a RIM partner telcos (both Smart and Globe offer BlackBerry Personal Plans).

Abe Olandres
Abe Olandres
Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.
  1. nice looking business phone but no wifi mmm…
    and cost of this unit?

  2. lack of wifi is a turn down…

  3. business phone with no wifi these days? thats weak on some levels…

  4. Scrimping on features, eh? No WiFi just doesn’t sound good for a business phone. Right, folks?

  5. Maybe the WiFi would be too taxing on the battery time so they left it out.

    But surely, RIM can resolve this issue easily.

  6. No wifi? How much is this phone? If it goes beyond the 18k price range then what the heck were they thinking?

  7. I’ve watched this on Qtube! Great!

  8. You had me in “no wi-fi”.

  9. No Wifi is no good…

  10. Tried my friend’s blackberry storm. Nahihirapan ako because kelangan talaga ipress down sya.

  11. All the while, akala ko wifi capable siya, maybe RIM is just targettng a certain market segment. Which they have been doing naman talaga even before. Thos who will prefer to receive push email in a nice newly designed BB.

  12. Great phone if you are on postpaid plan with unlimited data connection. Not for me then.

  13. No WiFi.. No way!

  14. Except Wifi blackberry storm is a nice kool phone in design and also other fetures. Hope RIM can resolve this issue easily

  15. the battery drain off very fast and its hard to recharge the battery. Original battery is so expensive

  16. Where can I buy BB storm 9500 here in the Philippines? Please tell me? Thanks

  17. Hey Abe thanks for this. I wanted an unbiased review for this actually. But I think I stopped reading at no-wifi also. LOL.

  18. hello

    does anyone know where can i buy a charger replacement for the blackberry storm 9500 in the philippines?

    makati? which mall?

  19. Where i can buy brandnew Blackberry Storm & Blackberry Bold here in the philippines?

  20. Any updates on when and for how much would the blackberry storm 2 would be out in the market? No wifi made me think twice on getting the storm1. thanks!

  21. I bought a storm 2 months ago and I was actually quite excited at getting one back then even after reading some negative reviews of the phone. I was very happy with the first month even with it’s minor problems like “lags”, no wi-fi, a bit bulky and some minor, very minor probs that i didn’t seem to mind at first. But the longer you use it, the more irritating the minor problem becomes. Fortunately though, the latest OS 5.0 fixed all of it in just one update (not including the wi-fi though). After updating the OS the other day, I felt like I am using a different phone. A very cool phone actually. No more lags, accelerometer works pretty well, sms looks like a chat box now with smileys to boot which I seriously enjoy! haha! scrolling through pix is so smooth now unlike before. lots of other features have been added that an owner of a storm with an old OS version will surely appreciate. I can’t wait to get my hands on storm2 though. Anyone selling them yet here on the phil?

  22. the blackberry storm2 got a wifi. fyi. TA!

  23. check kimstore.multiply.com for storm2 i think its 31-32k

  24. this is a great phone really though for me, its a lil hard to use,,

  25. No WIFI? Not for me as well :(

  26. FYI storm to got a wifi.. :)i think the old storm is the one that has no wifi.. :)

  27. i have my storm2 and it do have a wifi…

  28. how much ang blackberry storm?

  29. what??? 32K in pesos??? that’s too expensive comparing to $200 in the US

  30. i’d go for iphone4 instead of BB

  31. no wifi!!!!!!!!!!! piece of junk!!!

  32. It’s a nice phone because of it’s brand name, it has a nice feature but the disadvantage of this phone is it’s hard to type a text message if you are driving. But all in all it’s good, but I would suggest the blackberry bold. :)

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  33. Does anybody knows when the BB OS.6 will be released for the 9700?

  34. In my BB cannot use a wireless why?????

  35. Hi Guys,
    I have had my 9500 for about a 2 weeks now and last night when i went to bed then when i got up this morning it was switched off but i thought the battery had died for some reason, i plugged it in to charge and its been in for over an hour now and will not switch on at all, when i first plug in to charger it brings up the red LED indicator in the top right corner for about 10 seconds and then the indicator goes off again but the phone still wont switch on, i have removed the battery to try to reset but it makes no difference, any help would be much appreciated,

  36. You acquired a really useful blog site I have been here reading for about an hour. I’m a newbie and your achievement is very a lot an inspiration for me.

  37. I have had my 9500 for about a 2 several weeks now and yesterday when i went to bed then when i got up today it was moved off but i believed power supply had passed away for some purpose, i connected it in to cost and its been in for over an time now and will not change on at all, when i first connect in to battery charger it delivers up the red LED signal in the top right area for about 10 a few moments and then the signal goes off again but the cellphone still probably won’t change on, i have eliminated power supply to try to totally recast but it does not matter, any help would be much valued,

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