Blackberry Storm feedback and priceplans

PapaQuebec

Thanks for that - been into that menu several times and never noticed the "restrict my identity" entry - too used to Nokia's I expect! Even so it's off to adverts.ie to list the Storm - too different after 14 months of my trusty E61i!!

scout353

parsi wrote: »

4.7.0.78 firmware is now available on Vodafone.de - works fine on my storm.

What version firmware actually ships with the Irish models????

parsi

My one had .65

engrish?

Hey, ok I've heard a mix of reviews for this phone. I realise its simialar but not as good as the iphone but unfortunately the O2 packages for the iphone do not suit me.

Anyone have this phone? Can you reccomend it?

Suebee

Nearly upgraded to the Storm last week and so glad I didnt. Guy in Vodafone told me it was the bee's knees..went away and did some research and most of the reviews I read were pretty poor.
Was in a Carphone Warehouse then (i think) in Blackrock and they completely
advised against it..they havent sold any - and the phone is being pulled from many stores in the UK.
..am now looking at the E71 i reckon

v10

engrish? wrote: »

Hey, ok I've heard a mix of reviews for this phone. I realise its simialar but not as good as the iphone but unfortunately the O2 packages for the iphone do not suit me.

Anyone have this phone? Can you reccomend it?

I'm using one about 2 weeks now and although it was a bit buggy at first, they've since released a software upgrade and it has improved a good bit. Takes a bit of getting used to but it isn't too bad. I had an iphone before and I'd say it does what it does slightly better but its missing some vital standard phone features. Considering the Storm is less than €100 with a contract it's pretty good value and can only improve with future software upgrades.

mobius42

engrish? wrote: »

Hey, ok I've heard a mix of reviews for this phone. I realise its simialar but not as good as the iphone but unfortunately the O2 packages for the iphone do not suit me.

Anyone have this phone? Can you reccomend it?

I'm curious as to why the iPhone tarrifs don't suit you, considering that they are better value than the Storm ones:

iPhone:
€45 per month
175 minutes
100 texts
1GB of data

Storm:
€50 per month
100 minutes
100 texts
1GB of blackberry email and web

Also, I tried one for a while recently and it's terrible. The web browser doesn't render web pages as good as the iPhone and the clicky screen and "Suretype" keyboard are painful to type with.

engrish?

mobius42 wrote: »

I'm curious as to why the iPhone tarrifs don't suit you, considering that they are better value than the Storm ones:

iPhone:
€45 per month
175 minutes
100 texts
1GB of data

Storm:
€50 per month
100 minutes
100 texts
1GB of blackberry email and web

Also, I tried one for a while recently and it's terrible. The web browser doesn't render web pages as good as the iPhone and the clicky screen and "Suretype" keyboard are painful to type with.

I use over 1000 mins & 500 texts per month. Max plan on 02 on the Iphone is 700 mins and after that you are pretty much crucified.

With vodafone I get 600 mins to any network and unlimited mins to vodafone. With text bundles my bill comes to around €90 so this is a good plan for me.

Tom Dunne

engrish? wrote: »

Hey, ok I've heard a mix of reviews for this phone. I realise its simialar but not as good as the iphone but unfortunately the O2 packages for the iphone do not suit me.

Anyone have this phone? Can you reccomend it?

In the office here, there are thee of us who would be considered techies.

I have the iPhone, another has the Omnia and the other recently purchased the Storm.

To say the Storm was a turkey, would not only be quite festive, but also quite true. I was literally in tears taking the piss out of him, given the amount of problems it had. From little things like not being able to connect to it via bluetooth, to two out of three e-mail accounts not working, to the battery lasting all of two hours. The icing on the cake was when he took it out of the provided sleeve and one of the buttons was pulled off.

He brought it back to the Vodafone shop and had to literally stand there arguing his point for an hour and a half until he got a replacement.

The new one, however, is working like a dream and he loves it.

It makes me wonder, how an identical unit, with presumably identical software could perform so differently.

thetangler

Tom Dunne wrote: »

In the office here, there are thee of us who would be considered techies.

I have the iPhone, another has the Omnia and the other recently purchased the Storm.

To say the Storm was a turkey, would not only be quite festive, but also quite true. I was literally in tears taking the piss out of him, given the amount of problems it had. From little things like not being able to connect to it via bluetooth, to two out of three e-mail accounts not working, to the battery lasting all of two hours. The icing on the cake was when he took it out of the provided sleeve and one of the buttons was pulled off.

He brought it back to the Vodafone shop and had to literally stand there arguing his point for an hour and a half until he got a replacement.

The new one, however, is working like a dream and he loves it.

It makes me wonder, how an identical unit, with presumably identical software could perform so differently.

Hi
I am looking for a phone that I can keep my expenses on a spreadsheet and download monthly.
Of the 3 mentioned above which would be the best also bearing in mind I have a tendancy to drop them.
Thanks

Ross@Port

I bought the blackberry storm when it first came out on the Vodafone network, so I have had it for like 3 weeks. I deliberately smashed the first one they gave me because it kept turning off within 2 hrs of leaving the shop. The second one they gave me got exchanged today for the N96. I'm a complete nerd when it comes to the latest phones, and am technically literate, so a new menu system would be the least of my problems.

Well in short, the blackberry storm is the worst phone I have ever bought. The problems begin when you turn it on, it takes about 3min to turn on, imagine trying to get an alarm code from your contacts while the alarm is going off and waiting for the storm to un-f**K itself. Thank god for "accidental" damage anyway! I could go on and on about how useless this phone is, but I have wasted enough time on this useless gimmick.

I'm warring you now, you need to weight up the violence you will feel after buying this plastic, and the alternative phones on the market that will at least make phone calls.

belmulletman

Ross@Port wrote: »

I bought the blackberry storm when it first came out on the Vodafone network, so I have had it for like 3 weeks. I deliberately smashed the first one they gave me because it kept turning off within 2 hrs of leaving the shop. The second one they gave me got exchanged today for the N96. I'm a complete nerd when it comes to the latest phones, and am technically literate, so a new menu system would be the least of my problems.

Well in short, the blackberry storm is the worst phone I have ever bought. The problems begin when you turn it on, it takes about 3min to turn on, imagine trying to get an alarm code from your contacts while the alarm is going off and waiting for the storm to un-f**K itself. Thank god for "accidental" damage anyway! I could go on and on about how useless this phone is, but I have wasted enough time on this useless gimmick.

I'm warring you now, you need to weight up the violence you will feel after buying this plastic, and the alternative phones on the market that will at least make phone calls.

Well Said - I went back to my N95... don't know why I even thought of leaving it... brill phone!

Ross@Port

Do not buy this phone, if you do, then good enough of ya! Look at the reviews for this product, I exchanged my storm today for a Nokia N96, I have spent the last 5 hrs transferring the contacts one by one to the sim and then to the nokia, because the storm Bluetooth does not connect to other devices, including other storms. Blackberry should be ashamed of them selves; this is the first and last blackberry I will ever buy!

Ross@Port

belmulletman wrote: »

Well Said - I went back to my N95... don't know why I even thought of leaving it... brill phone!

ya i had the N95 before the Blackberry, unfortunetly i sold it when i got the storm, I'm sorry i did, cause the N96 and N95 are basicaly the same, except for the €400 price tag!

v10

Ross@Port wrote: »

Do not buy this phone, if you do, then good enough of ya! Look at the reviews for this product, I exchanged my storm today for a Nokia N96, I have spent the last 5 hrs transferring the contacts one by one to the sim and then to the nokia, because the storm Bluetooth does not connect to other devices, including other storms. Blackberry should be ashamed of them selves; this is the first and last blackberry I will ever buy!

I've got an N96 and a Storm and I've got to say I was far more disappointed with the N96. Its practically an N95 in a different housing ! If you've got a N95 or any other recent enough N series Nokia .. I wouldn't bother with the N96 (unless you need a 16gb hard drive)

After upgrading the firmware on the storm its far better than it was originally.

By the way you can connect to other bluetooth phones with the storm. And there are far easier ways to get your contacts from the Storm to the N96 and vice versa. I have 400+ contacts on my N96 and had them on my Storm within a few minutes of opening the box !

Mr Velo

The storm is a slow, buggy, pathetic attempt at touchscreen technology!
Don't even think about buying one of these if you don't want to feel like a turkey for Christmas!!

CivilEx

Can someone confirm if the Storm syncs Calendar and Conacts from Outlook (Exchange) over the air on 2g / 3g?

parsi

If you're on a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) then it should do. Has been doing it from Dominio for a few years. IIRC DOmino was the last to get OTA sync'ing of contacts.

Tom Dunne

Ross@Port wrote: »

Do not buy this phone, if you do, then good enough of ya! Look at the reviews for this product, I exchanged my storm today for a Nokia N96, I have spent the last 5 hrs transferring the contacts one by one to the sim and then to the nokia, because the storm Bluetooth does not connect to other devices, including other storms. Blackberry should be ashamed of them selves; this is the first and last blackberry I will ever buy!

See my comments above - it depends on the unit itself. The first one my co-worker purchased was a turkey, the second worked perfectly. So it may be down to a bad batch/firmware revision.

Calluna

Hi there...am in a bit of a predicament - have a Blackberry Curve at the moment. Not really a fan as I was a Nokia girl all along before this and don't find it intuitive at all. Was with O2 at work but we are now switching to Vodafone and so can get a new phone. Have been offered a BB Storm, but the reviews seem to say I should decline.... so what should I get instead. Want a Nokia - need it to be a good phone, internet access - but only for looking up bus times, blogs, etc - email - ideally to be able to open attachments from Word, Excel - but to be honest, that was why we got the BB Curves and you can't read text in pdfs so not sure how useful or necessary this function is. I'm used to dealing with a qwerty on the BB and love it...so should I go for N71, N66 or what are people's opinions on the touch screens for emailing? Am thinking N81 or 95

Thanks...and am so glad I read reviews here. Boards is the only job!

belmulletman

Calluna wrote: »

Hi there...am in a bit of a predicament - have a Blackberry Curve at the moment. Not really a fan as I was a Nokia girl all along before this and don't find it intuitive at all. Was with O2 at work but we are now switching to Vodafone and so can get a new phone. Have been offered a BB Storm, but the reviews seem to say I should decline.... so what should I get instead. Want a Nokia - need it to be a good phone, internet access - but only for looking up bus times, blogs, etc - email - ideally to be able to open attachments from Word, Excel - but to be honest, that was why we got the BB Curves and you can't read text in pdfs so not sure how useful or necessary this function is. I'm used to dealing with a qwerty on the BB and love it...so should I go for N71, N66 or what are people's opinions on the touch screens for emailing? Am thinking N81 or 95

Thanks...and am so glad I read reviews here. Boards is the only job!

Any of those Nokia Phones (except the N81) are good. If you want QWERTY, the the E71 it has to be. I've a load of friends who love it. I myself have the N95 and love it. Does everything (and if there is something you want it to do, that it doesn't do out of the box, you can usually buy or get free software to do it. e.g. read/write word, excel, etc...)
The Nokia's you mentioned all have decent cameras with GPS and good net connections. They all support Flash in the handsets browser (so there is really no site you can't visit). In terms of emailing. you can get the gmail client if that's your bag, or Nokia offer a download called Nokia Email (i think it's called Nokia Messaging now... see email. nokia.com ) that sets up Push Email (like the Blackberry).
There are other companies who offer that as well, i use Emoze of my push mail as i can set it to check my Facebook inbox as well and it's set to check every half hour as i don't need mail instantly and it saves battery by only checking every half hour!.

If you've any specific questions feel free to PM me. (i've worked in the Mobile industry for a while, not with any network, but in a development environment).

T.

Mr Velo

Oh the phone really is cack guys!! Upgraded the software on it but still not a nice device to use. Comparing it to the Blackberry Bold it's just a pig of a machine.

JohnDigital

Very mixed reviews there.

I’ve had my storm for 2 weeks now. Mine was one of the early ones with the v4.7.0.65 firmware which really was very disappointing for the first few days. But as soon as the v4.7.0.78 was released online last week I updated the phone and it totally transformed itself.

I can’t understand why RIM released the early batch of phones with the original firmware; it was very buggy and probably cost them a fortune in lost sales. Problems that I had initially were very poor battery life, lucky to get 6 hours of playing with it without needing to charge. Three times the phone powered itself off for no reason and occasionally the blackberry browser had problems rendering pages and the screen was slow to switch when you turned it from portrait to horizontal. But with the updated firmware I’m happy to say it’s all spot on, the screen now flips between portrait and horizontal instantly.

I’d be considered a heavy user; I probably send 50 emails and make about 2-3 hours of calls a day. Battery life now is a lot better, I get a full 24 hours of that level of usage, but at the weekend when I was probably only using the phone for 2 hours in total (about 1 hour calls 1 hour online over the weekend) the battery lasted from a full charge on Friday afternoon right through to Monday morning. I reckon the screen has to be a killer on battery life. My Blackberry Curve I’d only have to charge every second day. I reduced the screen brightness from 100 to 50 which you can hardly notice; I think this may be helping battery life too.

It took a bit of time to get used to the click of the touch screen, but I’m flying on it now. Not a bother. I wouldn’t go back to my Curve, no chance. The screen is so clear compared to the Curve, and you can actually see and work on an excel spreadsheet easily - try doing that on a Curve! The video playback on the screen is ace, so clear, I’ve never see the likes of it - but I’ve not had an iPhone, but I guess given its popularity it’s pretty good in that department too. 8 gig mini SD card is pretty generous storage out of the box.

I’m on an Enterprise server, with as one poster asked on Outlook and everything contacts, mail, calendar all sync instantly with no problem.
I’ve not used the Bluetooth to sync with another phone for transferring contacts, as someone else above said they had problems with, but it connected to my Motorola hands free in my car, my wife’s Nokia Ck-71 in her car and my Dell laptop with not a hitch, all connected first time.

I’ve had various mobiles for 13 years, and I can categorically say that the Storm is the best experience, and best priced phone that I’ve had.
I’ll probably be back in a few weeks complaining I’ve bust it, but for now it rocks in my estimation.

Ross@Port

v10 wrote: »

I've got an N96 and a Storm and I've got to say I was far more disappointed with the N96. Its practically an N95 in a different housing ! If you've got a N95 or any other recent enough N series Nokia .. I wouldn't bother with the N96 (unless you need a 16gb hard drive)

After upgrading the firmware on the storm its far better than it was originally.

By the way you can connect to other bluetooth phones with the storm. And there are far easier ways to get your contacts from the Storm to the N96 and vice versa. I have 400+ contacts on my N96 and had them on my Storm within a few minutes of opening the box !

Ya i might have missed that recent firmware upgrade, Its a shame i had so much trouble with the storm, cause it is an attractive enough phone, and for €50, a better alternative than €380 for the N96. I had the N95 before the storm, and i would agree with you, so far as the features are much the same as the N96 as in the N95. However the Price of the N95 is €280, so for the €100 you get an addition 8 GB of hard drive space, plus you the N96 will read your texts back to you! which is useless and cool at the same time!

jamiecall

I've never had a blackberry before and i love the storm. I had a iphone since they were released and find this a nice change. I'm totally lost on how to set up my personal emails i.e gmail, yahoo or hotmail. I go into the setup wizard and it only gives me one choice : i want to use a work email account with a blackberry enterprise server.

What is the blackberry enterprise server and how do i set up my emails??

JohnDigital

Sounds like your phone was set up by Vodafone for Enterprise email rather than Internet email. Call customer care and they can switch you over to internet. When I got my one I initially had the opposite problem, they changed it instantly over the air.

scout353

Santa Claus brought me a storm and interestingly it has come with V4.7.0.78 so I am not finding any of the problems indicated in the early reviews (so far!) nor the slowness of the test model I tried in a store.

So far so good - the only issue I have is transferring the info from my old Pearl to the Storm. I am getting a fatal error message through BB DM - had a similar problem updating software with the Pearl on this machine - using VISTA. Ended up upgrading through an XP machine without a bother so I guess I have to go to the other machine!!

MFeehan

I work for Vodafone and have a Storm myself, the main problem that I think people are having is that they don't know how to use it or aren't patient enough with it.

In all fairness does anyone remember 1999. I think the Nokia 3210 was out, snake was all the rage and texting was getting bigger.

Now 10 years on we have a computer in our pocket sending and recieving email, etc. You can connect with anyone, anywhere in the world via email, instant messaging, text or voice from your phone. So, for all of you negative Ned's, how can you justify that this is a bad/poor product?? Don't get me wrong either, I have also had some issues with it such as battery life, and switching from landscape to portrait but its worth it for what you get, ya dig?

RodVelvet

I've had the storm roughly about a month now and must say since I upgraded the software it has been like getting a new phone. Battery life has improved considerably. Multimedia features are excellent in my opinion, having a normal headphone jack output is handy for plugging straight into the car stereo. 10 free music tracks are handy also in this regard.

One thing that still doesn't seem to work is the browser search. When I enter in a searchword and click google nothing happens. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? Just wondering if anyone else has this issue.

belmulletman

MFeehan wrote: »

I work for Vodafone and have a Storm myself, the main problem that I think people are having is that they don't know how to use it or aren't patient enough with it.

In all fairness does anyone remember 1999. I think the Nokia 3210 was out, snake was all the rage and texting was getting bigger.

Now 10 years on we have a computer in our pocket sending and recieving email, etc. You can connect with anyone, anywhere in the world via email, instant messaging, text or voice from your phone. So, for all of you negative Ned's, how can you justify that this is a bad/poor product?? Don't get me wrong either, I have also had some issues with it such as battery life, and switching from landscape to portrait but its worth it for what you get, ya dig?

I'm no "negative ned" (and the fact that you work for Vodafone doesn't make you bias at all! :P ). I understand that software can fix a certain amount of "problems" with the phone, but there are just too many overlooked hardware issues. 1) no proximity sensor - so what when the phone is at you're face the screen deactivates. Currently with the storm the screen stays active and i was constantly activating things (mute, hold, speaker). Just a ridiculous oversight! 2) Reception - I'm not going to say any more here (there's only soo much software can do!) 3) Click Screen - While good in principal, and for the first little while, the fact the "click nub" in based in the center means the edges don't click as well as the middle, and sometimes not at all. there is the "paper" fix, but that's just a hack. 4) the gap between the screen and phone. I know it has to be there for the click screen tech, but it's too big, and will allow too much lint and dust and what ever else behind the screen and into the phone.

I'm going to stop there, but i could go on a bit more.
Those are some of the reasons, on top of the software that i got rid of mine after a couple of days. I gave it a chance while i had it, and really really wanted to like it, but there are just too many flaws in it's current state to recommend it to anyone. I've stopped at least 2 dozen people from getting it and will stop many more as it's just not worth it!

T.