It was hyped to death. “It’s going to be the iPhone killer,” the tech-pundits claimed. Verizon ran ads showing – allegedly after doling out cash – on-the-spot, man-on-the-street praise for the phone.

And when it hit the streets, the hype turned into a vengeance, somewhat deservedly. The demand, predictably, was far greater than the supply. Units ordered on the day of the Blackberry Storm’s release were suddenly backordered by up to three weeks.

(I pre-ordered one from Best Buy and when I went to pick it up, I was told they couldn’t honor a contract extension because Best Buy’s Verizon outlet was in fact a Verizon contractor; in other words, my pre-order was now going to cost my $600 instead of the originally promoted $200 after a mail-in rebate. I walked away.)

Then there was the question of which version was actually being shipped. Some claimed Verizon released the Storm after realizing an upgrade operating system was so full of flaws that the units had to be re-flashed with older versions.

Verizon, however, said the mix-up was really a mistake in package labeling, in which the Storms were mislabeled with a newer operating system typo on the original label which was later covered up with a new label indicating the correct version being shipped.

Then there were the reviews. Most were harsh and many claimed the phone to be a joke. The actual users, on the other hand, were more forgiving perhaps because of confirmation bias or perhaps because of genuine fondness for the phone and its real-life usability.

With all of this in mind – in particular, my less than stellar experience with Best Buy, which I now dub the “Home Depot of electronics” for its continually lousy customer experiences – I ended up receiving a Blackberry Storm direct from Verizon. It was later than originally promised, but to its credit, Verizon was apologetic for its miscommunications and had one sent overnight when it was available. The wait was less than a week, far shorter than many had to endure.

After more than a month of putting the phone through its paces, it was finally time to settle my thoughts about its performance. I originally was going to return it primarily because of its sluggish performance. But an eventual software update, with promises for more to come, helped the problem. It’s still far from perfect.

Here’s a list of pluses and minuses for the BlackBerry Storm.

• HIT: That built-in features are ones that I want and use — Facebook, Flickr, the ability tether the phone to a laptop for use as a modem, etc.
• MISS: There are limited apps for now but BlackBerry is intending to create a user-developed apps store in the near future.
• HIT: The camera.
• MISS: The slow camera. It’s hard to tell when it’s actually going to take a photo.
• HIT: The camera is 3.2 megapixels.
• HIT AND MISS: The photo quality. Outdoor daylight pics appear to be the best use of the camera. Indoor and low-light scenes produce something questionable and blurry.
• HIT: Uploading to Flickr, Facebook and MySpace is very easy to do and you can email photos directly from the camera app.
• HIT: It does everything I want in one place (Rhapsody, GPS, etc.).
• MISS: The phone lags and is sometimes unresponsive.
• HIT: A new software update improves responsiveness.
• MISS: It’s an extra $15/month to use the phone as a modem tethered to a laptop.
• HIT: It’s easy to set up e-mail.
• MINUS: Web surfing can be a chore. If you zoom in on a page, you have to re-zoom in if you navigate to another page.
• HIT: Web surfing in the “single column” view makes it easy to read pages, but you have to select the “single column” button on each page you navigate to unless you set the “single column” view as the default page view under the browser’s options.
• DOUBLE MISS: You actually have to have your skin touching the screen to activate the touchscreen. With gloves on, the screen won’t activate. That can be annoying at this time of the year.
• MISS: You have to physically be holding the phone to navigate the screen accurately. Its response is dodgy when I have the Storm mounted on my window mount in my car using the GPS navigator or when it’s just on a table in a stationary position.
• MISS: The screen view often flips at the wrong time. The phone’s sense of when it needs to be vertical or horizontal demonstrates little rhyme or reason far too often. It sometimes takes an excruciating amount of time to correct itself.
• HIT: The “suretype” feature, which assumes what you are typing and pops up a list of possible words to select to complete your typing for you. It’s surprisingly accurate, and despite having to get used to the touchscreen keyboard, I can type almost as well as with my previous BlackBerry, which had real keys. Again, you really have to be holding it with both hands to type accurately.

I do like the phone. With the software update, it’s not nearly as bad as most of the negative reviews made it out to be. At the end of the day, you get the good with the bad.

The Big Questions

1. Should I get a Blackberry Storm? If you are on Verizon and don’t intend on leaving and want a more feature-rich phone, then I would say yes.
2. Should I get an iPhone? If you are an existing AT&T subscriber, stay with AT&T and get an iPhone. I would have gotten an iPhone long ago if I used AT&T. The one consideration here is that Verizon’s cell-phone coverage tends to be more reliable and widespread than AT&T’s is; however, AT&T claims to be faster. I think both are probably true and should weigh into the decision. (This video does a good job of outlining the differences in features and performance between the iPhone and the Storm.)
3. Should I get a BlackBerry Bold? The Bold by most accounts is a Storm but with a traditional keyboard that defined BlackBerries. If you prefer a real keyboard over an often sluggish screen-based keyboard, get a Bold. (It is not available for Verizon at this time.) The features will likely be the same as a Storm, but you have a smaller screen and a real keyboard to play with.
4. Will the Storm perform all of the functions to be an on-the-spot new media geek, and then some? Without a doubt. In fact, the Storm has more features built in than the iPhone – the ability to tether to a laptop, video and a higher-megapixel phone, as examples.
5. Will the experience be infuriating at times? Unequivocally, yes. Probably far more so than using the iPhone, which is more responsive and in many ways is infinitely cooler, particularly with the array of apps available for the iPhone.

If I wasn’t already a longtime Verizon subscriber, I would’ve purchased an iPhone. For now, on Verizon, the Storm is a good way to go. I hope the next model corrects all of the above problems. You can definitely work with the phone despite the setbacks and inconsistent.

A final thought: If you are considering buying a Blackberry Storm, proceed with caution. Try one out in person first. If you actually do purchase one, relish in your decision and enjoy the hell out of it. I do.

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