I like the iPhone 3G and have liked it since it was first released. It has changed the way we think about smartphones, no question, and it is a very fine one. I also like the BlackBerry Storm, an opinion that is more unusual. It is a BlackBerry at its core, which makes it a fine smartphone in its own right. I am in an unusual situation since I have both of these smartphones, and I am getting asked frequently to compare them. This is not something I usually do as I find that there is no one “better” device in cases like this, as one phone will excel in certain situations and not so much in others. I will thus lay out the things I like and dislike about both of these phones and you can draw your own conclusions as to what each might mean in your particular case.
I will start out by making it clear that I like both of these phones. They do what they do very well and they each take a different tack to do that. This is where they differ and why they excel in different areas and fall short in others.
The good, the bad and the ugly
The first thing you have to admire about the iPhone 3G is the size. It is as thin and light as a phone can be and beats the Storm in this regard. That said, the Storm is still light and feels natural in the hand as it is smaller than the iPhone, even though it’s a tad thicker. I find both phones to be similarly comfortable to use, which is all that matters at the end of the day.
The primary thing I like about the iPhone 3G is the web browsing experience it provides. This is accomplished by the mobile Safari web browser which stands out in several ways. First and foremost, I am impressed with the iPhone’s “speed to web.” I have yet to find another phone that can go from starting the browser to a web page in as short a time as the iPhone. You simply click the icon and are on the web in just a few seconds. The Storm doesn’t take much longer than that, but it is not as fast as the iPhone.
The web browsing experience on the iPhone benefits greatly from the multi-touch implementation that Apple has created. The “pinch and zoom” ability is something that I use all the time while surfing the web as it makes seeing information on the small screen so much easier. The Storm browser can easily zoom in and out on web pages too with simple screen taps but it’s not quite as easy and natural as the iPhone’s method.
The iPhone’s browser displays complex web sites better than the Storm’s, although the Storm does an adequate job. I don’t find that I lose any ability while using the Storm, as I find the browser to be almost as good as Safari on the iPhone. I am comfortable using either device to surf the web, so they both fit that need fine.
The area of my phone usage where I find the Storm really shines is in the email/ messaging area. It is a BlackBerry after all, and they have been designed from the ground up to be great messaging devices. Like the iPhone, I have multiple mailboxes set up on the Storm so I can get all of my email on either device. The Storm excels over the iPhone in this regard, as it lets me work with all of my email addresses in a single Messaging mailbox. I can still work with each address separately if I wish but it is a big time-saver to be able to work with them all in one inbox. The BlackBerry also includes text messaging and “missed call” notifications in the unified Messaging inbox, which is appropriate.
One of the areas where the BlackBerry Storm outperforms the iPhone 3G is in the area of multi-tasking. The Storm can have quite a few applications running at the same time which makes switching between them a breeze. The Storm even has a nice task manager bar to facilitate moving between apps fast and simply. The iPhone falls short in this area, no question, and while it makes it easier for developers to expect having the phone’s full attention while their program is running, it’s not easier for the user.
Another area where I find the Storm to be better than the iPhone is going to be the most controversial, I am certain. That’s because when it comes to keyboards, especially those of the on-screen variety, it comes down to personal preference. My preference leans heavily toward the on-screen keyboards of the Storm over that of the iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, I can type fine on the keyboard of the iPhone, but the Storm leaves the iPhone in the dust with a variety of keyboard options that fit my needs. The inability to type messages on the iPhone in landscape orientation is a big failing for me.
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1 / 7cimg13341Home screens -
2 / 7cimg13441Web browsing in portrait -
3 / 7cimg13451Web browsing in landscape -
4 / 7cimg13481Buttons, buttons, whose got the buttons? -
5 / 7cimg1349T9 keyboard on the Storm -
6 / 7cimg1350SureType keyboard on the Storm -
7 / 7cimg1351QWERTY keyboard on the Storm *
I use both phones in landscape orientation a lot, and the Storm’s QWERTY keyboard is awesome to use while in landscape. This alone would make it better for me than the iPhone’s portrait keyboard but RIM has thrown in several different keyboards to use that also work well. The SureType keyboard that first appeared in earlier BlackBerry models is just awesome to use on the Storm. It makes typing on the screen a satisfyingly fast process and I use this method a lot. There is a standard T9 keyboard that can be used too although I don’t use this one much. Any way you slice it, the extra options means I can always use the method that fits the particular task at hand which keeps me more productive. Of course, all of this good keyboard love is predicated on the fact that I find the SurePress (screen clicking) technology of the Storm works well for me. Some folks don’t like the clicking, and I understand that, but it makes this all work well for me personally.
Another thing I really like about the Storm is the ability to shoot video. Enough said about that. I would like to think that someday Apple would grace the iPhone with that ability but they’ve ignored the requests so far.
An overview of what I like about these phones would not be complete without praising the Verizon network. I find the Verizon 3G network to give me good speeds pretty much everywhere, something that the AT&T network falls short doing. The Verizon network works well for phone calls too, something that is not the case with the iPhone. It is still common, even if not so much so as in the beginning, to have calls drop for no reason on the iPhone. This never happens to me on the Storm with Verizon. I also have to occasionally turn the 3G radio off on the iPhone if I find myself in a fringe coverage area. AT&T is just not as good a 3G network as Verizon.
Both phones have decent multimedia players, but the iPhone shines in this area. After all, it’s an iPod and since I use iTunes on the desktop it’s great having an iPod in my phone. The Storm’s media players, audio and video, are decent enough, but I wish I could play my DRM-hampered iTunes music on the Storm. That will never happen, I’m afraid. It’s too bad, too, as the micro-SD slot of the Storm means it has unlimited storage for music and video, while the iPhone is limited to the 16 GB of integrated memory. The Storm will handle stereo Bluetooth which is not possible on the iPhone which is odd given the iPod features. I haven’t tried using this on the Storm though so I can’t reflect on how good this works or not.
The iPhone has the App Store which gives it an advantage over the Storm. The ability to locate and install programs from either the desktop or the iPhone itself is very convenient. The Storm has very nice over-the-air (OTA) application installation, too, which works very well, you just have to find the applications lacking a central store.
Not having an App Store could also be viewed as an advantage for the Storm over the iPhone. While third party apps have to be ferreted out for the Storm I find them to usually be of more use than most of the thousands of apps in the Apple App Store. This is due to the open nature of the BlackBerry compared to the totally closed system of the iPhone. Developers see a need for a BlackBerry utility, and they address it by releasing the app to the enthusiast community. iPhone developers have to deal with the App Store, meaning they don’t always know when, or in some cases if, their app will get released.
This open nature of the Storm is why it is possible to customize the interface and thus adapt the user experience to better fit the individual’s needs. There are already many themes available to download and apply on the Storm to change the way the phone looks and works, something the iPhone lacks. The iPhone interface is very nice, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also nice to be able to change things if desired.
The one glaring feature missing from the Storm is WiFi. I’m not sure why RIM chose to leave WiFi out of the Storm and the iPhone has an advantage in this area as a result of that bad decision. I admit that the Verizon 3G network is so good that I rarely miss having WiFi, but it’s always better to have an option like this than not.
To keep things fair, I must list the one glaring omission of the iPhone and that is buttons. The iPhone only has the one “Home Screen” button on the front while the Storm has typical phone buttons (Send, End, Menu, Back). This makes interfacing with the Storm a bit easier for me than the iPhone.
Conclusion
This comparison of the BlackBerry Storm and iPhone 3G has turned out to be much longer than I thought it would be. I must restate that phones are very personal devices, and what works well for me may not work at all for others. That’s the nature of personal technology, the more personal it is (like phones) the more likely that users will interpret them differently.
I do find that either one of these phones works well for me in daily use. They both do what I expect them to do and what I need for them to do. They approach things differently and that makes the user experience different as a result. I do find that using either of these phones is just plain fun, and I take big stock in that. The decision of which phone might be better for you will have to consider many factors and hopefully this overview may make that easier to do.
* The portrait QWERTY keyboard as depicted is not available in the latest shipping Verizon version of the BlackBerry OS. This was enabled by the RIM beta OS I have installed.




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