milkpowder
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2005
- Posts
- 8,496
- Likes
- 21
Let's start with the bad
I've used my Storm (.78) for a day already and here's what I would like seen improved in the future:
1a. Better internet browsing experience
- smoother scrolling/panning
- quicker rendering of websites, particularly when panning/scrolling through them after they're loaded
- faster/better support for complicated javascripts
- faster visual response (eg glowing keys, etc) when typing. I find the animation often lags behind my typing even though the strokes register fine on the screen. This appears to be a problem only found when browsing the web.
- more visual acknowledgment for on-screen/imbedded buttons in websites. A lot of the time, I don't know whether my finger is over a button until I see the status bar pop up. This results in multiple clicks and the ones 'off-target' end up zooming in the screen further, which is a minor annoyance.
1b. leading on from better support for scripts, which I think is an important area needing a lot of additional work:
- Posting on forums with the Storm is a very laborious task. The position of the text box on the screen is never optimal. It's either too zoomed in, or not magnified enough. It would be nice for there to be a default text box magnification like found on the iPhone Safari browser. I have also discovered that the text does not wrap when posting in the "quick-post"/"fast reply" boxes at the bottom of the screen.
- There is also poor support for the scripts found on forums. I frequent boards which use vbulletin and using any of the more advanced buttons (eg edit, multi-quote, quick post, etc) is quite a chore. Once you've typed up your message inside the quick-post box and pressed on the "post quick reply" button, the browser does not automatically refresh with your "quick post" as it does on a computer browser.
2. Ability to select multiple files and move them to other folders.
3. Options for even more aggressive font smoothing.
4. Clearer indication of volume.
- No volume scale/meter pops up when you adjust it. That I find rather strange.
5. More precise recognition of touch input. The iPhones seems to do a great job at estimating where you've touched the screen. The Storm doesn't get it right all the time.
6. Reception, reception, reception. It fluctuates a lot, which is rather odd. I would go from full 3G reception to half GPRS, then back up again. The reception indoors is a bit poor, but I have to admit there are no issues with reception outdoors.
7. Better applications
- Why didn't we get the iPhone Facebook application?! It is quite a bit better, more user friendly and let's you do far more than the BB one!
- The Flickr app is, again, weak at best. It'll let you upload, but not view recent activity, contacts' uploads, etc...
- a BB dictionary? where did that go?! It would be nice to see one.
- They gotta put in a better calculator than the one included. Make full use of the 600MHz+
8. Better email support, specifically Gmail, which I use most (please excuse me if the perceived shortcomings are due to my own ignorance!)
- Having been an iPhone 3G user for a few months, I would like to see a better integration with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc... There is no facility for me to view folders I have created in the above internet mail services. I don't think you can file away (eg Gmail term = archive) messages into folders either. Also, the changes (read/unread status) I have made on my phone are not reflected online.
- Threaded messaging. This would seem rather easy to add.
9. More language support
- Especially oriental/eastern languages! They can't even be decoded.
10. A better bundled case
- I think most Storm owners will agree with me about the absolutely dreadful case. It's hard, and apparently destructive too
11. Give us more volume!
- The headphone-out is so weak it's incredible! I'm guessing this is because of EU regulations. I'm listening using my HE60 and the SRM-006t needs to be nearly max to get around 80-90dB.
***********************************************
Some good things:
Even though I have many complaints, this phone is still an absolutely joy to use.
I. The phone dictionary is very complete. Suretype is splendid. It is rather intelligent and has pretty much every single word you will ever use (including financial/medical ones should you choose to install the additional packages). I have yet to figure out how to add custom words to my dictionary, or does the phone do it automatically?
II. Battery life hasn't been an issue so far. I used it for about an hour today mainly to surf the internet, receive/send emails (3G, lots of typing). Battery ran down by a quarter. The screen was on full brightness. This is similar to what I get out of the iPhone 3G battery and maybe just a tad worse.
III. The screen! Even though it technically only displays 65K colours (or 16-bits in total), images and video look great. It's not as nice as the Bold's screen which as higher pixel density, but it still beats the "older generation", eg iPhone 3G, Omnia. Of course, the newer generation of phones will have even nicer screens eg 5800
IV. Headphone out
- No hiss, decent sound. It doesn't sound distorted or muffled. Maybe a tad too polite-sounding. Could use a bit more treble sparkle and upper midrange to lift the veil.
V. Decent media support
- Copy tracks/files directly to phone or onto a microSD and things just work. All the cover art, tagging is detected. The media interfaces are also user friendly. If you touch and hold your finger over an artists name for a couple of seconds, the Storm will find all the tracks on your phone by the same artist. The same works for titles, album names and even in the email application (sender, subject, etc)! Most common media files are supported, which is an added plus.
VI. Generally smooth running interface and good physical build
- I may have been fortunate, but my Storm runs pretty quickly. I have not had to do a battery pull yet and the interface just works as it should. There may be that rare occasion where I have to press a button again, but other than that, nothing in particular to poke at. The build quality is pretty good. Battery cover seems a little haphazardly attached, but it definitely stays on! The whole screen clicks, though I wonder how long it will stay that way!
- The interface itself is pretty well put together. The BB button has conveniently placed options. Screen transitions look slick and classy.
- It's still not as easy to use as something like the iPhone, but it's somewhere in the middle between Windows Mobile and Apple, whilst retaining the sophistication (and inevitably some of the complexity) of Windows Mobile.
VII. Short learning curve
- I reckon most will be able to use 90% of the Storm's function after a day of playing around with it. There are a lot of shortcuts, gestures and it will also take time to rearrange the menus, adjust settings to your liking.
I haven't really tested the camera, but no, my D300 isn't going to lose sleep over it
I didn't get the phone for its camera, but it exhibits none of the lag that I've read about. Image quality is what you would expect from a minuscule sensor packing 3.2MP. Can't do 8fps though
So how is the phone for a chap like me? Me = someone who is not doing business, does not need support for super-secure, enterprise email, but likes all the bells and whistles of a fully-fledged multimedia powerphone. The iPhone has a better browser that's more mature and easier to use. The applications for the iPhone seem to be much better made, more accessible, and there are more of them out there too. The two interfaces are comparable, each having something the other doesn't. For me, the iPhone 3G may still be marginally superior. The Storm is still in its first iteration, and the firmware is, well let's just say, in its infancy. I wouldn't be surprised if the Storm becomes every bit as good, if not better than the iPhone for your typical tech-savvy teenager/young-adult. Better official firmware should be just around the corner.
************************************************** ************************************************** ***********************
20/3/2009 UPDATE:
Currently on .113 "official-leaked" firmware. Much better. Still some areas to improve on, but pretty satisfying to use. Screen transitions are quicker, camera works more smoothly, browser renders pages in less time, etc...
Camera is actually pretty good. Used carefully, it can deliver very sharp results (see picture 1). I'm also running a 3rd party theme which is pretty good (see picture 2). It's a little better than AppleBerry Glass v1.1 which I've also used.
1a. Better internet browsing experience
- smoother scrolling/panning
- quicker rendering of websites, particularly when panning/scrolling through them after they're loaded
- faster/better support for complicated javascripts
- faster visual response (eg glowing keys, etc) when typing. I find the animation often lags behind my typing even though the strokes register fine on the screen. This appears to be a problem only found when browsing the web.
- more visual acknowledgment for on-screen/imbedded buttons in websites. A lot of the time, I don't know whether my finger is over a button until I see the status bar pop up. This results in multiple clicks and the ones 'off-target' end up zooming in the screen further, which is a minor annoyance.
1b. leading on from better support for scripts, which I think is an important area needing a lot of additional work:
- Posting on forums with the Storm is a very laborious task. The position of the text box on the screen is never optimal. It's either too zoomed in, or not magnified enough. It would be nice for there to be a default text box magnification like found on the iPhone Safari browser. I have also discovered that the text does not wrap when posting in the "quick-post"/"fast reply" boxes at the bottom of the screen.
- There is also poor support for the scripts found on forums. I frequent boards which use vbulletin and using any of the more advanced buttons (eg edit, multi-quote, quick post, etc) is quite a chore. Once you've typed up your message inside the quick-post box and pressed on the "post quick reply" button, the browser does not automatically refresh with your "quick post" as it does on a computer browser.
2. Ability to select multiple files and move them to other folders.
3. Options for even more aggressive font smoothing.
4. Clearer indication of volume.
- No volume scale/meter pops up when you adjust it. That I find rather strange.
5. More precise recognition of touch input. The iPhones seems to do a great job at estimating where you've touched the screen. The Storm doesn't get it right all the time.
6. Reception, reception, reception. It fluctuates a lot, which is rather odd. I would go from full 3G reception to half GPRS, then back up again. The reception indoors is a bit poor, but I have to admit there are no issues with reception outdoors.
7. Better applications
- Why didn't we get the iPhone Facebook application?! It is quite a bit better, more user friendly and let's you do far more than the BB one!
- The Flickr app is, again, weak at best. It'll let you upload, but not view recent activity, contacts' uploads, etc...
- a BB dictionary? where did that go?! It would be nice to see one.
- They gotta put in a better calculator than the one included. Make full use of the 600MHz+
8. Better email support, specifically Gmail, which I use most (please excuse me if the perceived shortcomings are due to my own ignorance!)
- Having been an iPhone 3G user for a few months, I would like to see a better integration with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc... There is no facility for me to view folders I have created in the above internet mail services. I don't think you can file away (eg Gmail term = archive) messages into folders either. Also, the changes (read/unread status) I have made on my phone are not reflected online.
- Threaded messaging. This would seem rather easy to add.
9. More language support
- Especially oriental/eastern languages! They can't even be decoded.
10. A better bundled case
- I think most Storm owners will agree with me about the absolutely dreadful case. It's hard, and apparently destructive too
11. Give us more volume!
- The headphone-out is so weak it's incredible! I'm guessing this is because of EU regulations. I'm listening using my HE60 and the SRM-006t needs to be nearly max to get around 80-90dB.
***********************************************
Some good things:
Even though I have many complaints, this phone is still an absolutely joy to use.
I. The phone dictionary is very complete. Suretype is splendid. It is rather intelligent and has pretty much every single word you will ever use (including financial/medical ones should you choose to install the additional packages). I have yet to figure out how to add custom words to my dictionary, or does the phone do it automatically?
II. Battery life hasn't been an issue so far. I used it for about an hour today mainly to surf the internet, receive/send emails (3G, lots of typing). Battery ran down by a quarter. The screen was on full brightness. This is similar to what I get out of the iPhone 3G battery and maybe just a tad worse.
III. The screen! Even though it technically only displays 65K colours (or 16-bits in total), images and video look great. It's not as nice as the Bold's screen which as higher pixel density, but it still beats the "older generation", eg iPhone 3G, Omnia. Of course, the newer generation of phones will have even nicer screens eg 5800
IV. Headphone out
- No hiss, decent sound. It doesn't sound distorted or muffled. Maybe a tad too polite-sounding. Could use a bit more treble sparkle and upper midrange to lift the veil.
V. Decent media support
- Copy tracks/files directly to phone or onto a microSD and things just work. All the cover art, tagging is detected. The media interfaces are also user friendly. If you touch and hold your finger over an artists name for a couple of seconds, the Storm will find all the tracks on your phone by the same artist. The same works for titles, album names and even in the email application (sender, subject, etc)! Most common media files are supported, which is an added plus.
VI. Generally smooth running interface and good physical build
- I may have been fortunate, but my Storm runs pretty quickly. I have not had to do a battery pull yet and the interface just works as it should. There may be that rare occasion where I have to press a button again, but other than that, nothing in particular to poke at. The build quality is pretty good. Battery cover seems a little haphazardly attached, but it definitely stays on! The whole screen clicks, though I wonder how long it will stay that way!
- The interface itself is pretty well put together. The BB button has conveniently placed options. Screen transitions look slick and classy.
- It's still not as easy to use as something like the iPhone, but it's somewhere in the middle between Windows Mobile and Apple, whilst retaining the sophistication (and inevitably some of the complexity) of Windows Mobile.
VII. Short learning curve
- I reckon most will be able to use 90% of the Storm's function after a day of playing around with it. There are a lot of shortcuts, gestures and it will also take time to rearrange the menus, adjust settings to your liking.
I haven't really tested the camera, but no, my D300 isn't going to lose sleep over it
So how is the phone for a chap like me? Me = someone who is not doing business, does not need support for super-secure, enterprise email, but likes all the bells and whistles of a fully-fledged multimedia powerphone. The iPhone has a better browser that's more mature and easier to use. The applications for the iPhone seem to be much better made, more accessible, and there are more of them out there too. The two interfaces are comparable, each having something the other doesn't. For me, the iPhone 3G may still be marginally superior. The Storm is still in its first iteration, and the firmware is, well let's just say, in its infancy. I wouldn't be surprised if the Storm becomes every bit as good, if not better than the iPhone for your typical tech-savvy teenager/young-adult. Better official firmware should be just around the corner.
************************************************** ************************************************** ***********************
20/3/2009 UPDATE:
Currently on .113 "official-leaked" firmware. Much better. Still some areas to improve on, but pretty satisfying to use. Screen transitions are quicker, camera works more smoothly, browser renders pages in less time, etc...
Camera is actually pretty good. Used carefully, it can deliver very sharp results (see picture 1). I'm also running a 3rd party theme which is pretty good (see picture 2). It's a little better than AppleBerry Glass v1.1 which I've also used.
