With hype comes scrutiny. Build consumer interest in a device up to that which Verizon has built the BlackBerry Storm, and you’re bound to hear the complaints. The Storm has been on the shelves for less than a week, and forums around the web are already littered with word of reproach.
A list of the issues that RIM has recognized as software flaws has been passed out to Verizon employees to keep them from accepting them as reasons to exchange the customer’s device. Of course, this list made its way out almost immediately. According to the document, we can expect the first set of fixes to come in Week 1 of December.
Far more interesting than the problems themselves are the interim solutions. Key press not recognized? Solution: Press it again!
Issues to be resolved by the first OTA update (Maintenance Release 1) - December, week 1:
- If a customer receives a call while listen to music at low volume using a wired headset, the music volume may suddenly increase to the highest level (!). Interim recovery instructions: Lower the volume using the buttons on the side of the handset.
- When using voice-activated dialing, incoming audio may be muted. Interim recovery instructions: Enter the menu and select “Activate Handset or Speaker”.
- The handset may reset itself while sitting idle or while using multimedia applications. No interim recovery instructions provided.
- Customers may intermittently lose email connectivity via CDMA and/or international roaming modes. Interim recovery instructions: Main menu -> Manage Connections -> Select mobile network -> Turn radio off, then Turn radio on. If this does not resolve the issue, pull the battery.
- When powering on the handset, the radio sometimes does not turn on. Interim recovery instructions: Main menu -> Manage Connections -> Select mobile network -> Turn radio on. If this does not resolve the issue, pull the battery.
- Pressing the send key while the device is in landscape mode will open the phone application in portrait mode, but the speed dial function may not work. Interim recovery instructions: Press escape until the home screen appears, then press the send key with the handset in portrait orientation.
Sometimes entering characters on the virtual keyboard doesn’t work. Interim recovery instructions: Re-select the character.
Issues to be resolved by a subsequent Maintenance Release:
Entering characters on the virtual keyboard doesn’t work. Interim recovery instructions: Press those characters like a man you wuss.
Kinda funny that the updates don’t seem to cover the major complaints people have about the device.
1. It’s slower than hell.
2. The accelerometer is all over the place.
3. Touch screen accuracy is pretty sketchy, all around.
Scrolling was jerky, and slow. I think the screen was plastic, not glass like the iPhone. Returning it to VZ store I found the VZ employees slow, and jerky also. Coincidence? I think not ;)
Waited until I could try Storm before making a decision on migrating from Treo to iPhone 3G or Storm. iPhone blows Storm away hands down. What was RIM thinking not including WiFi connectivity….This thing is waaaaayyyyy toooooo slooooowww and clunky. iPhone interface dominates touchscreen at this time and 3G/WiFi is blazing fast when compared to Storm….if only I could cut and paste with iPhone. Ahhh but we can’t have it all at once. My prediction: Storm front will fade quickly.
D
I don’t believe the storm will fade away, but do believe it is another blotched release from Rim and there carriers, I believe the storm will build an excellent following. I hear the fixes are due in the next 2 weeks, before the Canadian launch of the storm.
Andrew
http://www.blackberryunderground.com
A truly Social Network for Blackberry Users and Abusers
As for Jazz1 comments about the folks at VZ Store. I must say that the service given at the Apple Store is the best I ever got in any mass market retail business. I own Apple products for several years now and now with the iPhone I’m always amazed by the quality and cordiality of the service there. This makes the iPhone 3G even better.
And that is one of the reasons I’m getting an iPhone tomorrow. The treatment during the NIB return was for me the straw that broke the camel’s back. I didn’t even recount how they told me that they would need to activate the Storm and then deactivate, and that I would lose all of my data on my existing 8830. I told. I told them I had everything backed up and IMAP mail. Either it was a threat, or they just didn’t know how to take a return. In the end nothing untoward happened to my 8830. Oddly the same VZ person had treated me well when my 8830 was dying. They replaced it right away. Maybe they were having a bad day due to the Storm shortage and Storm issues. But in customer service you can’t afford to have a bad day when it comes to the customer.
I live in Canada so I have yet to play with it. Does anybody knows if it can roam in GSM while in North America?
Get a Nokia E71 (if you can’t get an iPhone).
Apple Fanboys are like people who play WoW. They think it’s the greatest EVER.
It’s too bad they were in such a rush to get the product out before the holiday season. I do like the fact that you will have more options to customize with the Storm. I think that is where they will have an edge, right now I have to jail break to fully utilize my iPhone. I agree on the wifi, what were they thinking? Hopefully they have learned from this and are moving forward with some future requirements.
I have the Storm and I couldn’t wait to get it…..now I ask myself WHY? I think it sucks, I try to turn it to a horizontal view and it takes forever for it to turn, when I try to push different applications it takes longer for it to work than if I were writing a text message the old fashioned way, paper and pen! I want my money back. Overpriced and over glorified!
I have the Storm too, I fell the same same way like you about the storm now I feel like returning it and get the Omina..
I admit the phone looks nice, thats about it until you fidle with it a little and see the true colors.
I have an HTC Touch and hate it. Bluetooth never did work on it. Was considering the storm but looks like it too has it’s issues. sigh. it would be nice to have a phone that worked, was practical and had the features I needed. And the sky will tun pink with bunnies….
what a bunch of whining little biatch’s. My storm works fine. Not an ultrafast browser but the IPHONE is more expensive so of course it should have WiFi.
The IPHONE doesn’t record video another reason I bought the storm (HUGE). Just for that the IPHONE is my ballz. You wanna talk overpriced? The IPHONE is just that.
The Strom is a total piece of CRAP! I didn’t have it for even 3 weeks and it went belly up and died on me, the replacement (a REFURBISHED phone) I have only had for about 2 weeks and already am having problems. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME WITH VERIZON STORM!!!!
-many times it does not respond to my touch, and multiple times it will respond to the wrong thing
-it will not move from horizontal to verticle for sometimes multiple minutes, right now, in txt mssg mode right now, it will not move at all
-the back button will take SERERAL minutes to respond
THE STORM IS A PIECE OF SHIT! DO NOT GET IT!