Simply judging by their looks there seem to be only litlle differences between the two Research in Motion (RIM) smartphones Blackberry Storm 9500 and Blackberry Storm2 9520. And it is true: The new Blackberry smartphone Storm2 displays only few new features, but these are important improvements to handling the handset. Key features of the Blackberry Storm2 are the new touchscreen technology, WiFi support, more memory and the new version 5.0 of the Blackberry OS. The bottom line of this review of the Blackberry Storm2 smartphone is: The new features provide for a better user experience, but the Blackberry web browser is still slow and photo quality of the 3.2-megapixel camera bad.

Blackberry Storm2 and Blackberry Storm, Pictures: RIM

At first, you might think that the screen of the new smartphone is broken because it seems to move when you put pressure on it. Instead of a mechanical suspension system the Blackberry Storm2 sports a piezo electronic screen: Piezo crystals between two membranes underneath the display surface give off an impulse and simulate the feel of a click. When subject to voltage the piezo crystals become soft and moldable, when the mobile is switched off the piezo crystals stay stiff so that no input is possible. This makes using the capacitive touchscreen much easier, faster and more controlled than on the first Blackberry Storm. The user can run his or her hand over the screen surface, applications, folder or shortcuts only open when the user pushes an icon. Kinetic scrolling is smooth like on the Apple iPhone.

Blackberry Storm2 9520, Picture: Phone Guide Germany

The touchscreen is bright ans sharp and shows strong colors. In contrast to the first Storm handset, the four navigation controls of the Blackberry Storm2 are integrated into the screen. There are three types of virtual keyboards: a numeric one, a QWERTZ one and a third one based on Blackberry’s SureType technolgoy. The keyboard feels easy to use and more precise than the first Storm device, the phone offers predictive text and auto-correction. It is possible to press two keys at once, for example, for capitalizing a letter and the touchscreen supports multi-touch for copy and paste. Because of the integrated accelerometer the screen switches quickly from portrait to landscape mode or vice versa. When holding the handset close to the ear during a call the touchscreen switches into standby in order to prevent further inputs by mistake.

Blackberry Storm2 9520, Picture: Phone Guide Germany

Even though there is no need for UMTS or even HSDPA support on a Blackberry handset because of the data compression for mobile data transfers and emails by the Blackberry server, the Blackberry Storm2 does support mobile data transmissions with DSL-like speeds. For example, this provides faster speeds when using an alternative web browser and APN. It is possible to activate a “just GSM” mode for saving battery or a “just UMTS” mode. And unlike the previous Storm, it can also connect to the internet at hotspots via WiFi an alternative method of getting online.

Blackberry Storm2 9520, Picture: Phone Guide Germany

The Blackberry browser is comparably slow and offers only a small range of functions such as zooming, newsfeeds and JavaScript. Of course, with Blackberry Internet Service or Blackberry Enterprise Server emails are transmitted to the Blackberry Storm2 automatically in real time. For setting up a new email account, the Blackberry user just has to type in his or her email address and password. With the help of pre-installed Documents to Go by DataViz email attachments such as Word, Excel or Powerpoint files can be opened and edited. For synchronizing contacts or calendar the Blackberry Storm2 comes with the software Blackberry Desktop Manager, for exchanging music, photo and video files with the PC it comes with the software Roxio Media Manager.

Blackberry Storm2 9520, Picture: Phone Guide Germany

The Blackberry Storm2 uses the same 524 MHz processor as the first Storm, but sports an increased memory and the new software Blackberry OS 5.0. With Blackberry OS 5.0, there are more icons in the menu, emails can be sent off directly from the text field, and obviously there are no performance issues anymore. Some of the new features of the Blackberry software will also be available on previous RIM smartphones.

In Germany, the Blackberry Storm2 is available at Vodafone stores for EUR 549.90 without contract. With a new two-year contract by Vodafone, the purchase price of the smartphone drops to EUR 99.90.

Blackberry Storm2 9520, Picture: Phone Guide Germany

Specifications of Blackberry Storm2 9520:
Operating System: Blackberry OS 5.0
GSM Networks: 850, 900, 1,800, 1,900 MHz
Data Transfer: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 7.2 mbps, WiFi (b/g)
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB
Screen: 3.7-inch capacitive Touchscreen with 360 x 480 pixels resolution and 65,536 colors
Keyboard: virtual QWERTZ, SurePress
Camera: 2,048 x 1,536 pixels with autofocus and video capture (480 x 352 pixels)
Other: Media Player with 3.5-mm headset jack, A-GPS
Storage: 256 MB + 32 GB microSD
Size: 112,5 x 62 x 13,9 mm
Weight: 160 g
Speaking Time: 5.5 hrs (GSM) or 6 hrs (UMTS)

Read more about the Blackberry Storm2 at www.teltarif.de (in German).