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Multimedia and Applications
Storm handles multimedia content very good, which didn’t come as surprise, since earlier models as Bold and Curve 8900, also performed well in these areas. CPU that can be found in each Storm operates at 528MHz, which isn’t much compared to CPU in Bold that operates at 624MHz, but still enough even for most demanding jobs. Phone operates without any lag, application switching is fast, photo zooming is almost real-time operation, movie playback and navigation is also fast etc. Sound reproduction quality is very good thanks to presence of two speakers: one at the front and one at the back. Reproduction of video materials was a real pleasure, and despite the fact that Storm is a business smart phone, it looked like it was built as portable media player. Camera with 3.2MP (similar to Curve 8900) with solid auto-focus, flash and image stabilization technology produces nice pictures and video clips.
As far as applications are concerned there isn’t much to talk about. RIM only adapted all applications for finger tip user interface. Menus look the same, all applications already seen on previous models are present which is actually enough for any business user (web browser, mail client, organizer, calendar and many, many more). There is also support for Google Talk, MSN, Facebook and even ICQ.
Storm in the wild
After thorough testing period that was consisted of watching a whole movie, playing few games, making dozens of calls, taking few photos and movie clips, writing a small text, surfing etc battery lasted for more than two days: impressive. According to specification autonomy should be around 15 days in stand-by and 6 hours while talking. These figures are slightly larger compared to previous models despite the fact that battery in Storm has smaller capacity. Obviously engineers from RIM have done their job when it comes to power efficiency. But, there is always one of those, the fact is that Storm doesn’t have support for WiFi connectivity, and we all know that WiFi module can be very big power consumer. Aside energy efficiency, lack of WiFi module is big problem. RIM obviously calculated that price of implementation of a WiFi module would raise price tag too much, autonomy would be most certainly affected and we all know that WiFi modules can contribute to device warm up. So, mobile providers compensated this by offering free 1GB data transfer packets which is more than enough for average business user. For further details contact your local mobile provider.
Connectivity
Since most users will get free bandwidth, only problem that remains is 3G network coverage. If your country is fully covered with 3G you can expect nice transfer rates. Even if that isn’t the case, you won’t feel slower transfer rates during usual activities except in case you decide to download a lot of data. Also Storm can be connected to your PC with USB and Bluetooth connection. Storm will be detected as two drives: internal storage and microSD card (we got an 8GB microSD).
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