I thought that since there's been a lot of interest in this phone, I'd try to write up a bit of a review since I've now had mine for nearly 24 hours. Please keep in mind that I've only had my phone for a very short time, so this is a preliminary review and I will add to it as I've had more of a chance to play with it.
Appearance
The new Storm certainly is a sleek looking smartphone (it really isn't fair to simply call it a phone). It feels solid in your hand and is made of attractive materials (e.g. the backing is a brushed metal, the sides have a soft finish that feels great, the edges are a dark metal finish). It just looks and feels great. There really isn't much else to say in this department.
Accelerometer
The accelerometer does work quite well, but there is a trick to using it. The phone needs to be on an angle (I'd guess minimum 30 degree angle) for the phone to properly sense it. If you have the phone horizontally, it simply doesn't work (which makes sense as it senses which side is up). I've found that it can be a bit sensitive at certain angles. But so far, I'm satisified with how it works.
Touchscreen
The touchscreen is responsive and works quite nicely, but, it definitely takes a bit to learn how to position your fingers in order to select things and so forth. It would have been helpful if there was a way to move the cursor using arrows as this would add a bit more precision to the process. The way the screen works is initially similar to other touchscreens. By lightly touching the screen, you can highlight your selection. You then push down a bit to cause the screen to click (not much force is required). The click actually moves the entire screen. It's actually pretty intuitive and works well.
Now here's the important part. When typing, you really do need to get used to the placement of the letters as it's quite easy to miss and accidentally type the letter beside. In some cases the system can catch it, in other cases, it replaces the whole word with the wrong word. The SureType keyboard has actually turned out to be the easiest for me to use thus far (this is in portait mode and uses the 2 letters/key system). I'm sure that I'll get better with it with more practice. But, for people who send a lot of text messages, emails and more, this likely won't be the phone for you. You'll likely find the Blackberry Curve is a much much better phone for those who do a lot of typing. Again, for me, not an issue as I'm not a huge texter. Due to the nature of the touchscreen, you can only type one letter at a time, and the whole process will be much slower than with a real keyboard.
Still I'm satisfied and it does what I need it to do. And the other nice thing? The screen is very bright and vibrant. Looks great.
Applications, Email and Messaging
The phone does come with a few applications, including Facebook for Blackberry, Word to Go, Excel to Go, PowerPoint to Go and more. Pretty simple to setup but if you've never used these programs before (such as me), you may miss the normal computer interface a bit. Still, I figure I'll have them all down shortly.
Email is great. Easy to use, easy to read, easy to access... very typical of the Blackberry system. Access to instant messaging, email, calendar and all of those things is right at your finger tips. So far so good!
Voice Calls
Unlike some phones I've had the misfortune of trying, the Blackberry Storm's voice quality is actually quite good, and the other person on the other line can hardly tell if you decide to put them on speakerphone. The voice activated dialing is also very responsive and works with no problems thus far. Here's the only problem I've encountered thus far, and this is a problem I've seen on other reviews. If you are used to keeping the phone pressed right up against your ear, be prepared for the screen to click and for the phone to go to speaker phone. If you want to avoid this, be careful in how you hold your phone or use a headset with the phone (the one included with the Storm looks pretty good, but I have yet to try it).
Web Browser
While much better than most phones, the browser is not the same as I get on my PDA (I'm pretty sure my 4-5 year old PDA connecting at wireless B speeds is still faster than the Storm (which actually makes perfect sense), and I seem to get a better view of the webpages via my PDA. Perhaps I just need to enable JavaScript on the phone, but I find that the full HTML browser doesn't always display the pages correctly (the structure of the pages is sometimes off). This may be something that is fixed in a future update, but for now, while it's a useful feature, I likely won't be using my Storm for my main web browsing. Again though, this is just a phone and it isn't really fair to expect it to do the same as my laptop or perhaps even my PDA. At least the browser doesn't shut down when it tries to load a page it can't really load (which my PDA's browser does).
Camera
While I'd love to review this, my camera is having some issues. But both Telus and Blackberry support have been great and I'll either have it up and running my tonight, or they'll have a new phone ordered for me.
Technical Support
So far, very good. Telus and Blackberry seem very interested in providing full support for these phones (the Blackberry guy is meeting with me later this afternoon at my Telus Mobility dealer to see if we can't sort out this camera issue). I doubt other companies would provide such quick service!
Overall Impression
This is a nice phone that is perfect for people who want access to media, phone, camera, email and more all in one device. For those who intend to do a lot of typing with their phone, I'd strongly suggest looking at the Blackberry Curve as this likely won't end up being the phone for you. Overall though, I'm satisfied with my purchase and have no second thoughts about it. I'm certain I made the right choice, and I think this phone will keep me happy for a long time.
As I play with it more, I'll add notes to this review, so stay tuned!
So remember that camera problem I was having? Well, we attempted to flash the firmware in case it was a software/firmware issue (done by the Blackberry tech). Unfortunately, in the process of flashing the firmware something happened. The result is that after 1 1/2 hours to trying desperately to get it back, my phone has become a dreaded brick (kind of). As this is just a firmware issue, we're still hoping to fix it. The Blackberry tech has taken it and will be attempting to flash the new OS on it again, so with any luck, I'll have it back sometime tomorrow.
So far customer service and technical support has been great, and this is truely just a really unfortunate circumstance (the Blackberry tech had never seen the resulting supposed OS that showed up on the phone, so something clearly went wonky - and it isn't very often that you take something that was just a basic, no big deal problem and turn it into a collosal "oops" ). Anyhow, I'm now with a Blackberry Pearl and might I say, I can't wait to get my Storm back... it's soooooooo much nicer! All that said, I went into the store in the morning, then they arranged for the tech to come out and meet me back in the store at 5:00 (according to my schedule). I really can't complain.
Some people might ask if I'm not worried this is a bad sign, but given Blackberry's reputation and my previous experience with my Motorola Razr (went through something like 5 batteries before I finally found one that kept a charge and lasted for longer than a week or two, but turned out to be one of the best phones), I'm not too concerned. And hey, if the camera still doesn't work after we get the software working, no problem, I'll just wait patiently with a phone that's fully functional (but missing a working camera), then get a new one in January after stocks are replenished.
A bit of a bummer, but a great learning experience. And to be perfectly honest, besides the fact that I'm currently without my phone, I'm actually glad this happened to me! Who else would look at this with such a positive outlook! And in the meantime, I learned a bunch of neat shortcuts, and a whole lot more. Plus, I'm now going to be a great one for anyone I know with a Storm to come to for potential trouble-shooting problems! 
Does this change my review? Nope... everything there is still valid, and the problem of bricking the phone had nothing to do with hardware issues (I think), but rather some funky problem when flashing the firmware (and maybe some bad karma from us 
).
Good news, the phone is back and working! A full phone wipe took care of it. But the camera is indeed hooped, so I'll be getting a replacement in January. The other bit of info is that my supervisor just got his new Storm and his camera works just fine, meaning I likely just got unlucky there! (Supposedly, its likely just a contact issue, but since I have the warranty, we're just going to swap it for a new one rather than open it up.)
I will definitely state that I'm fully satisfied with the service I received. I'm probably more patient than most, but still...
New update:
So I finally found the secret to typing with the landscape full querty keyboard. The keyboard is split into the left half and the right half. Use your left thumb for typing on the left side and the right thumb for typing on the right side and you'll get the right key almost every time (I was trying to type with just one hand and it wasn't working so well as the keyboard is set up to sense the presses from the opposite side of the key). I'm almost up at the speed that I'd probably get on the Curve.
Thank you so much for the fantastic review and follow up updates!
What a great way to contribute to the community. I for one was really curious to hear some feedback on the Storm. Hopefully it will help guide other members.
Can't wait to read more like this from you in the future.
(no pressure! 
)
Lol, well, I'm busy looking for new applications and trying to find other tricks... I'll be sure to keep you all posted. And in a bit of good news, there is actually a chance I might get a replacement phone in the next few days. I have to admit, the dealer I went through is providing excellent service. They could easily sell any new units they get, but they just told me that they're expecting a couple more phones in shortly and they're going to put one aside for me. If their shipment comes in before I go home for Christmas next week, I could end up with my replacement before Christmas.
I also just picked up the new docking station (on backorder at many locations already as they've sold out of the few they got). It turns your Blackberry Storm into a useable alarm clock and looks super smart. It'll be perfect for when I go back home as I don't have an alarm clock in my room anymore.
I'll try to post pictures in the next few days and continue the review along with tips and such.
I should actually add to the review with the following:
Video playback
All I can say is impressive! I was really impressed with the playback that my Samsung P2 got when I first tried it out, but the Storm has actually exceeded that by a long shot, and the audio that comes out via the speakerphone actually works. So far I watched Wanted on the screen and I started watching Cars with the boyfriend. While it isn't the same as watching it on a large TV, its a very vibrant, bright and colourful picture. Details are also impressive. I was actually pleasantly surprised and never really expected it to work as well as it does. And the best part is that I managed to wow my boyfriend (we were both exhausted, yet he still wanted to continue watching Cars because it was just so cool)! Final comment here... the Storm can apparently handle most of the major movie codecs, unlike some other media players (e.g. the P2) which require you to convert movies to a proprietary format.
Required Applications
Definitely download Google Maps for the Storm. This application is most worthwhile. There aren't a lot of apps available for the Storm yet, but a few are starting to pop up. For others with Blackberry experience, you might've also heard of Viigo. This is another one worth getting and provides easy access to RSS feeds, weather, stocks, news, etc. I believe this program is actually created in Toronto. It's currently only available as a Beta version for the Storm as of yet, so there are still some kinks, but it still works pretty well. And of course, seeing as this is the Future Shop Forums, don't forget the Blackberry application for the futureshop.ca site. The app really does make it easier to navigate through the site.
Clock
Features alarm clock and timer functions. Integrates nicely with the Storm Sync Dock. But it's lacking options for now. I can't wait for new clocks to appear.
Themes
So far I only know of one other theme besides the current Storm theme (a Christmas theme). One complaint I've heard from a Curve and iPhone user is that the Storm just isn't colourful enough. This will be guaranteed to change as others start producing and uploading additional themes.
Just a few more things to add to the review. I am hoping that the Storm will become more customizable in the future, and I do have a bit of an issue with the computer software (I wish it would allow you to access the phones info easier. I'm used to using Motorola Phone Tools for my old Razr and things were just easier to access there. But then again, this might be a good thing to keep people from messing up their phones! Finally, while the phone has a search tool, this is only good for searching through messages. It would really be nice to have the ability to search for applications you simply can't seem to track down (just what folder was that in again ?).
If you have any specific questions about a feature, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer!
This thread is the definitive review of the Blackerry Storm!
I'm glad you are pleased with the video playback, the big screen must be impressive indeed, hows the resolution? Great thining or RIM's part for the wide format support.
While the storm is a great product, I still think that business people (RIMS's main demographic) with prefer the Bold for its tangible keyboard. Apparently, the Storm's touchscreen typing takees some getting used to.
