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BlackBerry Storm 2 Gets Official, Spec’d and Reviewed

October 15th, 2009

Rumors surrounding the BlackBerry Storm 2 have been going on since May 2009, but they can go now as RIM has unveiled their second generation touchscreen smartphone a few hours ago. The BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 has an official page at the BlackBerry smartphones official website. At first look the device might seem very impressive, but that’s only because the first generation Storm sucked, and like many people said, this should have been the original Storm. But that’s life and we’ve seen this before when the iPhone 3G was unveiled as people said that it should have been the original iPhone.

Let’s see what the BlackBerry 9550 Storm 2 has to offer to the world: enhanced SurePress technology which is now electronic, not mechanical, speed enhancements thanks to the new BlackBerry OS 5.0, 256MB of flash memory up from 128MB, 2GB on-board memory up from 1GB, WiFi 802.11b/g, JavaScript ON by default, improved browsing experience, UI improvements, sleeker design thanks to the tinted chrome ring and the integrated touch navigation keys.

The UI improvements of the BlackBerry Storm 2 consist of inertial scrolling with snap back, improve SurePress input, advanced auto-correct, multitouch capabilities for Alt and Shift keys and selection like copy/paste, key rollover, improved pressure for better typing, improved cursor control, enhanced sensitivity and accuracy, improved spin boxes for Clock, Calendar and more, new touch buttons like send in messaging, save in calendar, save in contacts and more, better SMS with notifications, emoticons, and threaded SMS, and a little surprise that was rumored for quite a while: a proximity sensor with face detection which makes the LCD turn off while in a call which can be a downside if you want to see how many minutes did you talk, but you’ll dig its good after a while.

The LCD screen has the same number of colors, the same size, and the same resolution. The camera is the same as of Storm 1,as well as the battery, network and the rest. At the moment the BlackBerry 9550 Storm 2 release date and pricing remains unknown, but reports clearly show that the smartphone will be available in Europe by the end of October via Vodafone, while US Verizon subscribers are getting the phone in the first week of November for a price of $199.

P.S. There is no information to say that you’ll get a discount if upgrading from Storm 1 to Storm 2, but it should stand at 100%. Remember to check out the photos and video below!