[fbrown627]

I'm with Verizon and have a Palm 700P. Time to get a new phone and I want to switch to Blackberry. (And I need to stay with Verizon)

I'm looking for a phone that can be used both in the U.S. and in Europe--and offer data service. So, my choices are the Storm and the 8830( World Edition).

If I already own an ipod Touch (with wifi), do I really need a Storm or couldn't I make do with the 8830 and its easier keypad?

Besides a camera, what would I be missing by not getting the storm? Thanks.

[mrmartymac]

As a former 8830 user, it was my first BB and I got it for exactly the same reasons you mentioned. I used it in Europe several times and it worked like a charm.

You already mention the lack of the camera. The only complaint I ever had, and it is a chronic complaint of the 8830, is that the volume for the ringer was lacking.

Play with it at the store. Listen to the actual phone ringing, not using the Media Player. use your current phone to call the phone in the store and listen to the volume of it. Make sure it is set on the "Loud" profile. Then do the same with a Storm or a Curve, just for volume comparison.

Again, the 8830 can play a ringtone loudly in the Media Player, but when it is actually "ringing", it uses only one of two speakers available and is not loud enough, IMHO.

As I said, that is the ONLY complaint I had.

Good luck.

[chiefvelo]

8830 is solid but still missing Docs to go. should be in an OS upgrade sometime, soon i hope. Storm has Docs to go now.
8830 long battery life slimmer profile.
Storm big easy to surf screen. but give up key board. and a slow camera.
It takes a while to learn BB over palm but the phone part is so much butter than a 700 i can't believe you haven't changed yet.

[fbrown627]

Chiefvelo, I think you misunderstood. I'm definitely getting rid of the Palm so I'm not trying to compare BB's to the Palm.

I'm trying to decide which of the two blackberries I mentioned to get. The pros and cons of each.

I tried to Storm in the store and I have to say i didn't like the touchscreen. No matter where I touched, it went somewhere else.

[roscopcoltrane]

I went 8830 > Storm a month or so ago. I love the Storm for it's "consumer" features (camera, media, screen, etc) but from a power user/business standpoint, the 8830 wins hands down...if only for the ability to compose one handed messages.

I've used both all over China and they both work very well.

[searly]

Although going into the store and using each device as much as possible is a smart move, I would caution you and making a judgment on the device solely on that experience, especially with the Storm. The Storm software is still a bit quirky and needs a battery pull once in awhile to keep things cleaned up. My bet is that the Storm in the store not only needs a battery pull but also a software update. I was in my local VZW store the other day and the display Storm was still running .65 OS. Not to mention, people are in and out of the store all day playing with it and not closing apps properly and so forth.

I have had both devices (8830 and Storm) and I am still with the Storm. If I were you I would start with the Storm since your learning curve will be less than someone coming from a previous blackberry device. Give it a week to 10 days (it took me 3 weeks to get used to it). That way if you need/want to go to the 8830 you will have something comparable in the blackberry realm. I agree with the post above that one handed use of the Storm is dreadful at best, however, if you are not driving it turns out to be quite nice to work with. I will caution you on the camera though, if you are needing a camera, you will have to be patient with the Storm as it is terrible as of right now. I am more than sure it will get fixed in up coming OS versions, but if it is needed right now out of the box, you will be frustrated.

BTW, my 8830 is still activated on my account and I pick it up once in awhile just for fun. It is a great device and you can nto go wrong with it either. Now, if they would have just made the Curve a world addition!

Best of luck!

[larryw]

I went from the 8830 to Storm just before the holidays. Still getting fully up to speed with the new BB, but will be keeping it. Surprisingly (very) pleased with SureType. Occasional glitches, but nothing earth shattering, and it is still more stable and faster than my buddy's iPhone.

One issue I had with the VZ 8830 was the silver keyboard with blue letters; my eyes had a heckuva time until I swapped to the black/white keyboard (there's a thread on this site on howto).

Also, (wild speculation alert!) it looks like VZ may be leaving the 8830 behind as the latest software is 4.2.

I was not pleased to discover the 8830 was that it wasn't "smart" enough to figure out what time zone it was in; one needs to update the local time manually. I haven't traveled with the new one yet; does anyone know if they fixed this oops in the Storm?

[mrmartymac]

Originally Posted by larryw

One issue I had with the VZ 8830 was the silver keyboard with blue letters; my eyes had a heckuva time until I swapped to the black/white keyboard (there's a thread on this site on howto).

I had changed my keyboard so long ago that I forgot it came with the hideous blue on silver. I will note though, that should you go with the 8830, there is the red version as an option now and it has a white on red keyboard which shows up nicely in any lighting situation.