[PHLAK]

I just got a replacement storm for my old one had significant amounts of dust under the screen. My old Storm was made in Canada and my new one was made in Mexico.

On my old storm I set my screen brightness to 50% and it was still very bright. With my new storm I have to set the brightness to 100%, and it is very close to as bright as my old one was at 50%. Has anyone else noticed this, is there a video comparing the two side-by-side? I'd make one but I'm at work and also only have one battery (though I might be able to use my charger for the other).

[xxDruMMer BoYxx]

Yup. Your right. Althtough, I didn't know Storms where made in California?.......I've had Storms from Canada and Mexico and mexico has more like a yellowish tint to it. Mind you, blacks are more black with this kind of screen. But yah, Canadas Storms are more bluish or white in brightness. This about the second post about this though not many people notice it.

[PHLAK]

Originally Posted by xxDruMMer BoYxx

Althtough, I didn't know Storms where made in California?

LOL, typo! Corrected that.

[coeff]

California - Mexico.......... there's a difference?

[Masterteee89]

I was still in my 30 days and i took my storm (made in Canada) in to get it exchanged for a new one due to a dead pixel i have that you can barely notice. As soon as they brought the new one (made in Mexico) out of the box and turned it on i decided to keep my first one and deal with the dead pixel! The Mexico made ones look horrid IMO..

[xxDruMMer BoYxx]

Well, I'm not sure if horrid is the right word......but like I said, they used a different tint of whiteness on the lcd screen when they made them. For some reason. I actually like the Mexico Storms because the backlight is not like bursting bright for my eyes.

[Masterteee89]

Originally Posted by xxDruMMer BoYxx

Well, I'm not sure if horrid is the right word......but like I said, they used a different tint of whiteness on the lcd screen when they made them. For some reason. I actually like the Mexico Storms because the backlight is not like bursting bright for my eyes.

Your right.. i guess its just based on opinions... I personally like the Canadian built ones cause the Screen to me seems much clearer and sharper.. not all dull like the Mexican made ones.

[jsntrenkler]

I have seen the same differences that have been described above with mexico made storms exclusively, I believe it depends on which screen they receive for that particular batch, I am sure there are multiple companies supplying screens to RIM for the Storm, well at-least two that we can notice the difference with. Interesting to note that the iPhone 3G has the same issues with two different screens, one yellow and one bluish in tint. Probably the same companies manufacture the screens for both RIM & Apple.

[kjjb0204]

Just got my storm yesterday. Made in Mexico. Screen brightness sucks. Got that yellowish tint. Sitting next to my 8330, it's really obvious.

[PHLAK]

Wirelessly posted

I don't really notice a difference in tint, and the quality doesn't seem any worse, just the brightness is way higher on the Canadian model.

[burnt_bbQ]

Hello, I just discovered this thread after a web search for a problem I'm having with a replacement Blackberry Storm, and I thought I'd post some findings:

I received a brand new Blackberry Storm 9530 from Verizon after receiving a dud replacement for previous Blackberry Storm (Canadian made with a bright, beautiful screen but other problems). The first thing I noticed is how much dimmer the backlighting appeared on the replacement Storm. I spoke at length with a Verizon tech support person, and tried all the suggestions to brighten the screen, but all of them failed. Comparing the two Storms side-by-side, I guestimated that the relative (100%) brightness of the replacement Storm was somewhere around the 20-percentish level of my first Storm. Very dim. All auto-dimming features were off, of course, and am running OS v4.7.0.75 (Platform 4.0.0.94).

Simply out of curiousity, and while the Verizon technician was on the phone, I tried shining a keychain flashlight I had with me into the light-sensor area of the replacement Mexican-made Storm. Voila! The brightness of the screen increased dramatically and got to a level very similar to the Canadian Storm. However, once I removed this bright light source, the Mexican Storm dimmed back to it's rather unhappy dark 100% level. Unhappiness abounded. I asked the Verizon Tech whether this sort of problem had been reported before, and the answer was a negative.

Interestingly enough, I tried lowering the brightness level of my Canadian-made Storm to 10%, and then tried the same flashlight-into-light-sensor trick, and even with the Automatically Dim Backlight turned Off, the screen brightened! So it seems that this software switch does not completely control the brightness level of the Blackberry Storm; at the very least, it seems that the user is allowed to set a desired, static setting that is less than 100%, but the screen can brighten all the way up to 100% if the ambient lighting conditions warrant a brighter screen. Either that or my Canadian-made Storm is wacked out in another way.

I related my findings to the Verizon Technician, who was on the phone during the entire time. Unfortunately, it's not clear what the next logical step should be to resolve the problem so that I can return my (problematic) original Storm; digging through Verizon's warehouse stash of new Blackberry Storms to find one that is Canadian made seems improbable, and duct-taping a flashlight to my Mexican Storm may provide a weirdly technopunk look but may make it difficult to find a case that provides a good fit. I am toying with the idea of upgrading the OS on the Mexican-made Storm to the *.113 version to see if it fixes the screen dimness automagically, but am wondering if anybody else has tried this with any relevant (positive) results?

Oh, and the Verizon Technician was kind enough to call a local store about swapping out the dimmer Storm with one from their store, but was told that since this was issued by the Verizon reps via phone, they would not allow a swap in-store. Not sure why this would be the case, but there you have it.

[PHLAK]

@burnt_bbQ Well thanks for the input, I too have noticed the brightening and dimming of my Storm. Also, I'd like to inform you that I have kept my "Made in Mexico" Storm and all seems okay with it. I haven't even thought about the difference in brightness since my last post in this thread and it never seems to dark for me (guess I got used to it). Also, this Storm is much better about the dust, last week I THINK I saw my fist spec since replacement, but haven't seen it since then.

Anyway, completely satisfied Storm user out!

[juanflight]

I used to have a HTC touch and that same thing happened.. the first one made who knows where had a great bright & beautiful screen, the second one I got with a not so nice screen so I took it back and got a third one with the nice screen again. but I thought that was just my luck. LOL....

[JeremyWI]

Wirelessly posted

Originally Posted by burnt_bbQ

Hello, I just discovered this thread after a web search for a problem I'm having with a replacement Blackberry Storm, and I thought I'd post some findings:

I received a brand new Blackberry Storm 9530 from Verizon after receiving a dud replacement for previous Blackberry Storm (Canadian made with a bright, beautiful screen but other problems). The first thing I noticed is how much dimmer the backlighting appeared on the replacement Storm. I spoke at length with a Verizon tech support person, and tried all the suggestions to brighten the screen, but all of them failed. Comparing the two Storms side-by-side, I guestimated that the relative (100%) brightness of the replacement Storm was somewhere around the 20-percentish level of my first Storm. Very dim. All auto-dimming features were off, of course, and am running OS v4.7.0.75 (Platform 4.0.0.94).

Simply out of curiousity, and while the Verizon technician was on the phone, I tried shining a keychain flashlight I had with me into the light-sensor area of the replacement Mexican-made Storm. Voila! The brightness of the screen increased dramatically and got to a level very similar to the Canadian Storm. However, once I removed this bright light source, the Mexican Storm dimmed back to it's rather unhappy dark 100% level. Unhappiness abounded. I asked the Verizon Tech whether this sort of problem had been reported before, and the answer was a negative.

Interestingly enough, I tried lowering the brightness level of my Canadian-made Storm to 10%, and then tried the same flashlight-into-light-sensor trick, and even with the Automatically Dim Backlight turned Off, the screen brightened! So it seems that this software switch does not completely control the brightness level of the Blackberry Storm; at the very least, it seems that the user is allowed to set a desired, static setting that is less than 100%, but the screen can brighten all the way up to 100% if the ambient lighting conditions warrant a brighter screen. Either that or my Canadian-made Storm is wacked out in another way.

I related my findings to the Verizon Technician, who was on the phone during the entire time. Unfortunately, it's not clear what the next logical step should be to resolve the problem so that I can return my (problematic) original Storm; digging through Verizon's warehouse stash of new Blackberry Storms to find one that is Canadian made seems improbable, and duct-taping a flashlight to my Mexican Storm may provide a weirdly technopunk look but may make it difficult to find a case that provides a good fit. I am toying with the idea of upgrading the OS on the Mexican-made Storm to the *.113 version to see if it fixes the screen dimness automagically, but am wondering if anybody else has tried this with any relevant (positive) results?

Oh, and the Verizon Technician was kind enough to call a local store about swapping out the dimmer Storm with one from their store, but was told that since this was issued by the Verizon reps via phone, they would not allow a swap in-store. Not sure why this would be the case, but there you have it.

I just got my first replacement storm (for dust) and have the exact same issue, very dim screen that brightens when a light is put by the sensor. The only difference is that both of mine were mexican storms.

[Digicam]

I just had to replace my Storm do to a spill issue that could not be resolved. Received a new one under insurance, and it was one made in Mexico. I turned it on and like others immediatly noticed the screen brightness. I ran my previous at 20. This one only matched that light level, when run at 90. I am fine running it up, since I always found the Canadian version to be too bright at anything over 30 for indoor use.

My questin though, is do any of you with the Mexican built phones, who had previously used Canadian builds, notice a higher battery drain with the higher brightness setting? Or in fact does the new screen just simply run dimmer and when set at 90 actually equal the same power usage of what was 20 on the Canadian phone's screens?

[dave1812dave]

I saw 2 Storms today at the V store. One was not nearly as bright at 100% with auto dim off, as was another one sitting 2 feet away. This thread will keep me on the lookout for where the STorms are made, should I get another one in the next couple of weeks (as I mentioned on another thread today). Thanks to all for the heads up on this issue!

[PHLAK]

Well now I know I'm not the only person to experience this.