[paulyjsob]

I received my Storm 1 day before leaving for a 1 week business trip. I was a little reluctant to upgrade before my trip, but decided to anyway. I did bring my Pearl along for the ride in case though.
A little background.. I have been a Pearl user for the year. I did try to curve a little while ago but didn't like it. I like 1 hand operation and the curve didn't work out for me. I do like suretype so I figured I'd be OK with the Storm. I am an IT Manager so I do receive/reply to a fair amount of emails.
After using it for 1 week I am very happy so far. It took a little to get used to the typing, but I got the hand of it fairly quick. I have fat fingers so it was more of a concentrating on hitting the center of the key thing. Being the I like suretype, I prefer typing in portrait mode. Plus the keys are a little bigger. After about a day I was able to type as fast or faster than on the Pearl. Especially 1 handed.
I did start off on .65 and noticed the lag when switching to landscape from portrait. I then upgraded to .75 and that was gone. I also haven't experienced any crashes since (about 5 days). I did however notice the camera doing funky things. For instance, the icons disappear from the bottom. Other than that, its seems to be very stable.
I tether my laptop to the Storm via bluetooth and it works perfect. The Rev A is noticeably faster. I am very happy with that.
Battery life surprisingly is about the same as on the Pearl. With heavy email throughout the day and maybe 1 hour talk time, I had about 1/2 -2/3 battery left at the end of the day. Battery life didn't seem to change much for me after the upgrade to .75 either.
All in all I am very happy with the Storm and the Pearl will probably make its way down to another employee.

[rpjohs]

Good to hear. Could be one of the first I have heard that can type on a virtual keyboard faster than they can on a physical keyboard.

[paulyjsob]

Only in portrait mode thought. The bigger buttons make a world of difference for me. In landscape mode I was able to type quicker on the Curve that I had for a week. The keys are too small and I hit to adjacent key too often when typing fast.
My biggest gripe so far is in phone mode, I can't can't press the key associated with a letter to dial phone book contact. You have to go to phone book, then find the contact. With the Pearl I just started typing the contact right off the bat. VERY annoying.

[dwp1975]

That is good to hear, I am sure a lot of business users will be glad to hear this tidbit of good news.

[rpjohs]

Originally Posted by paulyjsob

Only in portrait mode thought. The bigger buttons make a world of difference for me. In landscape mode I was able to type quicker on the Curve that I had for a week. The keys are too small and I hit to adjacent key too often when typing fast.
My biggest gripe so far is in phone mode, I can't can't press the key associated with a letter to dial phone book contact. You have to go to phone book, then find the contact. With the Pearl I just started typing the contact right off the bat. VERY annoying.

True. Dont have much experience with the Pearl, but I imagine typing on its small keyboard with one hand would be quite a task.

[rgerrans]

I'm also a fairly fussy (and technical) business user who moved from the Pearl to the Storm and found it to be much easier and faster. The Pearl doesn't give you much tactile feedback due to how tight the keys are (I could definitely see someone coming from a conventional Blackberry being more use to touch typing), so just being able to type on a full qwerty keyboard is what makes all the difference for me. Also I'm a huge fan of the Surepress. I've never used a touchscreen phone before, and couldn't imagine using one without it. Showed it to some friends this weekends with iPhones and they like it as well.

My only frustration was moving the cursor and cutting and pasting, until I found a tip pointing out that you don't have to have your finger right on the cursor. Just hold it on the screen (w/o clicking) on the same line as the cursor and it will turn open and you can move it with your finger being a distance from it. Works also after you initially highlight text for cut and paste.

-Ron

[rpjohs]

Having an iPod Touch, I will tell you typing on the touch/iPhone is not nearly as nice as what it is on the Storm. The feedback/response that it gives is much nicer than what the others provide.

Although I am a huge Mac fan, the storm technology on typing is much better than the iPhone. Im suprised Apple didnt have this from the get go.

[zehnmm]

Old guy/business user/sometimes road warrior here. I echo what paulyjsob and rgerrans have said. So far, my Storm is doing the job quite well. I am pleased. Voice call quality and continued BB peerless email performance are strengths. I find the touchscreen easy to use for me.

Glad I got it!

Regards,

Steve

[paulyjsob]

Another thing I want to add. Today is my first day at the plant with my Storm. My department is in the middle of a large steel building and with the Pearl I had a fairly lousy signal. It was constantly bouncing between evdo, 1x, no service. The Storm so far is constantly on evdo. I seem to get much better reception with the Storm. This may help with the battery life.
Thanks for the copy paste trick!

[Bennett5000]

Been using it for about a week and still working through the Storm. Switched over from the Pearl which I have had since they came out. The Storm takes some getting use to. I am about 70% there. I like the bigger screen. Put .75 in and have not noticed too much difference in the operation.

[rpjohs]

Originally Posted by Bennett5000

Been using it for about a week and still working through the Storm. Switched over from the Pearl which I have had since they came out. The Storm takes some getting use to. I am about 70% there. I like the bigger screen. Put .75 in and have not noticed too much difference in the operation.

Is the Suretype easier to use on the Storm than it was the Pearl? Keysize + Suretype was a big turn off on the Pearl for me, although I liked the size of the device.

[rgerrans]

In landscape mode you are on a full qwerty keyboard. In portrait mode, the suretype keyboard is bigger then the pearl's and you don't have the number overlays (have to switch to an alternative keyboard w/ numbers).

-Ron