Today Verizon released the BlackBerry Curve 8530. This is the second BlackBerry Verizon has released this quarter right behind the Storm2. This new Curve is more of an entry level BlackBerry that has some features you'll love. It's only $99.99 on a two year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate.



Here are some highlights of the phone:

• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.1
• GPS
• 256mb internal memory
• 528MHz processor
• 2.0mp camera
• Dedicated media keys
• microSD expandable up to 32gb
• BlackBerry OS 5.0

Cosmetic
The new Curve is slightly smaller than other BlackBerry models. It doesn't have any flashy onyx or chrome highlighting. The all black design does sport a subtle (plastic) carbon fiber looking backplate. The rubberized surrounding feels good in your hands and contributes to the overall simplicity.

When compared to the old Curve 8330 it is slightly thinner, a little taller, and a little less wide.



The Curve is also the lightest BlackBerry I've ever held, weighing in at only 3.74oz. In comparison, the new Storm 2 is 5.64oz. This may come off as a cheap feeling to some, but I find it a bit refreshing. The low weight makes it feel more comfortable in your hands.

The side buttons are covered with rubber, and really contribute to the design. BlackBerry was also thinking about durability here.



BlackBerry also added some media buttons to the top of the Curve. I think this is a nice addition, especially for those that play a lot of media on their phone. I guess they figured someone wanting a simpler BlackBerry may be more interested in playing music and video and less interested in doing business with their device.




They QWERTY keyboard somehow feels bigger to your thumbs than it appears. This is due to the way BlackBerry angled the top of the keys. However, after using the keyboard on the BlackBerry Tour for a bit, I prefer the Tour. BlackBerry made the keys on the two devices slightly different.

I really liked the addition of the trackpad. It seems that BlackBerry is moving away from the noisy trackball. It feels like a little mouse for your thumb, to put it simply. I had no problem getting used to it. I think that previous trackball users will really appreciate the trackpad. The standard BlackBerry send, menu, back, and end surround the trackpad extending off of the same piece of plastic used for the screen.


Software & Browser
BlackBerry added OS 5.0 to the new Curve. I really like the new additions OS 5.0 makes, including the threaded text messaging, improved browser, and BlackBerry Massager 5.0,


Pre-loaded with the Curve comes IM applications, Facebook, Myspace Flickr, and document viewers. For some reason they didn't pre-load BlackBerry App World, but again chose to include application center, where you can get App World. I'm still confused why App World doesn't come pre-loaded and they ditch application center. Having both is redundant.



After hooking up my Gmail account to the new Curve I was surprised to find an option to import and sync all my contacts. Awesome! This must be a feature of 5.0 that I overlooked. I continued to hook up my Facebook account, and now most of my contacts (ones that share information with 3rd party apps) now have pictures. That was easy! Did I mention I really like the Facebook application for BlackBerry? Well, I do - it's great.

I really like the new OS 5.0 Browser. It's quick to render pages and smooth to operate. However, keep in mind that the lower resolution on the screen may make it harder to view certain pages.

Connectivity
Luckily, like with the new Storm2, BlackBerry added Wi-Fi! As some of you know, Wi-Fi on Verizon devices is a fairly new things. Only certain phones previously had Wi-Fi, but now it seems every new smart phone that rolls out is getting it. Finally.

The Curve, unlike the Storm2 and Tour, is CDMA only. This means that it can not be used on GSM networks. Unfortunately they only gave it a 1xEV-DO rev.0 data connection and not the rev.A, which is a little bit faster

Camera & Media
The camera on the Curve could be better. It's only 2 megapixels and doesn't include a flash. Pictures are okay if you're in a well lit room, but they come out a bit grainy You can pretty much forget about getting good pictures in low light situations. Here is a picture taken in best case scenario with good lighting.

http://cellphoneforums.net/verizon/t...e-cameras.html

Support for 32gb microSD is included, but missing is an included microSD card. If you want one you'll have to buy it on your own. This isn't a huge deal since this is a entry level BlackBerry, but you'll surely want some extra storage if you plan to use the media player and/or store pictures on the phone.

Battery
The battery is a 1150mAh li-Ion with a a talk time of 4.5 hours and a standby time of 252 hours. Honestly it's not that great for a phone that could potentially be used a lot for web browsing, e-mailing, and Facebooking. It is rated slightly better than the old Curve though.

Here are a couple comparison shots with the BlackBerry Storm2 (sorry, I don't have an old Curve to compare it to)




Conclusion
The BlackBerry Curve 8530 is a great starter BlackBerry. If you want a BlackBerry with good features, but don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a phone, this may be the phone for you. It's simple, feels great in your hands, and works well.

If you like don't mind not having a physical QWERTY keyboard, want more screen space, and can afford another $100, take a look at the Storm2. In the coming months BlackBerry and Verizon will be releasing the Tour 2, which will have a trackpad, wi-fi, and a higher resolution screen than the Curve. So if you want the best of both worlds just wait for the Tour 2.

Hello I am planning buy a new phone, choose from Samsung I8910 and SE Santio U1, it's a hard decision, please le me know your comments, thanks.:p

The HTC Droid Eris is the second Android phone that Verizon has launched this fall. This simplified Droid is basically the little brother of the Motorola Droid and is being marketed as such. It is half the price at $99 with 2 year contact and is so far the cheapest Android phone available.

Here is a quick feature rundown:

• Android 1.5
• 5mp camera w/ autofocus
• 3.2in display
• 528MHz processor
• 288mb of RAM
• 512mb of ROM
• 8gb microSD card (class 2)
• CDMA Rev A
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• Magnetometer (compass)
• 3.5mm headphone jack

Cosmetic
The HTC Droid Eris is physically smaller and lighter than the Motorola Droid. The device itself is basically a re-branded HTC Hero.

Front view:

Back view:


There are only two side buttons - the volume. The Eris appears very simple and stylish.

Unlike the Moto Droid, the casing is plastic. The ruberized texture and rounded contours feel good in your hand.

Here is a comparison of the HTC Eris and Motorola Droid:





The BlackBerry-like trackball is useful, and it adds to the design of the phone. I also like the dedicated call and end buttons. The end button also doubles as the lock button.

I'm not a fan of the miniUSB data port that HTC uses. Why can't they use the microUSB port that everyone else uses? I'm sure at one point they will be the odd man out and finally switch their port and USB/charger cable. Why mention this? Because I like that I can have one cable and charger across many different phones, but for HTC phones, I have to get out their charger.

The microSD card is a push-click style on the side of the phone, under the back casing. I really like this compared to the Moto Droid. With the Moto Droid you have to take out the battery to get the microSD card out, which is really annoying. You also have to pull it out of the slot with a fingernail or pen. At one point I put the card in upside down, something that is impossible with the Eris.

Boot Up
When you first turn on the phone you don't see the Droid 'eye', but rather some skate boarding androids. The boot up could've been quicker.


Screen
The screen is lively and vibrant like the Moto Droid, but not as big. It is 3.2in (320x480). The menu buttons are touch response, but I did noticed that they're in a different order than on the Moto Droid (home, menu, back, search vs back, menu, home search). No big deal. The response of the screen with its haptic feedback is very nice and provides a good feel.


Applications
Pre loaded applications include:

• Amazon MP3 store, Verizon Visual Voice Mail
• Google Maps, Calendar, Talk, Gmail, Youtube
• Quickoffice, PDF Viewer, Peep (Twitter)
• Stocks (that uses Yahoo finance?), Weather (HTC's app, which is really nice)

I'm disappointed that this phone doesn't come with Android 2.0. The phone has 1.5 (for the time being) Because of this there are many things missing when compared to the Moto Droid: combined email inbox, universal search and the Google Maps Navigation. Lame.

Another thing that I found weird: there's an option to send photos to Facebook as you take them, and it works, but the facebook app is nowhere to be found. You'll also get status updates in the notification menu. When you click on your friend you're brought to their profile via the web browser. There is no way to add your Facebook friends as contacts like with the Moto Droid. There is a way to connect an existing contact with a Facebook contact though, but it has to be done manually for each contact. I'm going to assume this is the difference between the Android 1.5 and 2.0 Facebook apps. The Eris definitely fails in the Facebook department.

Under the Data Synchronization menu 'PC - Outlook Contacts and Calendar' is an option. This isn't an option on the Moto Droid. Although you can download some software to sync your calendar it is harder to sync your contacts with the Moto Droid and Outlook. I'm wondering why Google took out this option that I know a lot of people are wanting. I'm going to guess because they want you to manage your contacts in Google and not Outlook.

I do like that HTC took some time to customize the home screen with their clock and weather apps. This adds a nice touch to the phone out of the box. The home screen also has 7 'panes' vs the Moto Droid's 3.

Keyboard
Here's a big reason you may or may not want this phone - there's no slide out, physical keyboard. This is fine for some people, especially if you're used to typing on a screen. The haptic feedback is really useful here.

Missing from the keyboard? Multi-touch. I just want to press shift and alt and then a letter at the same time. I hate that shift and alt are toggles. There's no reason they couldn't use multi-touch here. The hardware supports it. Also, keep in mind that the screen is smaller than the Moto Droid; if you have fat fingers, you may have a hard time typing.

I should also point out that HTC programmed this keyboard and not Google. What does this mean? The keys are spaced out a little more, there's a white background. There's also, imo, a better predictive text layout. This makes it a little easier to type than other Android phones with screen-only keyboards.


Calling & Sound Quality
Calling quality is what you'd expect. It's good and I didn't have any problems. I like the proximity sensor that turns off the screen when the phone is up to your face. I've used phones in the past that don't have this and I've ended up ending the call or muting it by mistake.

The external speaker isn't as big as the Moto Droid. As a result it doesn't reproduce sound as well.

Battery Life
The 1300mAh battery on the Eris is average. It is rated for 3.5 hours of talk time, and 15.5 days of standby. When compared with the Moto Droid, that's a whole 2.9 hours less talk time, but a whole 4.25 days more standby. I'm going to assume that more things shut down when the phone is not in use. You'll be wishing you had longer battery life if you do a lot of web browsing on your phone daily.

Web Browser
Humm. I'm a bit contradicted here. The Moto Droid has a newer browser that appears to render pages faster, but the Eris has pinch-zoom and has Flash Lite support. I can't decide which one I like better.

I like that with the Moto Droid, you have more options, like setting a default zoom, and turning off javascript & plug-ins. I also don't mind that it doesn't have pinch-zoom. I also like that when you select a form it zooms in on the form instead of giving you a text field to type in.

On the Eris, I like that I can view Flash (adobe will probably release a flash plugin for Android 2.0 soon anyway), and the pinch-zoom is kinda neat. When it comes down to it, I think I like the Moto Droid's browser as far as usability goes though.

Media Player
There's really nothing special here. The media players on the Moto Droid and Eris are basically the same. Out of the box there is no way to automatically sync your music with your computer. If you want to get music on the phone you have to connect the phone via USB cable and drag/drop the music files you want 'into' the phone. The other method is to buy songs from the included Amazon MP3 application. As I said with the Moto Droid, I'm surprised Verizon didn't put Rhapsody on the phone.

The 3.5mm headphone jack is useful, but I did notice that due to the contour of the phone a 3.5mm plug won't sit flush with the casing. No biggie.

YouTube comes pre-loaded on the phone, which is also nice. I appreciate that the whole screen is used.

Camera
The camera is 5mp and includes an auto-focus feature. Unfortunately there is no flash. However, I can say with confidence that the pictures look better on this phone when compared with the Moto Droid's camera. Although it's missing some of the options like color effects, scene & night modes, I think the quality of the camera makes up for it. There's also a setting for 3:2 aspect ratio. Here's a pic of an asshole cat taken with the camera and then uploaded to Facebook:

http://cellphoneforums.net/verizon/t...e-cameras.html

Taking pictures is done by pressing the trackball. I like this rather than a side button. This may be 'different' for some people since you'll probably use your thumb vs your index finger to take a picture. The speed of taking both pics on the Moto Droid and Eris were virtually the same side by side - which is a bit slow. Geo-tagging is an option. There are four resolution options and white balance settings, spot metering, digital zoom, self timer, spot metering and more.

I'm curious why they didn't make the volume buttons control the digital zoom. To zoom you have to swipe the screen which makes a zoom bar pop up. Kind of annoying.

You can also take Video with the Eris. It takes average videos - not as good as the Moto Droid.

Conclusion
I like the HTC Droid Eris. It has just enough features to be an interesting and cheaper alternative to the Motorola Droid. Physically, in my opinion, it looks better and feels better in your hands. I wish that it came with Android 2.0. There's no doubt that this will be a deal breaker for some, but for those that don't need a slide out keyboard, this is your phone.

http://cellphoneforums.net/cell-phon...id-review.html
http://cellphoneforums.net/motorola-...-htc-eris.html

Greetings,

So with the cell wars heating up, what is the general reviews on the Android against iPhone comparisons, anyone form a hands on opinion yet? Was able to see one and it looks like it could be a better choice overall at price, anyone else get to see it in person yet?

Thanks,

Ok... Yes, they got me... OUCH!!!!!

As i sit here playing with it as i'm doing this review, i will start off with a few Quick Hits.

The phone's thickness is close to the DARE'S, even with the addition key board slide.

The data plan is unlimited access to the internet/email and includes GPS


The camera view and video view screen on the phone is in HD, its like looking at a plasma TV.

They have an app which was downloaded for me by a tech, where you can SCAN a bar code on an item, and google will search it and get its info... cool

You can speak into the phone and goggle will search the net... i gave it an audio search command.... CELL PHONE FORUM... GOGGLE SEARCHED... I touch the link and it navigated me to CELL PHONE FORUM HOME PAGE... and FAST!

The phone has a double lock, a button on the top of the phone which activates the screen, and then, with your finger... you slide the LOCK icon over to the other side of the screen to a speaker icon to unlock the touch screen... nice

The USB for charging and computer docking are the same as the DARE'S, and so is the car charger, i did have to get a larger landscape holster because its slightly longer than the DARE. The SD-card from my DARE was 8G which is compatible, but the DROID comes with a 16G

These are a few quick hits in first two hours of receiving the DROID, i will update this review as i explore my new phone as it happens.

Stay tune!!!

Anyone have their Casio Exilim C721 just delete the entire contact list?
I just upgraded and luckily had Verizon's Backup Assistant to restore the contacts. Verizon was no help in explaining why it happened.

This is the one a lot of people have been waiting to get their hands on, and rightfully so! Verizon has loosened their belt a bit and finally allowed an Android phone on their network. The Motorola Droid, backed by a large advertising campaign, aims to stomp on the iPhone 3GS in every way possible. It is being released November 6th for $199 (w/ 2 year contract), and will be the most powerful Android device on the market.

Here are some quick specifications:

• Android 2.0
• 5mp camera w/ autofocus & dual flash
• 3.7in display
• 550mhz processor
• 256mb RAM
• 16gb microSD card (class 2)
• CDMA Rev A
• Wi-Fi
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• Magnetometer (compass)
• 3.5mm headphone jack

CPF managed to obtain a new Droid in its release state. Keep on reading, it gets good!

Cosmetic
The first thing I noticed, after running around looking for something to open this marvelous UPS delivery, was a red eye peering back at me. Right away you get a sense that this phone means business and not in a BlackBerry way.


On the reverse:


After sliding the cover off:


Inside the box is a charger with USB cable - the cable doubles as the charger cable. The charging/data port on the phone is micro USB.


Backside of the phone with protective plastic on it:


The phone is sleek, kind of boxy, with a rubberized backing. Most of the body is made of metal so it doesn't feel cheap. It has some weight to it and gives you the impression that it can take a beating.




With the keyboard out:


Some side views:




Compared to a BlackBerry Storm2 (not really a good comparison, I know, but I didn't have another sliding phone laying around)



Compared to an HTC Droid Eris:


Boot Up
When turning the phone on you get a "DROID" across the screen, then a red eye like on the cover. DROID emits from the speakers and it boots up, quite quickly I should add.

Screen
This is a large screen! It comes in at 3.7in (854x480). It's very sharp and has a lot of contrast. The response of the screen is gratifying; the phone buzzes when you touch it (haptic feedback). Touch sensitive Back, Menu, Home, and Search buttons are also included. The only thing this screen is missing is multi-touch. (yes, the hardware supports it, but there is no trace of it in the built in software)


Applications
Some notes on applications:

• Facebook, Amazon MP3 Store, and Verizon Visual Voice Mail all come pre-loaded.
• Google Maps w/ Navigation
• Naturally Google Gmail, Calendar, Talk, and YouTube come pre-loaded

Google Maps with Navigation beta is incredible. Here's the video that Google put out just a couple days ago:

I was able to pretty much mimic what happens in the video. This is the first phone to feature this application. In fact, right now it's exclusive. It works just how you'd expect any GPS to work, but it can have actual pictures of the road (satellite or street view) and just about live traffic data. I would buy this phone for this feature alone. Alas, I'm sure it will be on other phones soon though. This is really going to give GPS companies a run for their money.

Keyboard
The keyboard is flat and soft to the touch. It will take some getting used to if you regularly use a phone with raised keys. It's understandable why they had to use such a keyboard; One - it's a slide out keyboard phone. Two - to make the phone thin (and it is very thin for a slide keyboard phone). Still, they could've made the spacing of the keys better. Moto did make it easy to access all the important web and texting keys like . @ / and ? without pressing the Alt key. They also threw in a search and menu button. It's a mystery though as to why there are two blank keys. You would think they would have utilized this space better.



The directional pad is good, but I would've liked to feel a little more of a difference between what direction you're pushing and the center 'enter' key.

Of course you also have the option of using the on screen keyboard while the phone is in portrait. I should mention that the shift and alt keys are a toggle and you cannot press shift or alt while pressing another key at the same time.

Calling & Sound Quality
Call quality is great on the Motorola Droid. Verizon's network helps with this, I'm sure. Some notes about calls:

• The standard dial pad operates quickly and easily.
• I love the favorites feature built into Android.
• You can use Google Voice if you choose to. Awesome!
• A proximity sensor turns off the touch screen when you have the phone up to your face.
• The speaker, found under the gold screen in the back of the phone, reproduces sounds surprisingly accurate.

Battery Life
The battery life is outstanding. The Droid is rated with a talk time of 6.4 hours and a standby time of 11 1/4 days on a 1400mAh battery! So with a running web browser, wi-fi, bluetooth, facebook, etc you'll get a whole days use out of it. That's pretty darn good. One of the things that Verizon is pushing as a feature over the iPhone is that you can remove the battery and replace it if/when needed. That's kind of funny considering how good the battery is anyway. I guess they really wanted to work it from all angles.

After removing the back cover you see the battery and 16gb microSD card (the battery does have to be removed to remove the microSD card)


Android 2.0
Google seems to have hit a home run with Android 2.0. They've added several new features that many people will love. Here's a couple:

• Streamlined UI
• Combined e-mail inboxs
• New web browser
• Voice commands
• Exchange compatibility
• Universal search (searches the phone and the web)

Things that are missing from Android 2.0:

• Phone Password - you can't set a real password on the phone other then setting a unique gesture (literally a series of lines) to unlock the phone.
• No password timeout setting - this means that the phone's screen will go to sleep and you're fored to unlock it every time at a hard coded interval.
• A good Facebook app - I found the Facebook app to be lackluster compared to the BlackBerry version - you can sync contacts like with the BlackBerry version, but it doesn't give you dedicated Facebook notifications other than the standard e-mail. Also, I found duplicate entries for some of my Facebook contacts. This is a bug in the software, I'm sure. This really isn't Google's fault, but I'm sure this is a program that a lot of people will use and contribute to their experience of the phone.
• No updates to music player (see below)

Accessories
Motorola and Google also put a lot of thought into accessories that will be available for the phone. We're not just talking about cases and bluetooth headsets here, but special docks and car mounts that enable features of the phone when connected to them.

• Home Dock - turns the phone into an alarm clock complete with large time display, weather and music icons
• Car Dock - sets the phone to 'car home' which integrates with Google Maps Navigation (see video above)

Web Browsing
The web browser is smooth and fast. It just works how you'd expect it. You can easily zoom in/out (double tap), select objects, and navigate with the directional pad. I really like how when you select a form, it automatically zooms in and displays the keyboard. It's really sharp and ads to the whole phone's experience. There are also shortcut keys to add bookmarks, find text, select text, view page info, share the page, downloads, and settings. HTML 5.0 is supported. At the moment flash lite is not supported, but a plug-in is supposed to be on its way. Some may miss a pinch-zoom feature, but the double tap works fine for me.


Media Player
Unfortunately Google didn't do too much with the media player in Android 2.0. The music player has the standard controls that you're used to, but I still think the iPhone/iPod has won in this category. There is no way out of the box to sync music with your computer, although it can be done with programs like iTunes Agent. If you want to get music on the phone you have to connect the phone via USB cable and drag/drop the music files you want 'into' the phone. The other method is to buy songs from the included Amazon MP3 application. I'm actually surprised Verizon didn't put Rhapsody on the phone.

The phone does have a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you don't have to worry about adapters. You can also play the music through the phone's speakers if you want. Once more accessories are released I'm sure you'll see docks a la iPhone/iPod docks.

YouTube comes pre-loaded. Videos look great on the large screen and they load in a reasonable amount of time (depending on the size of the video). This is really thanks to the Verizon 3g connection. Of course having Wi-Fi connected will help on download time.


Camera

The 5mp camera includes auto-focus, dual LED flashes, and image stabilization. The user interface for the camera is better than on Android 1.0. Android 2.0 adds 'scene' modes like landscape, sunset, night, etc. You have several options to 'share' the photo, crop/rotate it, set it as contact icon or wallpaper. You can also geotag your photos. The camera application itself is a little slow, however. I should note too that that it froze a couple times while trying to open up.

Here is a picture taken of my cat that I immediately uploaded to Facebook:

http://cellphoneforums.net/verizon/t...e-cameras.html

She was moving a little bit, but I'm finding that the auto-focus could be a little better. The image is just a little bit fuzzy, something I didn't expect with a 5.0mp camera. It was having a hard time focusing on anything.

Video on the Droid is very good. Resolution is 720x480 in MPEG-4. You'll find that there are less options for video, however. There are no options to 'share' like with photos, presumably because of the larger file size.


Conclusion
This phone is going to make some people wish they didn't switch from Verizon to AT&T just for the iPhone. I'm positive that some people will switch to Verizon just for this phone. The music player and camera could be better, but all the other features make up for it. For those that say 'well, the iPhone can do that', well yes, I suppose it can if you find the right app. Big deal. I'm not saying it's better than the iPhone, but it certainly is a fierce competitor with a bad boy image. I'm sure this is exactly what Verizon wants. They're finally trying a different angle and I believe it's going to work out for them.

I will update this thread if I find anything else worth noting - stay tuned...

Post your thoughts in the Motorola Droid Forum

http://cellphoneforums.net/cell-phon...is-review.html
http://cellphoneforums.net/motorola-...-htc-eris.html

The BlackBerry Storm 2 9550 is a fantastic update to an already great phone. This highly anticipated phone is finally going to be released by Verizon. It has several new features and tweaks that current storm users will love. New users will love it as well.



What's New
So what's new in the Storm 2? Here's a quick rundown...

• New touchscreen w/ SurePress technology
• Configuration of buttons, or lack of them
• 256mb of memory (128mb in Storm)
• 2gb of internal storage (Storm has 1gb)
• BlackBerry 5.0 OS
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Internet Browsing is faster

The Screen / Typing
The new touch screen with SurePress technology is the first thing you'll notice. It's hard to describe without actually using the phone, but it somehow feels like you're typing even though you aren't actually pressing a button with your finger.

• Compared to the original Storm, instead of feeling like one big washy button, the SurePress feels more even, accurate, and more responsive. The corners of the screen function much better.
• 'Mushiness' is gone.
• Contrast is better (see pics)
• You can type faster on the Storm 2 without typos
• Multitouch capabilities have been added to the screen. This is one reason typing is so much better on the Storm 2; because it can register two different places at once. You can now press alt + shift. This also opens up possibilities for other multitouch applications.
• The screen doesn't move from side to side and show backlight through the cracks like with the original.
• When the device is locked, you cannot press the screen.
• Face detection! When you're on a call the phone knows that it is up to your face (via a proximity sensor). No more accidental face muting and speaker phone!

Cosmetic
The second thing you'll notice is some slight cosmetic changes:

• The buttons at the bottom of the Storm 2 are now part of the screen (send, menu, back, end)
• The chrome outline of the phone is now more of a gunmetal
• The speaker for the speaker phone has been moved from the back to the bottom. There are no rubber 'feet' on the back of the phone that prevent it from laying flat.
• The headset port is now flush with the casing
• The back material is just about the same, but instead of two push clips there is just one clip in the middle. Inside the cover is some rubber material for deadening and, I assume to prevent things from moving around.

Other then the above the two devices are almost identical in size and could easily be mistaken for one another.

Memory / Speed
Ah, some relief from laginess!

• The Storm 2 has more memory (256mb compared to original's 128mb). It's more snappy.
• Opening programs, taking pictures, and the hated lock button lag have all been relieved (the camera still isn't as fast as I'd like but it's faster than the original).
• The browser has been updated and is faster at rendering pages.
• BlackBerry 5.0 OS is also more streamlined and packs several new features of it's own, including inertial scrolling with snap back. Update 10/26/09: I should point out that the new OS is now available for the Storm 1
• Expandable memory up to 16gb, for a total of 18gb!
• Update:The Storm 2 will come with a 16gb sd card loaded!

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi! This one has Wi-Fi! It seems that Verizon is loosening its belt a little! The Wi-Fi is definitely a great addition.


Web Browsing
The internet browser performs better than the latter. Unfortunately RIM didn't take advantage of the multitouch feature here to zoom in and out like iPhone users are used to. It still doesn't seem as fast at rendering pages as Opera Mini either, and it's still lacking tabs, but if you want you can just download Opera on the phone.

Threaded SMS
This is an improvement that a lot of people will like. Below is an image of the same conversation on a Storm and a Storm 2. Notice how much more condensed the conservation is on the Storm 2. It's also in the order you're used to when using IM programs. When you touch a message, the time the message was sent appears in the upper right. It really bugged me on the Storm that you have to do menu > send to send a text. With the Storm 2 you can press the enter key to send a message. Oh, and they also added smilies :)

Update 10/26/09: I should point out that the new 5.0 BlackBerry OS is now available for the Storm 1, so threaded SMS is now exactly the same.

Camera & Media Functions
Unfortunately, the camera is basically the same, besides being a bit faster from when you press the button to when it actually takes the picture. It doesn't perform well in low light conditions despite the flash. The menu has been updated a bit though; 'Send As...' condenses the many options you can have to send a picture into one menu item. Once you select a way to send the picture you are now given the option to resize the photo. There's also a new option to turn auto-focus off, or set it to a close-up mode.

The music player has a new song slider a la iPhone along with shuffle and repeat buttons under it. There is also a new option menu for the music player complete with headset EQ, audio boost, and appearance controls.

I can't spot any changes in the video player.

http://cellphoneforums.net/verizon/t...e-cameras.html

Applications
I'm still confused as to why BlackBerry App World doesn't come preloaded, but Application Center does. Having both seems redundant, but why not ditch Application Center? Regardless you can download BlackBerry App World and get access to the thousands of applications that are available for your BlackBerry. CPF currently has a list of these applications here: BlackBerry - Cell Phone Apps

Conclusion
The BlackBerry Storm 2 is a great phone. A lot of people who already have a Storm will be upgrading, I'm sure. There will also be a lot of first time users that will absolutely love the features of this phone. RIM really listened to what people wanted in a phone this time. They continue to churn out quality phones that will make a lot of people happy with their purchase.

The BlackBerry Storm 2 will be available October 28th, 2009 for $179.99 with 2 year contract (including $100 rebate) in Verizon stores