I’ve read a fair share of negative or mixed reviews of the Blackberry Storm–but I found Pogue’s review bordering on misleading and irresponsible. You know something is wrong when a leading tech reviewer says “A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel.” (Uh, dude, it’s called the “iPod Touch”) He complains that the menu commands are “too close together” (so, change the font size, schmuck…problem solved).

He complains that the click interface is too much like a manual typewriter–but, for people like me frustrated by the iPhone virtual keyboard and pressing wrong buttons in general, the ability to highlight before you push a key is a welcome change.

And, he fails to mention such details as how you can actually replace the Storm’s battery if you need to, and that the Storm offers Bluetooth stereo.

A big part of this is Verizon’s fault, for releasing review versions of a product that was not 100 percent. (Though, I bought mine last week, and have experienced zero software bugs) Still, I expect better from a high-profile reviewer.

David Pogue has an Apple bias…

I would say in this respect he has a painfully obvious Iphone bias. Another words, the Storm is not working exactly like the Iphone; ie. exactly as Pogue expects it to; so therefore it’s not a great phone.

my storm works fine, none of the problems pogue has. anything that isn’t an iphone won’t satisfy him. total bias

“it is plain that he finds a touchscreen Blackberry without a keyboard to be silly.”

To be fair, RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis was pretty dismissive of the iPhone for that very reason, when it first came out.

“Lazaridis said, “the iPhone has severe limitations when it comes to effortless typing. Of course you have more screen space, with more artistic interactions, but that’s not enough. We’ve seen this before when Palm tried virtual keyboards. When they launched the Treo they licensed our keyboard.”

This is one of the reasons why we are developing for the iPhone and not the Blackberry. http://blog.cosential.com/?p=156

I’ve been using the Storm for a week and have to say I agree with most everything David wrote in the first page of his review. My review unit has been rock solid and I never experienced any of the issues he has on the second page so he obviously has a couple faulty devices.

I do find the Storm to be a frustrating device to use that is not optimized for finger use and I am constantly selecting the wrong menu item, entering the wrong character, etc. I went back to using the iPhone today to compare and it was like a breath of fresh air. I can fly on the iPhone and even enter text faster thanks to the very good predictive text on the iPhone.

I recommend RIM stick with QWERTY devices and roll out more outstanding devices like the Curve and Bold and leave the touch screen only device to Apple.

Pogue is a known Apple shill, so this is not surprising. It might be that the Storm is the closest yet to stealing the iPhone’s “thunder” if you will.

“Pogue is a known Apple shill.”

That’s just bogus. Do a little research, please! You’ll find that until the BlackBerry Storm, I have given rave reviews to EVERY BlackBerry I’ve ever reviewed. I LOVE the polish, the solidity, the care that RIM puts into most of its products! If anything, I’m surprised people never called me a BlackBerry shill!

On the other hand, I have had PLENTY of negative things to say about Apple products. Have a look: http://www.davidpogue.com/bio_photos/fanboy.html

If you really aren’t finding any bugs in your Storm, then drop me a line by email. I’ll walk you through some easily reproducible ones.

–David Pogue

Pogue,

Speaking of horrific, maybe you could take a break from the silly videos you produce for CNBC. They are embarrassing, and there is a reason you were hazed outside the Apple store on 5th Avenue a few months ago by TSCM reporters.

Much like the Storm, nobody likes you either.

See you and NYT at zero by Memorial Day.

I finally played with a Storm and I can see where Pogue is coming from… It was a frustrating experience for me as well!

Typing was particularly annoying on the Storm. I type significantly faster on my iPhone 3G, In fact, I type faster on my iPhone 3G than on my G1.

The only physical keyboard that I’ve enjoyed using recently was on the Nokia E71, and before that, the Curve. Some keyboards are challenging for me because I can’t always see the key labels properly.

I was originally expecting the iPhone virtual keyboard to be horrible, but it turned out to be just fine.

I think what makes the iPhone typing experience work for me is the software - being able to touch a new key while still releasing an old key (multitouch), having the touch area for keys “grow” dynamically, having words predicted, and being able to read the key labels in low light.

Hopefully, RIM can improve the software on the Storm.

My personal theory at this point (aside from the clearly rather horrifying bugs in Pogue’s Storm) is that its exactly because he is such a gung-ho Blackberry guy that the Storm was a shock to the system, if you will. Clearly it changes up a lot of stuff that was the epitome of Blackberriness. Someone coming at this cold with little or no Blackberry experience may well have a more positive opinion.

As for the videos - I for one enjoy them. You’ll just have to look up the video named “Can gadgets and humor mix?” on the Nytimes site…

But hey, I just got my Touch HD so I’m used to more confused OS experiences than you spoiled iPhoners… (and I love it, best WinMo device out there, easily.)

I don’t agree with Pogue’s Apple bias either. I’ve found his reviews fair, to-the-point, and consumer-oriented, and have no reason to believe this one is any different. It is interesting though JK and Pogue have such different impression on the same device.

If you seek for views from Apple fanboys, be sure to read Walt Mossberg. I’d watch Apple commercials than read his “reviews”.

As a software developer, I was interested to see how the Storm would fare versus the iPhone and Google’s Android, the latter two being much simpler to work with than the differednt flavors offered by RIM. I was hoping for something that would make me want to write for the Blackberry. To say I was hugely disappointed is something more than an understatement. The phone has serious problems, and nothing at all to do with the fact that it is not an iPhone killer.

It seems like a nice try, but nothing more. I would have — and did — expect more from a company like RIM.

I ordered my Storm the day it was released and received it yesterday 11/26. I will admit that the Storm is not flawless nor is it a POS.
After owning both iPhones a Treo and few WinMo devices I found myself going back to my blackberry every times, I know what I am getting into with the virtual keyboard. That being said, the Storm needs some work on the OS side to help with bugs and memory dumps (the screen does have it’s on personalty) as I will have to get used to the tiny keys on the virtual keyboard. But all I have wanted is a device with expandable media options, touch screen and the email capabilities that blackberries have.I’m going to hang on to this little thing and see what is to become out of it.

I have no idea who this Pogue guy is but Steven Fry wasn’t happy with it either (he’s also an Apple fanboy though).

Not only is David iphone biased, he clearly hasnt used the item long enough to hate it this much. No one has as it was just released and anything before were early builds with buggy OSs…even the store demos have these same old firmwares that do not work as well. I can tell you from personal experience that mine works perfectly fine with no major issues…just minor glitches that every first product itineration comes with…until the updates arrive. Hopefully he’s not like this in real life becasue he’d have no friends.

I think what happen that Pogue got a unit that had most likely been the review unit and maybe the BB needed to be wiped and restored. Maybe who ever had reviewed the the Storm before Pogue had installed other programs that made the Storm unstable. I got the Storm on the 26th and I haven’t had no problems with it at all. I have everything that came with it installed. I have read that some say to remove the Verizon Nav program to make the Storm stable, but I haven’t had to because its running good. Yes it does have what seems to be a lag but, it also seems to be part of the way how things change. This is kind of like Vista. When you minimize something it gives you that effect that it does it slow, which is somethig that I kind of see on the Storm. When I compose or reply to emails, I can type quick on the keyboard with no lag typing. Some don’t like the keyboard but they need to try it for at least a good 2 days. I also at first was very disappointed with the keyboard but, after a full day of using it, I can say its very usable keyboard. Many will say iPhone keyboard is better but I think they both have there con’s and pro’s. Overall its more of what works best for you, and for me the Storm is working very nicely. I also have the iPhone so to me the Storm is just as good using the virtual keyboards but I like the Storm better using the keyboard.