Leland's Blackberry 9550 Storm 2 [Review]

Some of the main questions I constantly receive from people on twitter are: 'What model BB do you use?' and 'Why do you love your Blackberry so much?'

The answer to the first one is simple, it's in the title of a previous blogpost.



However, the second answer would take a lot of detail, most of it already explained in an earlier blogpost titled Why I Love Blackberry.

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Enough background, let's cut to the chase.

Simply put, I love this device; even with the hardware limitations and current software.

The design is very sleek, it fits perfectly in my hand, and it yells badass. The whole 'click' thing has been labeled 'overrated' by me due to the use of regular touch screen devices, although the click does come in handy and wows a lot of individuals that have never seen the technology before. With the click I do feel however that is easier to type due to less missed mistakes and a very superb and customizable Autotext perfected by RIM. It's safe to say I type faster on this device than any other device I've used, even my laptop. Coming from a Storm 1, when I first received the Storm 2 I was amazed at the doubled application memory which suits me well because I love to have a lot of apps and a TON of themes [I'll get into those a bit later]. In earlier Operating Systems [Early 5.0 builds], this device was pretty slow, lagged up a lot, etc. But with later OS's and Hybrid OS's coming along, the software really wasn't an issue for me. My biggest thing is battery life, which varies between OS's/Hybrid's. I'm very satisfied with my current OS, it's OOAK's .758 hybrid with the .713 Radio Base. All newer Storm 2's come equipped with the .713 Radio Base, but it could use improvements, which I leave to the hybrid builders rather than RIM due to their lack in publishing software that doesn't have quirks in it. Stepping away from all this technical jargon, the current software and battery life in my baby has greatly improved my Storm 2 experience: transitions are fast, the accelerometer speed has increased [switching from portrait to landscape is much faster], loading applications is almost instantaneous, and the screen lock is simply INSTANT. Everything I need is easily accessible from the main theme's homescreen depending on how you customize it. And with the use of 3rd party themes, the homescreen is all you need to access your most important phone needs. Speaking of which, customization on this device is almost endless with the amount of 3rd party themes and various wallpapers available around the internet. Themes and wallpapers really give a sense of the device being made just for you. Many know what I mean by my tweetphoto screenshot posts. Back to the productivity aspects, emailing and texting is very simple, whether you like them in the same app or separate [mine being seperate of course]. Replying to emails/texts/etc. is as easy as pie: simply click the app of choice [Email, Messages, SMS, BBM, Any other 3rd party messaging apps], then read the threaded conversation then hit reply, type your message, then either swipe the keyboard down and hit Enter..Bam..That's it. Composing is even easier: all you have to do is go to messages then hit compose and choose whatever you're composing, depending on the installed apps compatible with the messages app on your Blackberry, the more you can compose just from the messages app. Also many applications are connected to the messages application, in simpler words: those Direct Messages from Twitter, those BBM conversations, those Facebook notifications, etc. can be set to appear right in the messages so you don't even have to leave the app. Convenience is RIM's strong point, that's for sure.

If you're into touch screens, like convenience, love customization, and want something different from the 'crowd' then this device is perfect for you.