BlackBerry Storm Video Playblack

Oh, hey, I guess there was one more goodie left in the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Developer Conference bag-o-treats. We’ve got some of the first hands-on video of the BlackBerry Storm that doesn’t involve some kind of advertisement. A lot of the OS is still a work in progress, so it wouldn’t be fair to do a whole run-down, but I thought a demo of the more-than-ample video playback would be nice. Sorry about the umbrella reflecting in the back, things were a bit spur-of-the-moment. The screen is 480 x 360 HVGA – not bad compared to a lot of things, and more than steps up to the Bold, but the one thing you do risk with larger screens is more pixelation. The Storm wasn’t that bad at all. The one thing I was iffy on was the sound quality.

Maybe the Bold has spoiled me, but the Storm did sound a bit tinny. As far as I could gather, most of the sound was coming from a rear speaker down by the battery door latch, with a little sound coming from the phone bit, while the Bold has an extra two sound ports on the rear. Part of me thinks that there might be a speaker under the screen, since it seems to wrap around fairly nicely. I won’t lay the haterade on too heavily – maybe some clever equalizing on the software end will boost the bass and give it a fuller sound. The picture itself was great, and easily on par with many alternatives now available.