I reckon I'm dead good for typing on...

Those of you that have been reading my mini-mini-reviews of devices (the ‘five-minute fiddle’ series), will know that I’ve tried a bunch of devices recently – albeit in some cases for a very limited amount of time – hence the ‘five-minute’ part

So, devices I have checked out are the Nokia N96, Sony Ericsson C905, and BlackBerry Bold. But yesterday I got hold of the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Storm – for a little while – and here’s what I thought:

• build quality – felt okay in the hand -actually, a bit too light for the size that it is – feels like it should be a bit heavier, like a solid lump of metal, to give that ‘premium device’ aura…
• key layout – there aren’t any (well, many), it’s a touchscreen
• Speed of O/S – Um, a bit laggy if I were honest
• Battery – well the unit I got hold of had low battery popping up. I am going to assume that was because it had been used a lot that day. However…… you never know!
• O/S ease of use – well the UI looks nice at the top level (homescreen), and sub-level one (main menu), but I couldn’t get to grips with moving about in it, which brings me nicely on to….
• touchscreen – er… sucked. Yep, I couldn’t get on with it at all. This whole clickthrough concept, where the screen moves, I found most unsettling. it’s like the whole screen is mounted on springs, and feels like you are typing on a wobble-board! Typing felt strange.
• Email writing – well after some persisting I got the letters I wanted – key spacing good, but that touchscreen unsettled me. Compare with iPhone, which I had the same amount of time to try, and was at one with, within 5 mins. I assume that the push email function works perfectly.
• Auto-screen-rotate – sucked too – very slow and laggy, not animated
• media handling –no time to check

I’m sorry to say, this device didn’t impress at all, and the touch is just nowhere near the iphone. consider that if the screen is a moving part and depresses when you type each letter, how much durability is that going to need to have for a heavy texter/emailer….?

Compare overall with the Bold, and I’m disappointed

Overall rating: Disappointed! 

Grade: C- / D+

Five minutes to assess the Bold: yeah, it can be done!

You may have seen my other posts on my five-minute fiddles with the Nokia N96 and Sony Ericsson C905 – well today, I did really have 5 mins with the Blackberry (NSDQ: RIMM) Bold to check it out – headlines below (read the other posts here and here)….

By the way, just to recap on the point of the five-minute fiddle – I’d estimate this the average time that someone who is browsing/buying a phone in a shop might have to evaluate a phone before they make a decision on it. It cold of course equal be that a friend lends them their phone to try out – but overall, limited time to form an impression on whether it be gooood, or it be baaaaaad. That’s baaaaaaaad, just in case you were wondering on the spelling

So for the Bold:

• build quality – felt VERY good in the hand – solid, yet light, nice tactile keys
• key layout – come on, it’s a BlackBerry – excellent, naturally
• O/S ease of use – top-level menus good, but spotted the bad old list menus have barely changed. Disappointed. RIM, you have work to do here….
• option-finding complexity – high – due to those list menus!
  Email handling – well, the person I borrowed the phone off said they had had NO email delivered all morning – most unlike a BBerry to have push email issues, and I REALLY hope that isn’t a sign…
• media handling –no time to check
• progression of BBerry series with this device: I’d say between good to excellent!

So in summary, I walked away impressed with the Bold – I’m sure the push email delivery problem was a config issue, and the Bold is at least competent in each area – and now it’s a little more consumer-friendly. Roll on the Storm for me to have a five-minute fiddle with please!

Overall rating: Good – I’d seriously consider one

Grade: A (solid performance)

I also had my hands on a C905 the other day for five minutes, and below you can also find out what I thought of it. The point of these comments are to give you a flavour of what might enamour or disappoint you if were to have same time to play with the device – and thus get a view on whether it’s buy-worthy!

build quality – superb – I am impressed. Only reservation is on the slide mechanism for the camera, as these have a history of opening in peoples pockets, and draining the battery!

key layout – very good indeed – good response too

slide mechanism – clunky, in a very good way

User interface – not really changed at all from K800i – nice, but you could argue needs an update

Camera – simply stunning!

option-finding complexity – very high – lots of layers of menus again

Speed – quick to use, nice

media handling – this is an odd one – images are excellent, videos are really not good at all!!

So in summary, would I buy one? The major problem I have with this device is that the UI really isn’t evolved much, if any, from the three year old K800i. Come on SE, you have to keep wowing us, sitting on laurels does not make me buy a phone! But but but, the camera is back to being a revelation. I suspect a proper 8MP camera would take better pics, but the pics on here are still VERY good!

Overall rating: positive – I like!
Grade: A- (a few tweaks and it would be an A or A+!)