I had the opportunity today to get a hands-on feel for the new BlackBerry Storm.

To establish a baseline, I own a 3G iPhone (AT&T) and my primary device is a BlackBerry 8830 World Edition (Verizon).

My thoughts are such:

• The speed at which the device moves from application to home screen and back again is absolutely painfully slow. Boil water slow. Not good.
• Icons are almost “too” understated and you actually have to get used to which icon goes to which application. While this was a purposeful design element, it falls short of a true picture icon set.
• The device has just about as unusable a keyboard as I’ve ever seen / used. I was willing to get the phone today, thanks to a free device upgrade on our account, but I couldn’t get past the keyboard. I tried seventeen times to “press” the letter s. It wouldn’t do it. I had to position my finger in JUST the right place, and I was finally able to use one of our most popular letters.
• That “click” screen is actually more problematic than useful. Basically, under the hood is a single button depression mechanism that allows you to get “response” as you “click” or “type” as if you’re using a real keyboard. Nope. Not buying it. It’s actually a total and complete pain in the rear end to use it. It’s actually the opposite of easy.
• Web browsing has never been the BlackBerry’s strong point. However, this is actually a livable experience on the new OS (for Bold, Curve and Storm). It’s akin to the Opera Light version on any other device, or IE on a WinMo phone.
• Scrolling and sideways gyro functions are in competition with the iPhone, but it’s so clunky when you do it that you wonder if you did it right. Not only that, the real estate you’re given to scroll is so tight that you end up scraping your finger against another function or up in the text entry area. Not helpful if you’re in a rush or need to look something up while you’re writing a document or responding to e-mail.

Overall, the Storm is about 60% there. The screen is gorgeous, the colors are great and the feel of the device is no worse in form that an iPhone (in terms of weight, etc…).

I would, absolutely not, unfortunately recommend this thing for at least another generation.

Have a comment? Used a Storm? Work for Verizon and want to save your sales or represent? Leave a comment below.