BlackBerry Storm 2 review: first look

This time around, things are different. The capacitive screen does have a reassuring click, but SurePress technology means it only depresses by a degree and you can easily type fairly speedily once you’ve played with it a bit. Rather than an annoying deep clunking sound a la Storm, the Storm 2 sounds a bit like a softly toned old-fashioned typewriter.

The secret behind the screen’s finessed magic? Four electrical actuators, controlled by RIM’s software working away behind the scenes.

Complementing the hardware improvements, users will find multi touch, the copy and paste and automatic spell checking enhancements very useful. We trialled it with the ‘Quick brown fox…’ deliberately mistyping a couple of words and carrying on and the Storm 2 was able to work out what it was we actually wanted with little effort.

Latest software

The Storm 2 is the first BlackBerry to boast version five of the BlackBerry operating system and we like what we’ve seen so far. Scrolling is speedy and much improved, with swipes quickly responding to where you want to navigate to, both from the home screen and within apps.

Users can also search within apps like email and the music player, just by pressing on a name or subject to find related items quickly and easily.

Other nice touches include the ability to control both the clock and connectivity from within the home screen as these two areas have been given the same level of ‘life’ as the volume speaker icon enjoyed previously.

Despite feeling more svelte and lightweight than the original Storm, there’s actually nothing in it, with both handsets stacking up evenly when it comes to vital statistics.

Gone is the recessed headphone jack. Instead the 3.5mm is flushed within the Storm 2’s casing, which helps with the aesthetics and should open up headphone choice for users.