LABS GALLERY: BlackBerry Storm2 9550 Is a Cut Above Its Predecessor

by Andrew Garcia

Gone is the mechanical suspension technique that characterized the touch screen on the first Storm. Instead, the BlackBerry Storm2 9550 uses SurePress, an electronic system that provides users with tactile feedback when the screen is pressed.

Hidden along the top edge are the power/lock button and the mute button, which also acts as a media pause control.

The left side of the device houses a MicroUSB connector and a programmable convenience key that is set by default to trigger the voice activated dialing feature.

The right side of the device contains the 3.5mm headset jack, physical volume controls and another customizable action button. By default, this action button activates the still camera.

The Storm2 9550 features a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, 2x zoom and image stabilization.

The Storm2 9550 has a 1400 mAhr Lithium cell battery that is rated for 5.5 hours of talk time and 270 hours standby time on CDMA networks. On UMTS networks, the battery rating goes up to 6 hours of talk time and 280 hours standby. Also under the hood is a SIM slot for global networks and a MicroSD slot for add-on storage.

BlackBerry OS 5.0 streamlines the process of attaching the device to new e-mail accounts, replacing the old browser-based registration with an easier-to-use wizard.

Users can easily switch the portrait-mode on-screen keyboard between a full QWERTY (right) and a Pearl-like iteration (left). Meanwhile, users get a full QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode.

The Storm2 9550 improves upon its predecessor with the inclusion of 802.11b/g wireless LAN capabilities.

The new OS on the Storm2 brings BlackBerry’s Wi-Fi diagnostic tools closer to the surface, making them more accessible and easier to use.

Users can easily navigate to a Web page, search the Web or choose a bookmark from the same screen.

Users can control browser features such as default search engine and JavaScript behavior. Google Gears is also natively supported.