Blackberry Storm 2 unofficially official

Mossberg files ahead of RIM

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15 October 2009 6:03 GMT / By Stuart Miles

RIM will officially launch the BlackBerry Storm 2 in both America and the UK on Thursday.

The news, broken by Wall Street Journal tech reporter Walt Mossberg, ahead of an official announcement from RIM, means we get some of the details ahead of an expected official launch on Thursday.

Those details are thin on the ground for the brief review, however the conclusion is that:"Overall, I found the Storm2 worked well in my tests".

According to Mossberg "the browser is still inferior to Apple’s, Google’s and Palm’s. And the traditional BlackBerry interface cries out for a major overhaul in a touch device like this, especially when you add a lot of apps".

Mossberg does confirm that "Battery life was decent, with 5.5 hours of claimed talk time, and typing was much improved, though I doubt it will satisfy lovers of physical keyboards".

Meanwhile in the UK the Guardian is reporting that "Vodafone will have the handset as an exclusive in the UK, but only for a few weeks. RIM is understood to have demanded that the device be available to other operators after Vodafone joined Orange in successfully ending O2's exclusive two-year deal with Apple for the iPhone in the UK".

Expect the official details and our thoughts when the phone officially launches.

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