Found some great animated pictures of the Storm which show how it looks from all angles - BlackBerry Storm 9500 Mobile Phone - animated picture (portrait) | BlackBerry Storm Mobile Phone Reviews

BlackBerry Storm 9500 Mobile Phone Pictures! (landscape view) | BlackBerry Storm Mobile Phone Reviews

Looking good

Storm Reviews:

STOP CROSS POSTING in EVERY THREAD. PLEASE. It's really annoying. Just create ONE thread for all of your posts... For goodness sake.

so is there a verizon release date for the US?

thanks for tips

Sorry Hanwei.

Just got hold of the UK launch video for the Storm - lots of features shown and some intersting shots of the UI in action

BlackBerry Storm 9500 Mobile Phone Vodafone Launch Video | BlackBerry Storm Mobile Phone Reviews

nice video, it will deffinitely be better than the iphone

Once they announce at VZW we will see Storm commercials during the upcoming World Series coverage on TBS - presented by Blackberry.

Can't wait, i'm gonna laugh if the storm gets released before the BOLD... ugh...

Seems like there was a good reason to delay the BOLD (thank you IPhone):

The Associated Press: RIM CEO: AT&T still testing delayed BlackBerry

RIM CEO: AT&T still testing delayed BlackBerry

By PETER SVENSSON – 2 days ago

NEW YORK (AP) — A delayed top-of-the-line BlackBerry phone from Research in Motion Ltd. is still undergoing testing by AT&T Inc., and RIM's co-CEO implied that the carrier wants to avoid the chorus of complaints about performance that greeted the new iPhone this summer.

RIM said in May that the BlackBerry Bold 9000 would go on sale this summer. It has gone on sale in some foreign markets, but it's still not available in the U.S., and no date has been announced.

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said Thursday that the phone is still undergoing the certification process in which AT&T tests all new handsets to make sure they work well on its wireless network.

"There's great scrutiny, as you might know, on that network and a certain device. So I guess everyone wants to be sure on every last test," Lazaridis told The Associated Press.

Apple Inc.'s iPhone 3G went on sale in July, with AT&T as the sole U.S. carrier. Customers soon started complaining of slow data downloads and dropped calls on some units. AT&T and Apple have not directly acknowledged a problem, but Apple has released a software update that was supposed to improve performance. The majority of iPhones appear to be working well.

Lazaridis appeared confident that the Bold would not be subject to the iPhone's problems.

"We're very meticulous about what our product does," he said.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel would not confirm that the Bold was still in testing and said only that it would come out this year.

The delay of the Bold's U.S. launch has weighed on RIM's stock. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company will now be launching several new phones at once in the coming months, and said last week that expenses from those rollouts would eat into short-term profits.

No surprises about the Bold. We all know ATT 3g isn't ready for it. Sure, many of the unlocked Bolds work around here but ATT isn't ready and they know they can't afford to botch this launch, which will be way bigger and more important than the iPhone launch because of the BES accounts. Slow downloads to kids, fine. Dropped calls and email botches to businesses and they're dead.

This is a joke. Sure type????? We are in the year 2008.

Wirelessly posted

Suretype? What's that got to do with the bold or storm?

The storm has the ability to be full QWERTY or suretype. I assume that is what austinf means.

Wirelessly posted

Ah. Well, I think it's great that the storm has that as an option in portrait mode. I would never use it, but it can only help more suretype users out there transition to the latest and greatest.

Hello all as of yesterday verizon has no release date.

Any idea when (and if) Sprint will ever carry this device? I love Sprint's data network but not sure how voice stands up. I hope it is better than what it was a few years ago.

It is a Verizon exclusive.

I just tested one this morning. Very cool device. The touch click keypad is much smoother to use than I had thought it would be. Had a nice weight to it too, a little more than my Curve, which I liked. The one that I used had a couple bugs in it that will be corrected, such as the accelerometer responding to smacking the side of the device and rotating the screen and some slowness closing apps. Both of these items have already been corrected on other devices from what I have been told. Overall I am very impressed with it. I was on the edge about whether or not I wanted a full touchscreen device, but this sealed the deal for me.

Whats wrong with SureType? Some people prefer it over a full QWERTY, especially if they are used to the Pearl or 7130. The Storm gives you the best of both worlds.

Release date?

Your guess is as good as mine, however I don't think it will be released on the day most people think it will. This is just my opinion as I have seen absolutely no information regarding release.

My Verizon guys just text'd me and said November 7th. Take it for what it's worth.

Jared

Thank you for sharing. I look forward to seeing the product reach us retail consumers.

Hy,

i got the STORM in my own hands yesterday : great perfomance while typewriting. Nice to handle..... i WANT IT right now.

My rep says the 24th. At least they agree on the month.

Last year they said the Pearl would be out for Thanksgiving, I think it was a bit earlier.

The storm is actually still a smart phone. It's still has the functionality of a PDA although previous PDA's have already Wifi. Using 3G or 3.5G for that matter is quite expensive and it also depends on the strength of the 3G signal. But still it's a very handy phone to have.

I think that sounds pretty close otherwise they started the market blitz way too early. So early that everybody will be ignoring it if it comes out much later than then.

Will sprint get this device at all or is it completely exclusive to Verizon?

Verizon exclusive.

well thats stupid

Yeah, if you're a Sprint customer.

My personal devices are all with Verizon but our business uses sprint, I don't want a BB for personal usage only for business. Time to switch the business to verizon, lol j/k

Also, ATT gets the Iphone and the bold, Verizon gets the Storm, sprint sucks

My Verizon rep also says it'll be the middle of November

eagerly waiting for mine...

I've seen lots of posts around about the WiFi being left out of this device. It's great that Verizon has it on their network. I'm sure it will be a big win for them. But rumors abound that Rogers could also be getting it. Personally, the no WiFi is a killer for me. And the lack of support for North America 3G on the Vodafone model will not make a lot of folks happy if they try to get one un-locked and use it in North America. Will be interesting to see if Rogers gets a version with support for NA 3G. If that happens, it will be worse than the Bold for being sold and unlocked and loaded up on AT&T.

WiFi is only useful if you use the phone in a location where there's a crummy VZN signal and there's a WiFi signal. WiFi is no faster than EVDO. I think that's why the Storm doesn't have it, plus it eats power is you leave it on and costs $$ for the radio. I say forget it and bring the think out ASAP. It'll be out by the end of the year, probably before the Bold!

I'm also a Verizon user and won't miss the WiFi in this device. I've got a Rev-A laptop card and the thing is blazing fast...I can only imagine what its like on a handheld. Well, other than the straight up EVDO that my Pearl uses, which is pretty darn fast.

I'd agree with most Verizon users here...if you have a fast regular network data stream, who needs WiFi? I've heard the horror stories from my friends with their iPhones and dropping 3G...its like anything else - you can have the coolest hardware in the world, but if you got a bad connection, you're toast.

In SoCal, with the widespread availability of Verizon's network, there is little (if any) need for WiFi. Were I to live in a different part of the country, perhaps I would feel differently, but so far I've only heard complaints about the lack of WiFi from non-Verizon consumers. Verizon peeps seem to think being able to actually access your 3G network is better than WiFi.

Thanks for your highly intellectual input.