Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to part 2 of today’s iPhone Killers double bill, and for the first time in several bouts, the iPhone’s going into this fight as a winner, having utterly mullered the MotoSurf A3100! It badly needed a victory, after losing to such heavyweights as the Nokia N97, and the A3100 gave it that victory. However, it wasn’t much of a fight: the Moto more or less rolled over and died…
So, now, it’s time for it to step back into the ring against a real competitor, once more, and this time, it’s going up against a heavyweight, a phone that a lot of people were waiting for with baited breath, before its release. It’s the first touchscreen phone ever to wear a fruit-based badge, and it has an innovative touchscreen that no other phone in the world has; it has to be the tempestuous Blackberry Storm!
Let’s see how the Cupertino Kid gets on against the Email Master. As they say in Terminator, there’s a storm coming…
1. How useful is it for doing actual work on?
Hmm, let’s see; document viewer, full internet access, a multitouch screen, and email. Nope, that’s not the iPhone I’m describing, that’s the Blackberry Storm. The iPhone’s on the ropes right from the start, but there’s one more thing the Storm has going it for, and it’s something the iPhone just cannot counter: Blackberry-stylee instant email. There’s a reason why Blackberry mobile phones have always held sway in the business, and that, right there, is it. Combine that with the moving screen, to give the feeling of typing on a real keyboard, and there’s no contest. The Storm takes this round!
Winner: Blackberry Storm
2. How good is the phone for mucking around and not doing any work on?
Now this one’s a bit tougher to call, although on the face of it, the iPhone has the edge. The Blackberry Storm, ain’t no slouch, though, with full internet access, instant messaging clients and extra things like Facebook apps giving it a fighting chance, along with superb video playback. It’s a hard-fought battle, but there’s one category where the iPhone has the edge, and that’s with gaming (which is, let’s be honest, superb. No other phone platform has a full 3D version of Metal Gear Solid on the way). Since they’re so evenly matched in most ways, that gaming skill gives the iPhone the win.
Winner: iPhone
3. How many opportunities for showing off to my mates will the phone give me?
We’ve been here several times before, but the iPhone is inherently better at tomfoolery, and that always seems to be what people warm to the most. The Blackberry Storm is a beautiful looking phone, and it works really well, but the fact is, people are going to be more impressed by the stupid bits on the iPhone than they are by the fact you can get instant emails anywhere. By that logic, the iPhone has to be the winner.
Winner: iPhone
4. How easy is it to use the phone to cheat at pub quizzes?
Let’s see, both phones have full internet access, both have fast connections, but both have onscreen keyboards. Theoretically, the Blackberry Storm and the iPhone are about as fast as each other to return an answer to the question you were cheating on. However, by sheer dint of the fact it’s QWERTY keyboard, in landscape mode, is vastly bigger, the Blackberry Storm takes the win.
Winner: Blackberry Storm
5. How good will I feel using it, and how GOOD will I look using it?
Here we go, the last round, and it’s neck and neck, so far. So, which phone is going to win the day? Well, the iPhone has, if I’m honest, the better interface. Don’t get me wrong, the one on the Blackberry Storm is superb, but its greatest innovation is its most crippling flaw. That moving touchscreen is a brilliant innovation, and really makes it feel like you’re pressing a button to access a menu, or type something. The problem is, though, that it takes so much force to press down, your thumbs will be killing after prolonged use. On the flip side, though, when it comes to other people’s perceptions, compare the reaction when people see the iPhone (ooh, look, how smug is he) to the Storm (ooh, look, shiny), and you can see the Storm comes off best. So, unbelievably, the last round, when the rounds are already tied, comes out as another tie!
Winner: Draw!
And the winner is…
Well, I never expected that! Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first overall draw, with both phones coming out as good as each other. Awww, ain’t that sweet! In a hippy peace and love kind of way, the Blackberry Storm and the iPhone have come out as equals. Of course, that probably means they’d both get mullered by something like the HTC Touch HD, but hey…
Join us for the next incredible instalment, where the iPhone faces its final challenge, and rest assured, this one will be its toughest challenge ever; in its final battle, it’s going up against a phone specifically designed to be the ultimate iPhone Killer. Yes, folks, it’s taking on the astonishing Palm Pre… Subscribe today, to make sure you don’t miss out on any of the action as the iPhone Killers go to war!