Henry Lubong's Journal

I need to replace my cell phone soon. Carmela chewed it up and shorted the earpiece. The phone still works but I have to put it on speaker everytime I’m on a call. I currently have a HTC XV6800 with Windows Mobile 6.1 and unlocked GPS. Yeah, Verizon, thanks for locking GPS on our phones! Anyway, so I need a replacement PDA phone. I would get the iPhone if Verizon carries them. Since that’s out of my options, the only PDA phones that are worth getting right now is either the Blackberry Storm or the Samsung Omnia. Both phones have their own strength and weaknesses aside from the fact that the Omnia runs on WinMo and the Storm on RIM’s more stable platform. The Storm touted to be the first Blackberry with touch screen and an iPhone killer, but with its half baked software and multiple bugs when it was released, it was a perfect storm for a lot of early adopters. Although there were a few leaked updates that supposed to fix these bugs and make the phone more responsive and enjoyable to use. I could take that risk as I’ve heard, RIM is pretty good on supporting their devices. Samsung Omnia on the other hand runs on a dated OS but they try to cover it up with their custom user interface called the TouchWiz. It still can’t hide the fact that it is running on Windows OS which is a turn off to some.

I actually had a chance to play with both phones side by side at a Verizon store. At first glance, the sleek looking Blackberry Storm looks more appealing than the Samsung Omnia. But the Omnia is narrower and easier to hold in my hand. The screen resolution on the Storm is definitely much brighter than the Omnia, thanks to its 480×360 high resolution TFT display. Because I’m a long time WinMo user, it’s easy for me to get used to the Omnia. I’ve never used a Blackberry before but it didn’t take long for me to get used to it. The look and feel of the UI on the Storm is simpler and nicer in my opinion. Some of the features on the Omnia (which I blame on the OS) are not really meant to be touched by finger like for example the X button that closes the window. This is why Samsung decided to add a dongling lipstick style stylus on this phone. Yes, it dongles because there’s no storage room for the stylus. Thankfully, the Omnia comes with an optical mouse that is easy to use and very responsive so you might not need a stylus after all. As far as the touch screen goes, I believe this is a user preference.  The Storm features the SurePress touch screen, which is supposed to be the biggest selling point of this phone. The screen acts like a big button. When touching the menus, it does not actually do anything until you press it. The same thing goes when typing on the screen keyboard. I have a mixed feeling with this feature. I played with it for a bit and this is something that I need to get used to. I’m not sure if I’m gonna like it in the long run. The Omnia has the normal touch screen similar to the iPhone.

Honestly, I’m leaning towards the Omnia but what kills it for me is the Samsung’s proprietary port for audio, data and power. This means, every time I want to use an earphone or charge the phone I would need to bring all these cable adapters. I had an old Samsung SCH-i600 and I hated the port on that phone. I don’t get it why Samsung didn’t use the standard USB port. The Storm is not a bad choice either but the wide profile of the phone might not do it for me. Plus, I’m not really a huge fan of the SurePress touch screen.

The things that I din’t really care much about are:

- High 5.0 megapixels camera on Omnia vs the 3.2 on Storm – if I want a high quality photo, I’ll use my DSLR

- WiFi on the Omnia and none on the Storm – who needs WiFi when you have a 3G

- FM radio w/ RDS on the Omnia – the only place I’ll use this is… oh, I don’t need it

Update: I ordered the Blackberry Storm on Feb 12 from Verizon and received it on the Feb 16. Checkout my latest review after 2 months of hands-on time with the phone.