BlackBerry Storm: It's a Dud

BlackBerry has a knack for simple phone names, and the Storm couldn’t be more spot-on, David Pogue writes in the New York Times. Stormy it is: dark, sodden, and unpredictable. The feature-packed phone is shrouded in a “marathon of frustration”—keys that don't do anything, scrolling that’s too slow, and delays all around. And the signature on-screen keyboard? “A wasted software-design opportunity.”

Virtual keys pack great potential for buttons with layers of uses that evolve as you type. Except they don’t, and in some programs only a hard press yields results. “It’s too much work, like using a manual typewriter,” writes Pogue. Text comes out “slow and typo-ridden,” particularly when using the vertical keyboard, which is, yes, different than the horizontal one. No Wifi is the sour icing on this cake.