BlackBerry Storm 2 review

Can it fix the failings of the original Storm?

BlackBerry Storm 2 review
BlackBerry Storm 2 review

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We're not sure what to make of the battery life on the Storm 2, as it fluctuates wildly between being rather good and very poor indeed.

We've come to the conclusion that heavy use of the SurePress touchscreen, along with a fair amount of web usage and three or so push email accounts will force the battery to drain more quickly than it should, especially when you consider it's a 1400mAh unit under the hood.

BlackBerry storm 2

But even at its lowest ebb you can still eke out a day's worth of use from the phone - it's just a lot less than the 270 hours of standby time quoted by the manufacturer in the spec sheet.

The organisational functions on the BlackBerry Storm 2 are also well thought out, with the calendar making use of Google and Facebook's functionality to become a naturally useful tool.

For instance, when you synchronise with Google Mail, the phone can also be set to pull down your calendar as well, making it easier to see what's going on.

Facebook is added in a similar way, mostly with people's birthdays added into the mix so you can tell when your pals are having a shindig, with or without you.

Plus, when you enter a contact into your address book there's an option to add a birthday on there as well, which pops up on the calendar then sends you reminders before the event - very useful for remembering birthdays, although you wouldn't want to do it for everyone you meet, as you'd be jam packed with birthday parties before you knew it.

BlackBerry storm 2

When you're constantly out and about, it's important to be able to organise yourself to know what the weather will be like in the next few hours (what if you turned up to a meeting with a super wet head because you didn't check?). Thankfully Weather Eye is developed for the BlackBerry range, so you can rest easy again knowing your weather needs are taken care of by RIM.

Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.