Crackberries Rejoice: Blackberry Storm 2 Released with Big Improvements

By Ethan Lee on October 15, 2009

Blackberry has announced their latest smart phone, the Storm 2.

Originally Blackberry’s answer to the iPhone, the Storm was to supposed to be a more business capable touchscreen-based phone but came up short on many fronts, the biggest being the actual touchscreen. Early Storm adopters expressed displeasure with the finicky screen, click button input and slow tactile feedback.

The new Storm 2 screen uses piezoelectric disks to detect screen pressure instead of pushbutton response. Blackberry is calling it “SurePress” technology. Early reviewers have shown that it significantly improves typing accuracy and speed.

With piezo technology, the Storm 2 should overcome any complaints they had with their first version’s poor push button screen and may actually improve over the iPhone’s multi-touch screen that lacks tactile response – the feeling of actually pushing a button.

In addition to the screen, the Storm 2 has improved with twice the memory, a backlit display, and it now has WiFi – no the Storm 1 didn’t even have WiFi capability.

RIM, Blackberry’s parent company, is currently accepting email updates and the Storm 2 should be in stores later this month.