TouchScreen Mobile

Blackberry Storm

Blackberrys have keyboards! No, this is the Blackberry Storm and it is a keyboard-free touchscreen mobile, the first touchscreen Blackberry. There is another ‘first’ with this mobile though as it also features a new twist on touchscreen technology, it uses ‘Clickthrough’ technology which give those touchscreen doubters the chance to click as well as touch.

The Storm’s screen is effectively a button so whilst finger or thumb movements are recognised on the touchscreen as normal it requires a ‘click’ or push on the screen to make a selection. In the new world of touchscreen this is innovation within innovation. The world’s first tactile touch display on a mobile?

Visually this is a stunning mobile, small and compact but with a big screen which looks fantastic, the 480×360 pixel screen supports over 65,000 colours and it shows. Like many other touchscreen mobiles the Storm has an on-board accelerometer which allows it to know how the mobile is being held and switch between portrait and landscape display.

Using the Storm is an enjoyable experience, the ‘click’ feels right as well. Browsing is clean and fast, double tapping gives zoom and sweeping movements across or up/down scrolls the page. The Storm also features RSS support so you can be automatically fed updates from your favourite sites.

In terms of media support the Storm does what is now almost expected of a mobile, supporting audio and offering 1GB of storage as standard with support for 16GB of flash memory. With the Storm being a Blackberry you also get excellent email support and the ability to open and edit Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and Excel files.

GPS and camera are almost standard features on a mobile now, so not wanting to disappoint, RIM have kitted the Storm with a 3.2 megapixel camera and built-in GPS, perfect for Blackberry Maps and for geo-tagging your photos.

The Storm meets the high standards that Blackberry users expect and should welcome in a new generation of Blackberry fans.

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Nokia N97

The Nokia N97 is a touchscreen mobile which drops right into the ‘luxury’ section of the market, this is less mobile phone and more ‘computer phone’. The N97 features a large 3.5? touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard, combining controls for maximum usability.

The Nokia N97 touchscreen mobile

The touchscreen on the N97 mobile has a 640×360 pixel resolution which gives a good clear display and a large touchscreen area. You won’t be restricted to using the touchscreen though because a sliding keyboard provides a second means of input. The mobile itself with its sliding keyboard feels like a high quality product but isn’t uneccessarily large and is still very much pocket-able.

Where the N97 really starts to blow away the opposition is with it’s massive 32GB of on-board memory, breathtaking! There is also room for expansion and it can support 16GB of flash memory allowing 48GB of memory in total, much more than your average desktop PC was offering a few years ago and fully supporting the claim that this is a mobile computer!

Still hungry for more features? Well the N97 also has built-in GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-fi. Nokia is clearly seeking out the weaknesses of competitors. This phone isn’t an ‘iphone killer’, it’s a netbook killer disguised as a phone.

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