I just picked up my Blackberry Storm about a week ago now, over all I am really liking it. Before I purchased it I looked at a number of phones such as the LG Dare, the HTC Touch Pro, other Blackberry models, etc.
The HTC Touch pro while a much more expensive phone looked pretty damn sweet, my biggest complaint was it's Windows powered. I've never been a fan of any windows powered pda, phone so that was out.
I have a blackberry curve for work and personally I find the small keyboard hard to type on. I'm not a big fan of how web pages look on it as well.
The LG Dare had just about everything I was looking for. While the web browsing isn't the best, it's ok. However what I was really looking for is a phone that had detailed contact information - more then name, phone, email notes. I think the LG Dare has a few more fields, but nothing even close to comparing to the amount of contact info you can have in a blackberry.
I ended with the Blackberry Storm. I like the large screen, websites look great on it, and zooming in and out is simple. The touch screen is a cool feature and if you're used to the iPhone then you are in fact in for a change as you actually click the screen on the Storm, not so on the iPhone. I actually like the clicking better then the iPhone myself.
I have noticed however on mine the screen seems to stay depressed as if it's stuck, if the phone has been in my pocket. Though it could be the sleeve holding it down, just have to move the screen back and forth and it pops back up. That's really my main complaint about the phone.
Battery life seems to be about the same as any typical blackberry - bout a day and a half (much better then my iphone counterparts). Verizon claims 15 day standby time battery life... I'd really like to have whatever the hell they were smoking at the time of typing that. Most forums I've read says to condition the battery and that's what I've been doing now and it seems to be getting better. They also sell extended life batteries as well for it I might get.
As for the OS on the blackberry - you can tell it's greatly behind the technology of the phone, the good news is RIM is working had on getting new upgrades out ASAP. The phone is far from perfect and you'll have to remember it's only been out a month or two - if you can't put up with a few issues of brand new items then a Blackberry curve or bold might be better for you. If you don't mind putting up with a few things then I'd say go for it. I haven't had mine for to terribly long but love it already and can see why they carry a nick name of "crackberry".
