With only one day left before the official launch from Verizon, it seems they have let few phones loose to get some review.

Here is an interesting article from Channel Web.

1. It has a better camera.

2. BlackBerry set the gold standard for corporate e-mail.

3. BlackBerry offers easy access to view and edit corporate documents.

4. The Storm’s touch screen is “clickable.”

5. BlackBerry is launching its own take on the App Store.

Personally, I think these reasons are somewhat weak arguments but I definitely think Blackberry Storm is a legitimate iPhone Killer.

To read the entire blog, click here.

RIM must have been pretty busy trying to line up all these different versions of Blackberry Storm for many operators. For one thing, since they started with superset of GSM/CDMA/WCDMA, it’s possible that they just have one hardware that can support ALL operators. (Probably not, since the frequency allocation is different between regions)

BASKING RIDGE, NJ, NEWBURY, England, and WATERLOO, Ontario — Verizon Wireless, Vodafone Group (NYSE and LSE: VOD) and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that the BlackBerry® Storm™ will be available later this fall, exclusively to Verizon Wireless customers in the U.S. and Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Designed to satisfy the needs of both consumers and business customers, the BlackBerry Storm smartphone combines the powerful communications features, global connectivity and personal productivity advantages of the BlackBerry® platform with a revolutionary touch-screen technology that dramatically enhances the touch interface and enables easy and precise typing. The world’s first “clickable” touch-screen responds much like a physical keyboard and also supports single-touch, multi-touch and gestures for intuitive and efficient application navigation.

In the U.S., Verizon Wireless customers will benefit from the nation’s most reliable wireless voice network and the pervasiveness of Verizon Wireless’ reliable high-speed 3G Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A (Rev. A) network for rich Internet browsing and multimedia applications. In Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand, Vodafone will support customers with its high-speed 3G mobile broadband networks and the power and reach of the world’s leading international mobile communications group.

“We are proud to introduce the first touch-screen based BlackBerry smartphone together with Verizon Wireless and Vodafone,” said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive officer at RIM. “The BlackBerry Storm is a revolutionary touch-screen smartphone that meets both the communications and multimedia needs of customers and solves the longstanding problem associated with typing on traditional touch-screens. Consumers and business customers alike will appreciate this unique combination of a large and vibrant screen with a truly tactile touch interface.”

“The BlackBerry Storm offers our customers more ways to stay connected to both their personal and professional lives – whether in their communities or around the globe,” said Mike Lanman, vice president and chief marketing officer of Verizon Wireless. “The BlackBerry Storm combines the reliability of our 3G network with the dependability and network efficiency of the BlackBerry platform to deliver our customers the ultimate wireless experience – all in one of the coolest smartphones available on the market today.”

“We are delighted to bring the power of the purpose built BlackBerry Storm, directly into the hands of consumer and business customers,” said Frank H. Rovekamp, global chief marketing officer, Vodafone Group. “With its unique clickable touch-screen, giving access to all the desirable multimedia features and services such as browsing, music and video, turn-by-turn satellite navigation, messaging and social networking, and BlackBerry’s mobile heritage and strong business reputation, the BlackBerry Storm is being brought by Vodafone into the consumer world. With Vodafone’s ultra high-speed, reliable mobile network and this exclusive and exciting new smartphone, there has never been a better time to be with Vodafone.”

Touch and Feel
The BlackBerry Storm smartphone comes with an innovative touch-screen that actually depresses ever so slightly when the screen is pressed. The user distinctly feels the screen being pressed and released with a gentle “click,” similar to the feeling of a key on a physical keyboard or a button on a mouse. The “clickable” touch-screen gives the user positive confirmation that they have made a selection and the result is a dramatically enhanced touch interface and a highly-intuitive typing experience.

In addition to the familiar navigation keys (“phone,” “menu” and “escape”) that are common to other BlackBerry smartphones, the new BlackBerry Storm adds support for multi-touches, taps, slides and other touch-screen gestures, so customers can easily highlight, scroll, pan and zoom for smooth navigation.

The BlackBerry Storm smartphone also features a built-in accelerometer, allowing its touch-screen to automatically switch between landscape mode and portrait mode as the user rotates the handset – RIM’s SureType® keyboard layout is available in portrait mode and a full QWERTY* keyboard layout is available in landscape mode. Other relevant features, such as cut and paste, are only a touch away for the ultimate smartphone experience.

World Class Smartphone
The BlackBerry Storm is a top-of-the-line 3G mobile phone with premium features and global connectivity. In the U.S., the BlackBerry Storm 9530 gives Verizon Wireless customers 3G EV-DO Rev. A/CDMA technology – and (2100Mhz) UMTS/HSPA and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM for global use. The BlackBerry Storm 9500 from Vodafone supports (2100Mhz) UMTS/HSPA and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks.

Browsing is Fast and Easy
Customers will enjoy a full HTML high-performance browser that works in either portrait or landscape orientation. Navigating Web sites is fast and easy with the touch-screen interface that lets users double tap to zoom in and slide their fingers to scroll and pan.

Icons along the bottom of the display allow for quickly accessing Web sites, switching between “Page View” and “Column View” as well as the ability to toggle between “Pan” mode and “Cursor” mode. The enhanced browser supports file downloading, streaming audio and video (RTSP), and with its built-in RSS support, new content from supported Web sites can be automatically pushed to the user.

Staying Connected
The BlackBerry Storm smartphone brings the full power of the industry’s leading mobile e-mail and messaging solution without compromise. It supports personal and corporate e-mail and text (SMS), picture (MMS) and instant (IM) messaging on the most prevalent consumer and enterprise platforms, as well as easy access to popular social networking sites.

Packed with Additional Features

The BlackBerry Storm smartphone, available from Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, also includes the following features and functions:

• BlackBerry® Internet Service, BlackBerry® Unite!, BlackBerry® Professional Software and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server support
• Preloaded DataViz® Documents to Go® allows users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset
• 3.2 megapixel camera with variable zoom, auto focus and a powerful flash that also provides continuous lighting when recording video
• Built-in GPS supports location-based applications and services, as well as geotagging of photos
• 1 GB of onboard memory storage and a microSD™/SDHD memory card slot that supports up to 16 GB of additional storage
• Media player that can play movies smoothly in full-screen mode, display pictures and slideshows quickly and manage an entire music collection; playlists can be created directly on the handset and there’s an equalizer with 11 preset filters – including “Lounge,” “Jazz” and “Hip Hop” – for customized audio ranges when using wired headphones or external speakers
• A 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, support for Bluetooth® stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP) and dedicated volume controls
• Sleek, elegant design with contoured corners, stainless steel back and chrome accents surrounding its large (3.25″) glass lens; its exceptional 480 x 360 resolution at 184 ppi is crisp and bright with eye-pleasing clarity
• An ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts backlighting for ideal screen viewing and an accelerometer that allows customers to view applications in either portrait or landscape mode by simply rotating the handset
• Removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery that provides approximately six hours of talk time on 3G networks and 15 days of standby time

Intuitive touch screen

• High-resolution 480 X 360 pixel colour display which supports over 65,000 colours. And thanks to its transmissive TFT LCD screen you’ll see colours clearly even in outdoor conditions.
• Pioneering haptic soft-touch screen technology so, when you enter characters or commands, your finger receives a subtle signal to let you know the device is responding to your input.
• On screen keyboard - choose from SureType® (predictive) and Multi-tap (multiple keypress) typing in portrait or use the on-screen QWERTY keyboard in landscape.

Email & Messaging

• Open popular document and graphic attachments (JPEG, Adobe® PDF, Microsoft® Word, Microsoft® Excel and Microsoft® PowerPoint files), and view them with LCD-quality colour and clarity. ⁶
• Download attachments to work on the go. Copy and paste, change font size, colour bullets, numbering and more. ⁷ Microsoft 2007 files not supported.
• Keep in touch with text⁸ and picture¹ messaging. Chat from anywhere with Windows Live™ Messenger, Yahoo® Messenger, AOL® Instant Messenger™ and ICQ® - all for BlackBerry® smartphones. ¹
• Stay on top of your email accounts including: ISP email (such as POP3, IMAP4 – SSL supported), Microsoft® Outlook® Web Access, Microsoft® Exchange, IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Novell® GroupWise®.
• When used with BlackBerry® Enterprise Solution, the BlackBerry® Storm supports wireless synchronization with: IBM Lotus Notes®, Microsoft Outlook, Novell GroupWise. When used with BlackBerry® Desktop Manager, the BlackBerry® Bold™ supports desktop synchronisation with: ACT!® 4.0.2/2000/6.0; ASCII Text File Importer/Exporter; Novell GroupWise 5.5/6.0; Lotus Notes 4.5/4.6/5.0/6.0/6.5; Lotus Organiser® 5.0/6.0; Microsoft Outlook 97/98/2000/2002/2003 (XP); Microsoft Outlook Express; Microsoft® Schedule +7.5; Microsoft Schedule + Default; Netscape®.

Business ready

• For small to medium-sized businesses, BlackBerry® Internet Service, Hosted BlackBerry® services and BlackBerry® Professional Software are designed to offer affordable, easy-to-set up solution options. For larger organisations, BlackBerry® Enterprise Solution is designed to provide advanced security features, enterprise-grade functionality and hands-on control to implement a comprehensive wireless solution.16

Conectivity

• Bluetooth v2.0; Mono/Stereo Headset, Handsfree, Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP), and Serial Port Profile Supported. Bluetooth Stereo Audio (A2DP/AVCRP), DUN.
• 3.5mm stereo headset capable.
  
• USB “A” to micro-USB “B” cable for charging and high-speed data synchronization
  

Battery and adapter

• 1400 mAhr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell battery which provides xx hour’s talk time and xx hour’s standby time.
• +5V DC/500 mA AC power adapter, with interchangeable location-specific plugs.

Be one of the first to get the new BlackBerry® Storm

• Sign up for launch news

Size & weight

• Length: 112.5mm
• Depth: 13.95mm
• Width: 62.2mm
• Lightweight: Only 55g (inc. battery)

Memory

• 128MB RAM memory, 1GB embedded memory as standard with the option to expand to 16GB using a plug in MicroSD™ membory card.

Go places with Assisted GPS and
BlackBerry® Maps

• Enhanced GPS capabilities for use with BlackBerry® Maps or other third-party mapping applications. Get text-based turn-by-turn directions and route maps. ^1,2,3

Get social

• Use custom-built social networking application like Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones as well as mobile instant messaging and photo uploader programs to catch up with friends.

Multimedia read

• Watch multiple video formats: MPEG4 H.263, MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.264 (encoding and decoding 30fps), WMV and enjoy the following audio formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, WMA ProPlus.
• Listen to your tunes or watch your videos on the built-in media player. Synce your desktop iTunes® music files with your BlackBerry® Storm. BlackBerry® Media Synce makes getting more from your music quick and easy. ^{9,10,11,12,13,6}

Multitask with HSPA compatibility

• Take calls while sending and responding to emails or browsing the Internet. ^1,8,14

Camera and Video Recorder

• Take pictures on the 3.2MP digital camera with image stabiliser, auto flash, auto focus and 2x digital zoom.
• And capture all the action with the built-in video camera. Replay with the built-in media player.
• Share pictures or videos in an email or picture message. ^1,15

Network Support

• Quad-Band: 850/900/1800/1900MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks.
• Single-Band: 2100MHz UMTS/HSPA networks
• Dual-Band: 800/1900MHz CDMA/EVDO Rev A networks

Desktop Software

• Synchronises calendar, address book, tasks and memos between your BlackBerry® Storm and desktop. Loads new applications and upgrades from your PC to the BlackBerry® Storm.

Smartphone Security

• Password protection

For life on the go

• The tools you need to make calls - and life - easier. Have the features of a professional desktop phone with you when you’re between appointments or stuck in traffic. ⁸

Voice Input/Output and ringtones

• Integrated speaker and microphone, hands-free headset capable, Bluetooth® headset capable, integrated hands-free speakerphone.
• 32 polyphonic - MIDI, MP3.

It appears Vodafone UK is the first operator to get their hands on much anticipated iPhone Killer from RIM, Blackberry Storm. I’ll create a separate post on the published full specification.