Treo 755p vs. BlackBerry Storm Comparison Review
Recently, Palm’s Treo line has started to face more and more competition. With the addition of the BlackBerry Storm onto the marketplace, we can’t help but wonder how well Palm products fare when placed side-by-side with a competing product. So the question is, how does the Treo 755p compare with the BlackBerry Storm? Read on to find out!
Pricing and Ordering
At a price of $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year contract, the Storm is priced to be a direct competitor with the iPhone. Compared to Palm devices however, the Centro is half its price, and the 755p was $50 more. Since the Storm is still a more business-oriented device, we will be comparing it to the 755p.
Winner: Storm
In The Box
Included in the box are: the device, battery, battery cover, travel charger with international adapter clips, USB cable, stereo 3.5mm headset, 8GB SanDisk microSDHC card installed in the device, and documentation. The Storm is a global device, so a Verizon SIM card (!) is also preinstalled. The 755p comes with similar accessories, including a home charger, USB cable, and stereo 2.5mm headset.
Winner: Storm
Hardware
The Storm is a device of many firsts for RIM, and even for the industry. The Storm is the first BlackBerry device to feature a touchscreen, as well as not have a physical keyboard. It is also the first touchscreen device to have a “clickable” screen, which really sets it apart from other capacitive touchscreen devices (more on that later). The screen is 480×360 in landscape mode, compared to the 755p’s standard 320×320 square screen. The extra pixels and wide aspect ratio make a huge difference, especially when viewing multimedia or spreadsheets.
While Treo users were excited about the 64MB 680, 700p, 755p, and then 128MB refreshed Centro, BlackBerry has managed to put 1GB into the Storm. Yes, that’s right! One whole gigabyte. The Storm also features GPS navigation through the VZ Navigator software, but I was unable to test it. After I opened the application, the splash screen would show and it would not load any further. VZ Navigator is a $9.99/month feature that I didn’t purchase, so that could have been the reason it wouldn’t load. However, an error message of some sort would’ve been better.
The plastics on the Storm are, unfortunately, a giant fingerprint magnet. Whether it’s the screen, buttons, or the camera lens area, fingerprints are bound to be found. It is nearly impossible not to get fingerprints on the device as the screen cannot be used with a stylus or fingernail. Dimension-wise, the Storm is a little bit wider than the 755p, but much thinner.
Top:
On the top of the device, there are two flush buttons. The one on the left side is to lock the device, and the one on the right side is to mute the device. However, the muting is done by software, not hardware, so I would be a little more cautious with double-checking whether or not the device has really been muted. There is also no confirmation notification (such as the vibrate pulse on newer Treos).
Bottom:
The bottom is clean except for a small microphone hole.
Left Side:
The left side contains the left convenience key and the micro USB port. For those with mini USB BlackBerries, getting a couple mini USB to micro USB cables should be considered so that you can continue to use your old chargers and cables.
Right Side:
On the right side, you’ll find the 3.5mm audio jack, volume up/down buttons, and the right convenience key. The volume buttons are in an easy-to-access location when viewing the device in right-side-up landscape mode, but if you have headphones plugged in, the buttons may be difficult to access.
Back:
On the back of the device are the camera, flash, and battery cover. The microSD is located under the battery cover but can be removed without powering off the device. This can either be a drawback or an advantage, depending on what device you are coming from. The battery cover is a bit difficult to remove and cannot be done in one smooth motion. However, the cover is made of metal, which is a nice touch. There are two rubber feet on the sides of the speaker, which not only keep sound from getting muffled when the device is placed on a flat surface, but also protect the device from getting scratched.
Winner: Storm
Camera
This, unfortunately, is where poorly written software really shows up. The device isn’t particularly snappy to begin with (even with the latest software), but the camera is unbearably slow. It takes several seconds to take a picture, and during that time, all sorts of things can happen. The device could have moved, resulting in a blurry picture, or the subject could have moved outside of the picture. Nevertheless, if the device is held steady and the subject of the picture is still, you will get decent quality pictures. Colors are much better than the 755p, but each 3.2MP picture will take up about 600KB of memory.
BlackBerry Storm (at 3.2MP):
Treo 755p (at 1.3MP):
Winner: Storm
Camcorder
The Storm records videos in 320×240 resolution, which is slightly lower than the 755p’s strange 352×288 size. Video quality is quite a bit better than the Treo, however, software issues made the video camera nearly unusable. It took me five tries to successfully record one video, and of course, moments that you would like to capture on video only happen once. Each of the first four times, the device would encounter an “unexpected error” while saving the video. The video was saved, but it would not play on the device or my laptop. The Storm would’ve won this section had the software been better, so the 755p wins this section for stability.
Winner: Treo 755p
Screen
There’s really not much to say about a 480×360 screen on a mobile device – it’s excellent for viewing multimedia and browsing the internet! The clickable screen is one of its best features. Touching the screen highlights items or scrolls, and to select, you need to press down on the screen until it clicks. RIM calls this SurePress, and it is much better than a regular touchscreen because it allows you greater precision. When typing, a letter does not show up until you press down on the screen, so it is possible to reposition your finger if the wrong key has been selected. Unfortunately, because of SurePress, the screen isn’t fixed in place and some wobbling may be noticed.
Winner: Storm
Keyboard
However, because of the screen, the device lacks a physical keyboard. I’ve never been fond of on-screen keyboards as physical keyboards are always easier and faster, but the Storm’s is the best that I’ve used so far. The Storm offers three input methods – SureType and multi-tap in portrait mode, and QWERTY in landscape mode. SureType works surprisingly well, but for certain words such as try and yet, corrections may be needed. The QWERTY keyboard is well laid out and spacious. The Storm does feature copy and paste by touching a finger at the beginning of the selection, and another at the end, but it is imprecise and adjustment is difficult. This probably won’t be a deal breaker unless you frequently edit files and need to move chunks of text around, but no software keyboard can be on par with a physical keyboard.
Winner: Treo 755p
Software
Without any third party software onto the device, the Storm is not as speedy as BlackBerries tend to be. There is a small delay when opening applications, and the transition effects bog the system down further. Simply put, the BlackBerry OS is good at what it’s designed to do, which would be email and calendar, but there are some features to be desired from the built-in applications.
Email and PIM
BlackBerries are built for email and PIM, and the Storm is no exception. I didn’t extensively test out these apps as they are pretty much what you would expect from a BlackBerry. The contact list is a breeze to scroll through, and the calendar is very easy to use. The one thing that could be improved with the PIM apps would be the addition of some buttons, such as Compose New, Reply, Reply To All, or Forward in Messages and New or Delete buttons for PIM apps. The apps depend a little too much on the menu, which requires reaching over to the BlackBerry button.
Winner: Storm
Documents
The Storm is preloaded with Documents To Go, much like the 755p. However, the major difference is that the BlackBerry version of Documents To Go only supports opening files and has no support for Office 2007. You cannot create new files! If you want to create new files, you will have to upgrade to the premium version. The operating system has a built-in document reader that can only read Office 2007 files, but because all of my files are in Office 2007 format, I have no choice but to use that.
Winner: Treo 755p
Browser
The BlackBerry Browser in the Storm is much better than Blazer on a Palm OS device. By default, it loads mobile sites, but in the options menu, there is a setting to change the browser identification from BlackBerry to Internet Explorer or FireFox. In IE mode, it opened up mytreo.net’s front page in the mobile version, but article pages were shown in desktop mode. The page was rendered accurately, and after some zooming in, I did not have any difficulty reading my review of the Treo 755p. Flash, unfortunately, is not supported, but YouTube mobile is supported and the videos are played in the video player.
Winner: Storm
Multimedia
The music and video player in the Storm are simple and easy to use. Maybe a little bit too simple. There are only four buttons available when playing a song, and they are Previous, Pause, Stop, and Next. Repeat and shuffle are hidden in the menu, and the progress slider can be brought out by tapping on the screen. Seeking using the progress bar can be done by double-clicking the screen, but there are no rewind/fast forward buttons. The video player’s UI is similar, but again, there are no rewind or fast forward buttons.
Pocket Tunes in the Treo 755p is much more powerful, and depending on the skin you are using, can have a lot of options displayed on the screen. Playlists are a bit cumbersome to create on the Storm because only one song may be added at once, and songs from various folders are combined into one giant list. Like the bundle version of pTunes on the 755p, the Storm only supports songs on MP3 and WAV format. The Storm’s video player supports AVI and MP4. MPG and WMV will be detected, but an unrecognized file error message will pop up and the file won’t play.
Winner: Treo 755p
Third Party Apps
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of applications available that support the Storm at the moment. I’m a big fan of WorldMate for Palm OS, and WorldMate Live for BlackBerry has a lot of features, including weather forecast, world clocks, flight schedules, and currency conversion. However, WorldMate Live only works in landscape mode. Google Maps is another application that supports the Storm (and in both orientations), and maps load quickly and are crisp and easy to read.
Winner: Treo 755p
Conclusion
Without a doubt, the BlackBerry Storm is a great device. It is good at what it is designed to do, and BlackBerries are gradually becoming more and more multimedia-friendly. For everyday tasks like checking your email or calendar and browsing the internet, the Storm and its large screen cannot be beat. However, if you are one who needs to type a lot, getting a Treo with a QWERTY keyboard would be a much better choice. The advantage that Palm OS still has is the vast amounts of applications available, but BlackBerry developers are starting to catch up. The Treo does a bit of everything and fits my needs well, so I won’t be heading into BlackBerry territory anytime soon, but the Storm would make a great device for those of us who are getting a little tired of the dated Palm OS and are craving for something else.
Pros
- 1xEVDO Rev. A data connection
- 3.2MP camera
- Large high-resolution capacitive touchscreen with SurePress
- Thinner than the Treo
- World phone
Cons
- Fingerprint magnet
- Limited third party application support
- No physical keyboard
- Operating system lags when opening applications
- Too dependent on menus
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This is a crazy comparison; there is no way the 755p can even match up to the speed and the technology of the storm. Regardless of what the Blackberry STORM is a great phone, software and design, it is not the best but when it comes to intuitive design of hardware and software. Trust me, I am proud 755p owner and a palm believer, but I believe there is no competition when it come to the STORM. Why; because of Palm lack of innovation in their products. We the Palm owners have been dying for a new found of innovation in software and hardware design. We are still waiting. Let see what this NOVA OS looks like, but you have to remember it is not all about the Operating System, if the phone suck ASS in intuitive design and technology. IT SUCKS!
i was hoping sprint would get the storm so i could buy it… but now i have to think twice, or three times…. i might go for the treo 755p. i dont know… i wanted a treo pro if sprint gets it… ahhh!! this is sooo difficult lol
This is the scariest thing I’ve read lately….a treo site that puts another device above it most every aspect. My company has offered me a Storm to try out….I’ve been resisting until reading this article.
that being said, why doesn’t anyone emphasize that with a simple application like “Headset Control”, our outdated Treos measure up nicely to the iPhone and maybe even outdo it for music when using Pocket Tunes; Blackberry is way behind on the media front…now where it really counts - Chattermail on a Palm OS should be the envy of most of the pretty and frustrating ‘push’ alteratives for email. If you use Chatter, you know what I’m writing about, if you don’t then you don’t know what you’re missing. Enough reasons to stay with Palm OS…please stay afloat.
i know the treo 800 is new, but when comparing that with the blackberry storm, i think the treo clearly has the advantage. its both skinnier and its also more improved….stay with the efficient palm phones.
A Blackberry cannot be compared to a Treo. A treo is for the serious DEVICE user.. Not just looks and bells and whistles. With a Treo, you will never lack any feature out there, nor will you envy anyone turning their phone around in circles to send a simple text. Treo users can literally handle any daily task while taking care of BUSINESS on their phone. If you’re a tweenie, then get a toy phone like the Berries and Sidekicks. Serious people need results, get a Treo and you’ll wonder how you waited so long.
I tried to review the Storm from a neutral perspective, and simply put, it does a lot of things better than the Treo. That doesn’t mean everything, but it is a decent device in many aspects.
Palm OS is still a more powerful OS, but unfortunately, that’s both a plus and a minus. It definately needs a bit of refreshing, so let’s hope that Palm will unveil something noteworthy at CES!
Excellent review, Robin. Without third party software and this device and the rest of the Blackberry line up will not make significant inroads into the consumer market.
Sadly the Storm is an egregious reminder of how far behind Palm/Treo are behind other smart phones.
A couple HUGE things not mentioned in this review are the Storm’s GPS functionality.
Its out -of- the- box media player functionality. Its gig of onboard memory.
Unfortunately its superior to my 755 in almost all regards.
Ah, that’s right! I had completely forgotten about that…
I was unable to test the GPS functionality as the app wouldn’t load. It would be stuck on the splash screen, and I would have to press the end key to get out of the app.
dont get me wrong i love my palm BUT its so boring its just blah needs some color an bling an yeah
Nice review. Even as a long time user of the BlackBerry platform on a personal basis, I will NOT be purchasing the Storm for the following reasons:
1. It’s on Verizon (CDMA) and I REFUSE to pay their ridiculous prices. I had been eyeballing Sprint and AT&T but will remain with T-Mo for another year and a half. I have a limited income and Verizon’s prices don’t take that into account.
2. GPS is locked. I will be driving soon and I need GPS unlocked.
3. I was gonna get the Pro on its launch date which would mean a carrier change for a lower price, but will wait for the bugs to be worked first.
When I went into the Verizon store to check out the Storm, I noticed that there were no Treo 755p devices on sale. They had the 700p and a few WinMob Treos, but no 755p’s to be seen. Since the Storm is only available with verizon, perhaps a comparison with Treo devices actually available at Verizon stores would be in order.
I thought your review was excellent. I found the Storm very sluggish, and the typing was not easily done. If the Storm 2.0 takes your considerations to mind, it will be a nearly unbeatable device. For now I’m staying with my 755p.
Don’t listen to this review. I’m currently a very happy owner of a Treo 700p and I gave the Blackberry Strom a chance. The Blackberry has nothing on any of the Treo’s models. I have been an owner of the 600p, 700w, 700p and now a Blackberry Storm. I just received the Storm today and “man this has nothing on the Treo models”! I mean there is no real convenience to the users. The Treo’s browser is much faster and I don’t have to zoom in every page to read what the Blackberry’s browser is trying to display. Its texting can’t match palm’s methods of conveniently adding pix or videos to the message. The screen is so sensitive and at times it activates other buttons that I didn’t press. When using the keys to type, you will lose your patients because it operates using the ‘T9’ concept. You can almost throw the phone against the wall and hoping it would break. Overall I rate this, supposedly a better phone, a 2. I could never ever disown the Treo again. Be my guest and go try the Verizon’s Storm and you’ll see that you will need to practice Verizon’s 30 day money back guarantee. I will send another reply referring to my opinion on this matter, because I don’t want you to waste your time with this lame phone.
As a long time Treo user (I’ve had 4, my latest a 700p) I wanted to get a new Treo, but none except the Centro was to be found at Verizon. Verizon staff guided me to the BB Curve, saying I would prefer it once I got used to it. If I didn’t like it, I had the option of the new Storm, which was to launch soon. Well, I tried it for 4 weeks but missed the touch screen and hated the trackball, missed the 3rd party apps. I ended up trading my Curve for the new Storm, at 9am of the launch day. I used it for 3 weeks and just returned it, buying a no-longer-available-from-Verizon 755p on eBay.
Re: the Storm, I didn’t like trying to do data entry with the on-screen keyboards, missed my 3rd party apps, everything just took longer on it. I didn’t use VZNavigator much, although it was fun the first time. The camera was a joke with the lag time. I took some lovely images of blank walls, as my subjects were long gone when the ’shutter clicked.’ Doing anything on the web was a pain, I resented having to pay $50 to use Docs to Go, resented being forced to pay an extra $30/mo for data package without exception with a BB. Music was easier on the Treo. I never did try to use the device as my wireless card for my laptop. Even using the phone was more cumbersome than my Treos with Agendus.
That said, I’m having some withdrawal discomfort since I returned the Storm. It was so Beautiful! And it felt good to hold. And everyone who saw it was impressed because it looked so sleek and cool.
I haven’t received my 755p yet, so I’m looking forward to using it. Your comparison supported my decision, since the things that Treo excelled in are the more important features for me. So hopefully Palm will give us a beautiful, sleek, useful, alternative soon.
I have been a Palm Treo user for several years now …I’m still using a 600 ;-O because I didn’t want Windows on my phone and the newer Palms are too tiny for my hands. So I’ve taken the 600 a long way with many of the third party apps. I’ve been wanting to upgrade to the 755p for sometime But recently I picked up the BB Storm for the same reasons why many other Palm users are looking elsewhere (Not knowing what the future holds for Palm). However although Palm hasn’t had a worthy release in years. I still agree that it gives major competition to the Blackberry lineup and other smartphones. I am still playing w/ the BB Storm and I will admit that it is very sleek and stylish. But I really think I could get frustrated after a while having to finger my way through everything, any configuration changes and a lot of texting input makes me want to pick up my stylus at times. I also noticed that there are really no privacy features on the Storm besides locking the entire device down which I hate. At least with the Treo you can safeguard private records, memos, etc….I’m really thinking about just going back and upgrading to the Palm 755p….The only problem is only Sprint and Alltel is offering it and I believe Sprint’s network is garbage and I’m not sure about Alltel . I just feel like I’m getting man handled by my current carrier Verizon, whew ! what to do ?
A couple other things not mentioned in the review
The Storm is a world phone. It supports both CDMA and GSM
You can also browse the web and see actual web pages, which I cannot seem to do much of on my treo anymore
I looked at the Storm at the store and though it looked nice, I really hated the screen being wobbly. I don’t think I could get used to it. Also, I agree that there is nothing like a hardware KB.
Another thing is the apps. Zlauncher makes the POS look nice, plus TakePhone makes the phone app cool. GoogleMaps, and many 3rd party free apps are also cool. I agree that having a private area is good. I have the centro and at first I thought it was too small, but when I recently used a 700p is was HUGE to me. The centro is sleak and cool and the pix are OK,
All in all, I can’t see myself going to a BB. Sure POS is not too new and the Storm has 1GB but POS doesn’t need a lot, and ZL makes it easy to use apps from the card.
I am jealous that the BB comes with an 8GB card, but oh well!
Centro WINS IMO!
Sorry - one more thing… I also think comparing the Storm to the 755p which ISN:T AVAILABLE on Verizon, is dumb. How does it compare to the Centro? or the soon to be released Treo PRO?
To Robin : good review man…
treo 755p is far more superior in handling Docs and Playing multimedia files, and other software that are still a lot u can find just like the WMdevice, fast browsing
Storm on the contrary, is far superior in large screensize and CDMA & GSM capabilities, emails and such, and browsing for more details, design & thin body look, and
for me, the user in my country is using Storm for accessing their fast emails, while other business segmen still using treo755p to handle their documents and another good aplication.
Blackberry product line will becoming more familier to many people because its commitment in producing product that is thin, elegan, large screen..while Palm still unable to read market demand just by entering WM segmen not by inreasing their capabilities in their own OS and hardware design….
#1 reason to NOT buy a BB Storm, it’s verizon only.
Now I have always been an AT&T(cingular) customer, however seeing the hassle’s my girlfriend has gone through with the blackberry pearl on verizon and the HORRIBLE service she had recieved,
i.e. phone was stolen, she had to pay $50 for a replacement refurbished pearl, which also didnt work, that she sent back and is still waiting on a refund. they then charged her full price to buy a new phone, because they told her that it was a problem with the phone, not the service. she bought a centro, which ended up having the same service problems (not getting calls/texts for sometimes days), however no real hardware problems as with the pearl(screen would just stay white and not load anything when turning the phone on) when she went in to return that phone and cancel her service with verizon they charged her a cancellation fee for that phone as well, because they added it as a new number and thus a new contract.
so all in all
$50 refurbished Pearl
$120 palm centro
$50 restocking fee for the centro (she got the other $70 back)
$175 cancellation fees for BOTH phones
(so $175 ea.) keep in mind, she used the centro with verizon for FIVE DAYS
plus the monthly bill….
she now owes verizon $500 because of their total lack of customer service and their love of fucking their long term customers out of their money.
long story short, the storm is pretty and new, but as far as functionality, and pricing, tho the actual phone may be cheaper youll save alot of dough not going verizon and picking up a palm from a different carrier
wow! just recently went from a centro 2 a 755p. I love it. I like the bigger phone. the centro wz great. it did everything very well. better than most blackberries. the only thing crackberries do better is push mail and the phone has a flash.that’s all. nothing else.the rollerball sucks. it get stuck and things get trapped in there and causes it 2 run slow. third party apps really kill crackberries. Even though the palm os is extremely old it still holds up 2 the new os from rim. they still can’t edit files on doc 2 go. infact they r just now getting things palm has already had. all they need is a flash,better resolution annd a light when recording video and it will be better than any crackberries.
how can you even compare a bb to a palm. the only thing bb has is push mail and a flash. the 755p is far superior even to iphone. cut and paste plays more kinds of media 20′000 apps o mytreo.net . i could go on and on but i wont. treo user for life. cant wait for the pre.