First Look: BlackBerry Storm 2 Exciting

The wild speculation continues as to when the BlackBerry Storm 2 will be available for sale, ranging from as early as this week to just before Thanksgiving. But some people are getting a chance to look at the new device and share their opinions.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who’s been carrying the new smartphone around for weeks, recently talked with a couple of NYU students who were shopping for new phones. McAdam says after letting them play with it, they were very excited, saying things like “Oh, my gosh” and the fact they wished the original Storm had been this cool.

But not all of the pre-release reviews, especially the more formal ones, have been so favorable. One called the Storm 2 “dodgy” and “gimmicky.”

The Storm 2, being called a “Storm do-over” by the New York Times, has many improvements over the original Storm, which got very mediocre reviews. One is a function that gives users the feeling that they are pressing an actual button on the touchscreen.