First thing yesterday morning I downloaded and installed the official Verizon release of the Storm OS v5.0. The install went without a hitch and after spending a good hour reconfiguring all the little things that get messed up during an upgrade, I was ready to go. I spent the whole day using it, trying to figure out what changed, etc.. and I have to say, there are no real cons other then the hassle involved in upgrading. Here are my thoughts.
Everything is faster
The accelerometer, the camera, responsiveness in opening apps, etc... It is not mind blowing, but it is noticeable. The worst part of the Storm for me has been when my fingers are just hitting icons too fast and the screen cannot catch up therefore throwing me into the world of some slow loading app that I do not need to use. While I am positive that will still happen, it should be far less often.
Everything is slicker
Tough to explain without a visual, but all the little things are just a little more polished. Opening and closing apps is done with a sort of fade/collapse visual. Touching icons has a glow. The boot screen has a progress bar that actually seems to work and a logo that lets you know that the phone is not dead. Scrolling has variable speeds and a little bounce (like the iPhone). Not a big deal at all, but it makes the phone seem more put together and professional.
Better word suggestions
While typing, you will see a list at the top of the screen of suggestions. You can click one to select it, but if you do not it lets you type whatever non-standard word you want. Before, it would auto select the suggested word which I hated.
Add/Remove Apps
The Applications list is way, way, way more user friendly and easier to work with. It also splits the apps up into 3rd party, add-on and core so you don't accidentally delete something you really, really need, like the Phone app!
Homescreen clickables
On the home screen, you can click the antenna and it will bring up the "Manage Connections" dialog. Clicking the clock will bring up the big clock app. Not sure if this was in the last version, but I don't remember it and I like it!
Bubbled and threaded SMS
Just a nice interface change. If you don't like it you can go back to the old way, but it keeps the thread together a little better in my opinion.
Also, from what I have read, you can call directly from SMS screen while typing a message. I have not tested that yet, but it is something I have wanted to be able to do in the past.
In call switch button between keypad and main buttons
I am constantly on conference calls and never could figure out how to get back to the main screen where you can easily mute/unmute, go to speaker, etc... from the number pad (which I always had to enter to dial the call in code). Now, there is a button on the number pad screen that will take you back to the main screen. Nice addition.
Ring + Vibrate built in
I used a 3rd party app to do this, but now it's built in (finally). Saves just a little bit of application memory now that I can delete it.
Better Browser
Browser seems faster and more responsive, but it is hard to tell.
Volume Meter
When listening to music there is now a visual volume meter if you use the hard buttons on the side. That's a nice tough. Also, I think the control is slightly finer. I think there were probably only 4 different "steps" before and now there are probably a dozen.
All my apps work
I use a few key applications (listed below) and they all seem to work as good or better in OS 5 which is always nice.
- Google Sync
- GMail
- Google Maps
- Weather Eye
- YouMail
- ScoreMobile
- Pandora
- PatternLock
- Superfan
- Poynt
All in all, I think this is a very worth while upgrade. I usually lose 1XEV connectivity after about two days of use and I am not sure if that is because of memory consumption or what. A reboot always fixes it, but it is frustrating. I want to see if this problem goes away or at least takes longer happen. I will keep you updated!
