Category: Storm 9500 Series

Don’t go bashing the Thunder just yet…

An update to our touchscreen BlackBerry Thunder stories. Boy Genius this morning posted that the Thunder is not quite ready for launch. His RIM Ninjas say its at least 4-5 months away and that people who have handled it think its a "joke". A lot of people seem to think that this tipster was just having a bad day or has some other reason for hating the Thunder. We can understand that the Thunder is in early prototype production and the thing is not anywhere near production but don't ya think its too early to call it a "joke"?

Here's what Boy Genius wrote this morning:

….Thunder won’t be ready for at least another 4-5 months.” Our source goes on to tell us that the keyboard is incredibly annoying to type on, and the screen actually shows ripples even when pressed ever-so-lightly. There is an accelerometer in here, but it goes “bonkers” when the device is moved. In its current state, the UI blinks and lags when you try to scroll, and for every key press, you have to wait half a second until you get a response. Our guy, when talking about haptic feedback, said that the screen “clicks.” We were informed there are “buttons” on each corner, so when you press the screen, you might feel one click, two clicks, or four simultaneously. We’re told these four independant buttons actually press, so you do “click” the screen. RIM implemented a touch-and-drag approach which is the only way to select on screen buttons at this point. We were also told this was the latest build of the software, and to quote him, “Most of the people who have handled it thinks it’s a joke.”