Storm und Dareng

November 28, 2008 1:46 PM

Considering a new phone and because of a need for reliable rural service and an attractive family plan shared with our extended family, we're considering Verizon and either the Dare or the Storm. The difference in data plans is $20—$30 for the Storm, $10 for the Dare. Is the Storm and the Blackberry service worth it? Anyone with a Dare or a Storm have regrets or accolades?
posted by Toekneesan to shopping (5 comments total)

The Storm has been absolutely panned ... harshly so, even, by people who are usually RiM fans. I might consider Rev2 of the Storm, but I don't think I'd go for the first revision.
posted by SpecialK at 1:50 PM on November 28, 2008

Yeah, the Storm is definitely getting a drubbing - the money quote from David Pogue's review in the NYT was "I haven't met a soul who's used this machine who hasn't been angry, baffled or both".
posted by Happy Dave at 2:21 PM on November 28, 2008

I'm responding to you on my dare and I adore it. At my parents' house where there is next to no service I was still able to check email and internet. I even managed to get my shows off my tivo and onto the phone to keep me entertained. The battery life is good and the only drawback I've noticed is that you can't open email attachments. Short answer: the Dare is fun, easy to use and useful to me.
posted by teleri025 at 7:33 PM on November 28, 2008

Here's a link to the NYT review of the Storm.
posted by zoel at 5:07 AM on November 29, 2008

The original question was about the difference in the costs of services, and what that bought. Most folks responded about the phone, rather than the service, and in the end that was a determining factor, but I still am not sure what the difference is for what you get for Blackberry's $30 plan and how that's different than what I get for "$10 unlimited data plan" for the phone I did get, the Dare.

Interesting to note that when we got the first bill. Rather than $10 a month for the data plan, I was charged for usage on data and was signed up for the Navigator plan for $10. I never asked for Navigator. I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy—I never ask for directions and wouldn't ask from my phone either, kind of an idiot that way. When I called billing about it they denied any knowledge of a $10 data plan but refunded the usage charges and re-billed $15 for the unlimited data plan. I'm going to head into the store and ask the rep about it, but this seems typical from my previous experience with Verizon.

I really like the Dare so far. Not as cool as an iPhone but does everything I want, and I figure I'm on a better network for significantly lower monthly costs. About $35 a month or around $850 over the two year contract. The Storm seemed $5-$10 a month cheaper, but the Dare was the least expensive. And it has an awesome camera and that made it possible to leave my good digital camera at home. One less thing. And me and my wallet have lived without the app store for 45 years, I think we can go another two.

So, question still not answered but here's what I did anyway...
posted by Toekneesan at 7:57 AM on December 29, 2008