The BlackBerry Storm 9500 was unveiled in November 2008. This is RIM's first Blackberry smartphone to incorporate "Surepress", a touch screen display that acts much like a physical key pad by giving off a clicking feeling every time you touch on the screen. Some other significant options on the unit consist of a 3.25 inch screen, an accelerator so that you can rotate the display, 3.2 mp digital camera, 528mhz Qualcomm cpu and 1 gig of storage.

The blackberry Apllication Center allows owners to download a wide range applications such as Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, Google maps, instant messaging applications, and more.

There's good and bad news in regards to the connection to the web. Even though the device does make use of HSDPA for quicker internet browsing on supported service providers, the unfortunate news is that there is no Wi-fi. Furthermore, if you get the Blackberry unlocked and wish to make use of it on North American GSM companies such as Cingular AT&T or T-mobile, you would be limited to using their slower EDGE connection.

Blackberry 9500 Specifications:

General

2G: Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G: Network HSDPA 2100

Size

Dimensions: 112.5 x 62.2 x 14 mm

Weight: 155 g

Display

Type: TFT capacitive touchscreen display, 65K colors

Size: 360 x 480 pixels, 3.25 inches

• Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate

Audio

Notification types: Vibrate, MP3 ring tones

Phone speaker: Yes

3.5mm jack port: Yes

Memory space

Phonebook: Practically unlimited entries as well as fields, Photocall

Call records: Yes

Internal: 1 Gigabyte storage, 128 Megabytes Ram memory, 192 Megabytes ROM

Card slot: microSD, up to a maximum of 16 Gb, 8 Gigabyte card provided

Data

GPRS: Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 killerbytes per second

EDGE: Class 10, 236.8 kbps

3G: HSDPA, 7.2 Megabyte per second

WLAN: No

Bluetooth: Yes, v2.0 with A2DP

Infra-red port: No

USB: Yes, microusb v2.0

Camera

Primary: 3.15 Mega-pixel, 2048x1536 pixels, auto-focus, LED flash

Features: Geo-tagging, picture stabilization

Video: Yes, QVGA

Secondary: No

Features

Os: BlackBerry Os

Processor: 528 Megahertz ARM 11 cpu, Adreno 130 GPU, Qualcomm MSM7600 chipset

Messaging: Sms, MMS, Email, Im

Internet browser: HTML

Radio: No

Games: Yes + downloadable

Colors: Black

GPS: Yes, with A-GPS support

Java: Yes

• BlackBerry maps

• Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)

• MP3, WMA, eAAC+ player

• MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player

• Organizer

• Voice dial/memo

Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 1400 mAh

Stand-by: maximum of 360 h

Talk time: Up to 5 h 30 min

If you purchased your Blackberry cellphone and wish to switch carriers, you will have to get the device unlocked. In case you're questioning why the phone comes locked, let me explain why. Service providers usually provide the phone for significantly less then retail and recover the costs over time (dependant upon the duration of the contract you have with the service provider). By locking the device to their network, this assures them that you won't just use them to get the phone at a discount, break your contract and change to a less expensive company.

As soon as the phone is unlocked, it will be possible to use a sim card from almost any other GSM service providers. Many individuals take advantage of cellphone unlocking before they need to travel, so that they can purchase a simcard from the local cellphone service provider in what ever city they're traveling to. This allows them to avoid the roaming fees that their service provider back home will charge them (if you use your cellphone in another country, you will be subject to high roaming fees, which can easily be avoided by making use of your unlocked mobile phone with a local simcard).

Unlocking your cellular phone is straightforward, all you need is an unlock code. You can purchase the code by visiting our website CellUnlockCode.com (full link is at the bottom of this article). Your unlock code will be emailed to you, usually within a few minutes (but can take up to a few hours). Once you've received your Blackberry unlock code, all you need to do is follow the code entry instructions listed below.

This procedure can be performed with or without a simcard inserted into your Blackberry

1. Turn on your Blackberry and click on the "Manage Connections" icon. Select the option "Turn off all connections". All connections will be disabled.

2. Go back to the Home screen and click the "Options" icon and choose "Advanced Options"

3. Navigate down and choose "SIM Card" from the list

4. Push the Blackberry key and choose "Show Keyboard" to display the keyboard

5. Type the following keys in order: MEPD

6. On the next screen, type MEP then [ALT BUTTON] then the number 2 (NOTE: You will not see any text display on the screen when typing)

7. A prompt will appear asking for the MEP code. Type in the unlock code you received from from cellunlockcode.com

8. Reboot your phone

Once your Blackberry unlock code has been entered and accepted, your phone will be unlocked. You will be able insert a simcard from from any gsm carrier and the phone should quickly acquire the network. In some cases you might need to change a few settings on the phone (email as well as other internet related services) by pointing them to your new provider.