BlackBerry stirs up a second Storm

Canadian handset shop Research In Motion (RIM) has taken another crack at the BlackBerry Storm, the touchscreen device which suffered in the review stakes due to a clunky interface.

Announced this week in collaboration with Vodafone (UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands and Spain as well as France, Italy and South Africa in time for Christmas) and Verizon Wireless (US), the Storm2 “significantly improves the BlackBerry touch-screen platform.”

Addressing some of the concerns about the original Storm’s touchscreen technology, which featured a mechanical display that sunk into the casing when pressed, the Storm2 introduces SurePress, which is based on an electronic system requiring less pressure as well as supporting multi key actions.

The device features a 3.25” 360 x 480 display, a 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS and UMTS/HSPA connectivity as well as BlackBerry OS 5 and access to the BlackBerry World app store.

Vodafone UK will be offering the Storm2 free from £35 per month on a 24 month contract that includes 600 minutes, unlimited BlackBerry Internet Service and data.