Today is the day Research in Motion and Verizon Wireless launch a hopeful bid to grab some mindshare from Apple and AT&T's iPhone. With the BlackBerry Storm, RIM inaugurates its first touchscreen BlackBerry with a slate of very impressive features on paper — but does it live up to its spec list and meet its goals? A number of reviews are in and they're fairly mixed. The Storm gets repeatedly dinged for its lack of WiFi, sluggish performance, and its highly touted SurePress clickable screen being not quite the second coming of the touchscreen everyone had hoped. On the flip side, many have regarded it as the best BlackBerry to date as well as the best smartphone on Verizon right now, so it's going to come down to a few of the key "love it or hate it" features on a personal level for many.

To see how the Storm stacks up against its most direct competitor, check out our head to head comparator with the iPhone. For the full phone specifications and a number of video hands-ons, check out our landing page for the Storm. We've also rounded up a review zeitgeist after the "continued" link, so read on for a wide range of opinion on RIM's new smartphone.

BlackBerry Storm Metareview

• Walt Mossberg's review (WSJ)
• Engadget review
• Phonescoop review
• Boy Genius Report review
• jkOnTheRun review
• CNet review
• Wired review
• PC World: "Awkward and disappointing"
• PC Magazine review
• Yahoo! Tech review
• Guardian UK review