For a few months, BlackBerry fans and Verizon wireless users looking for a real alternative to the iPhone have been looking forward to getting the BlackBerry Storm by Research in Motion (RIM). The company’s first touchscreen BlackBerry has just been released, and we’re giving it a look.

What’s singular about the Storm is the way it uses touch. It proceeds as one would expect when sliding your finger across the screen, but selections are made by pressing the actual screen down. RIM says that this method allows for a feeling closer to real keys on a keyboard.

This touch feature called SurePress is actually quite interesting. A gentle slide of the finger over the bright screen highlights icons below. When a chosen selection glows blue a quick press of the screen will launch the application. It may not feel exactly like an actual keyboard but it is more useful than a classical touchscreen.

SurePress is rather intuitive, but one unpleasant aspect is that one must move one’s finger over the selection to highlight it then lift it from the screen and press down again. It takes a little getting used to but afterwards becomes second nature. It looks like some will love SurePress and others will hate it, it’s a matter of taste in the end.

It has no Wi-Fi, but to compensate it supports EVDO Rev. A, so its internet connection is rather fast. It is the first Verizon Wireless smartphone to do so.

Application-wise, while the Storm has numerous added multimedia apps, the enterprise functionality that is expected of a BlackBerry is still its hallmark.

All-in-all the BlackBerry Storm looks promising, and will become a hit if the few annoying bugs can be removed (nothing a firmware upgrade won’t fix). It stands solid and it will remain to be seen how successful it is.