Taking apart the Storm 2 reveals how the new SurePress works

Late Saturday night, we showed to you a video comparing the SurePress typing system on the first Storm to the much improved system on the Storm 2. When an autopsy was performed on both models, the difference in the two versions of SurePress became immediately obvious. The original Storm has a method that is exactly as advertised. The keyboard rests on top of a single button in the middle of the display. This has the effect of moving the corners of the screen up and down as you type on the keyboard. The new SurePress is different in that it has four buttons, one placed in each corner that the screen lies on top of. The four buttons, placed evenly in the corner locations, prevents the QWERTY on the newer model from popping up and down in the corner as you type and allows for a much smoother typing experience on the sequel model.

So does the Storm 2 use this Piezo technology discussed on the new video? It is not certain, but some of that technology might be involved in the process where the screen does not move when the power to the phone is off, and returns to the clicking mode when the power is restored. Cutting open the phones does show that the Storm 2 does not have a button for each letter, number and function key under the glass. It seems that simply putting one button in each corner and removing the one in the middle better reproduces the feel of typing on a physical keyboard and also allows the user to press down on two different letters at the same time for multi-touch capabilities. No matter how RIM has improved SurePress, if the keyboard lives up to its promise, the Canadian manufacturer will have achieved its goal of making a virtual keyboard feel like a physical QWERTY.

source: Crackberry, BlackBerryCool