Today RIM, Verizon, and Vodafone officially announced the first touchscreen BlackBerry, the BlackBerry Storm. In September a video demonstrating the BlackBerry Storm was leaked. The verdict about the unique clickable touchscreen of the Storm was not very positive. Now Engadget just published a hands-on review of the BlackBerry Storm and their verdict about the BlackBerry touchscreen user interface is actually very positive.

Update: New BlackBerry Storm Reviews

Apparently the way the Storm works is very close to how other BlackBerry phones work making it easy for existing BlackBerry users to get used to.

Quote from the Storm review: "So, about that touchscreen. We were skeptical, since we've seen so many touchscreen phones done badly, but the Storm is a real charmer. First off, you have to understand the approach RIM took, which was to interpret the existing navigation method (scroll ball) into a touchscreen environment without pissing off existing users who were just getting over their jog dials. That method boils down to two categories: navigation and execution. As in, with previous BlackBerrys you scroll the wheel to select the email / link / application, and then click the scroll wheel to open / click / launch the object. Now you flick the screen to scroll, tap to select, and click to activate. That means when you tap the screen to select a soft key or an email or an application on the Storm, the object is highlighted, but nothing actually happens. You have to click down to execute, and we really mean click.
The entire screen is floating on a clicking mechanism, and clicks down evenly, which provides just the right amount of resistance and tactile feedback, while still allowing for rapid operations like typing. The capacitive touch on top is perfectly sensitive and accurate. We'll get more into how well this works for actual usage (hint: pretty darn well) in the software section."
Read the full hands-on review on Engadget. More BlackBerry Storm Coverage.