The BlackBerry Storm 2 will be available in North America just two days after the handset hits Blighty.

Vodafone released RIM’s second attempt at the Storm smartphone into the UK yesterday, and US carrier Verizon subsequently announced that it will release the Storm 2 Stateside on 28 October – that’s tomorrow, folks.

In the UK, Vodafone will give the Storm 2 – aka the BlackBerry 9520 – away for free on contracts costing at least £35 ($57/€38) per month.

Verizon, on the other hand, has priced the smartphone up at $180 (£110/€121). The price includes a $100 mail-in rebate and you’ll have to sign a two-year contract worth at least $30 per month, Verizon added.

The major difference – or should we say advantage? – between the original and the latest Storm is that while the first-generation Storm, released in the UK during November 2008, didn’t support Wi-Fi – the Storm 2 supports 802.11b/g.

Although the Storm 2 features the same 3.2in, 360 x 480 display and 3.2Mp camera as the 9500, the new version’s touchscreen supposedly has a ‘spongy’ feel to it. ®