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Anyone switched over from Blackberry?

I switched from a Blackberry Bold. The main thing i miss is the way it handled messages (especially facebook inbox messages!) I miss the keyboard too, i hate the Hero's touchscreen keyboard. I make loads of mistakes on it and keep brushing against the enter button when i don't mean to or the settings button. I think the iPhone touchscreen keyboard is more accurate. I never made any mistakes on BB.

I miss how you could set the blackberry to shut itself off at a certain time and then wake itself back up again in the morning.

Another slight annoyance is Hero loses its signal in places my BB never did and it struggles to pick up a signal again when that happens - and the call quality is better on BB.

But that said i prefer my Hero for everything else. I love android and the Market, Blackberry apps are a joke as was the Blackberry camera. I only use Gmail so by using the gmail app my mail is pushed to me straight away anyway on Hero. I love the screen and how i can completely change the way the phone looks and works with widgets and what not. I've got Spotify installed which i love because i'm now using my phone as my mp3 player.

In a nutshell i think BB Bold is a much better phone but i prefer android OS / Sense ui.
 
jdlofton said:
... what I HATED, was just that the phone could not handle rich media content. This is because RIM went with Java, which is a good stable (for the most part) platform. However, it is a HUGE crutch if you are looking for a user friendly, media rich phone/platform.
Click to expand...

For the record, Android applications are written in Java. Android itself is based on Linux (which was written in C/C++), but 3rd-party applications (e.g. anything you would get via the Market) are designed to run in a virtual machine and are implemented in Java. If anything, RIM's poor support for rich media comes from the single-minded focus on enterprise features like email/contacts/calendar over-the-air, near-real-time synchronization, and robust yet simple controls for an organization's IT department. It was only after RIM decided to push into the consumer market, with the Pearl and Curve, that the feature gap became so apparent.
 
Here's what I like about Android (Hero) coming from BlackBerry
- The calendar is superb. I have GMail and Exchange calendar integrated and color coded.
- I can see/sync whatever email folders I want anytime
- NO NEED FOR COSTLY BES!!!
- Finally.. REAL APPS! Within hours of owning my Hero I had all the apps I wanted on the BB for a year.

Here's what I don't like
- Exchange sync fails occasionally
- I'm still (after a few months of use) not 100% certain of the Gmail reliability. It works 97% of the time, but sometimes I'll get 3 or 4 emails in at once and some of them where sent hours earlier.
- IMO, nothing can replace a BB keyboard. They are the best.
 
I switched from a BB Pearl 8130. Would never consider going back to that phone after getting the Hero on Sprint. Keyboard, obviously a night and day difference. I really miss having to do a battery pull about 3 times a day to get my memory back to where it should be on the Pearl (sarcasm). But honestly, I've had an iPhone, a Touch Pro, a BB Pearl, hands down, this is the best I've had, not going to be looking to replace until my contact is up in 2011(and I had the last 3 phones all within the last year, and a LG lotus).
 
I went from pearl to curve to pearl flip to storm..all on VZ.. and the Droid shames them all in every way. I think RIM better get soem NEW OS's and browsers out or lose a LOT of market share....
 
I switched from the BB Curve 2 days ago. I loved my BB, but it turns out I didn't really know what love was... Until I met my HTC Hero!

Here are a few things that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread yet...

There is one thing that I miss the most from my BB. I have several pop3 email accounts (yahoo and hotmail). I have them all set up on the Hero and can live with the 10 minute delay, but I miss having one inbox that shows messages from all of my email accounts. On the hero I have to check them each individually. What a pain. Am I missing something?

One thing that I love is that it groups text messages into conversations by person. I click on a friends name and can see the entire text history. On BB I had to go digging for them.

There's an annoying lag when I switch the phone from landscape to portrait and back, but it's a small price to pay.

I'm holding off on judging the on-screen keyboard until I spend more time adjusting to it, but no doubt it's an adjustment and I'm making many mistakes. However the phone suggests what it thinks i really mean and I can tap the suggestion instead of retyping the whole word. I do wish the on-screen keyboard had arrow keys. I don't like using the track ball to move the cursor. It frequently rolls me right out of the field that I'm trying to edit. That never happened on the BB. I'd also like a delete button (as opposed to backspace, which it does have).

The multi-touch display and associated functionality make the BB seem antique to me. Maybe one day we'll be laughing about them like we do now about the original mobile phones that came with a shoulder strap. Well, someday I'll probably even be laughing about my Hero like that too:)
 
I just switched 2 days ago when our company shifted providers. I am on a Cliq and actually have a brand new Tour in the box here as well in case i decide to go back to a bb. I will say it has been a learning curve for this 31 year old IT guy who has been on a bb since i was 24 and they didn't come with phone capabilities. As a geek, i love the openness of this phone. As an IT Manager I hate the lack of a central control where i can reliably lock/wipe/disable it which is why we aren't going to openly adopt android for some time.

Likes:
-All the apps and things you can do with it. I actually don't have to open the blackberry browser to find stuff anymore which anyone on a bb knows, the browser support has never been ideal.
-Touch and has a keyboard. I can't live without a physical keyboard although when i do use the touch screen i am getting better at it and like the word suggestions if you typo.
-Camera and video camera are 5 megapixel and definitely better than the curve i had.
-WiFi - nuff said. My verizon curve never had wifi, just an overpriced bill.
-Sound quality is par if not better than my bb. I've been impressed with this unit over what i expected from the forum posts i've seen around the net.

Dislikes:
-I used to be able to type one-handed on my bb without even looking at the keys because i knew where everything was, including the symbols. This keyboard is a two hand mandatory practically and if i use the touch keyboard i have to see what i'm typing or it looks like my dog got a hold of the phone.
-Having to pay $20 to get reliable blackberry worthy email. My bb email was perfect. I use folders, and rules like crazy, and the stock mail program i couldn't figure out how to do subfolders period. Had to buy Touchdown but it is so much better. Push makes it real-time like the bb and i get all my subfolders delivered just fine just like on the bb.
-Fragile... My 8330 went sliding across parking lots, tons of falls where the battery cover would fly off, battery would go flying, the trackball holder broke, put it back together and it booted right back up. It fell into a glass of milk, completely submerged and stayed on, i took it out, ran it under the faucet without turning it off for about 2-3 minutes, then pulled the battery. Let it sit the next 36 hours across a sunday and monday morning popped the battery back in and was back up and running. I highly doubt this cliq could go through the same and i have to give bb credit on ruggedness there.
-this might seem ********, but the lack of an LED light used with the vid camera like i had on my curve. That was my flashlight through a hurricane and multiple power losses and every night walking up the stairs in the dark to go to bed.

All in all if you're a heavy email user, get Touchdown and the unit can hop right in place of your blackberry. The biggest downside to me is the security coming from administrating a BES for over half a decade. I hate to think what would happen if a power user had an android, and left the company on bad terms under their own decision and left with company data. Their handheld or not, the data is not their's.

Just my summary, sorry for being long-winded.
 
I was on blackberry with the curve, storm 1 and 2, and bold. Dumped blackberry service altogether and went with android. Reason being, for a "business" phone, I couldn't get onto my TD Waterhouse account from their crappy browser to trade for the longest time until blackberry OS 5 came out. Setting up the push mail to feed into my google account was easy and not subject to service interruptions from RIM servers because you can manually check your google email from any computer.
 
I just purchased the Motorola Droid this weekend, moving from the BB Curve 8330 through Verizon. I'm very impressed by the bells and whistles, but still not sure about the business end of it. I really like the the operating system, the widgets, and the free apps...now for the great big BUT. The following things are what I miss:

1.) The email is far inferior. I haven't figured it out yet, and there may be a fix, but the inbox is constantly emptying my email. Some emails are only there for 2 or 3 hours before they are erased. I have not figured out how to add a signature to my email with the droid. Since email on the road was the main reason I stepped up to a smartphone along with an additional $30.00/month...I may need to rethink the switch.

2.) I did like the trackball...it seems like I'm constatly bumping the screen while using applications, either closing the program, or opening other menus. I know that with some more time, I can get used to the touch screen with time, just a little annoying at times right now.

3.) This may seem silly, but I really miss the ability to program the phone to turn to vibrate when it sensed a magnet. I could put the phone in my magnetic holster before going into a meeting and never worry about the ringer going off. When I removed it from the holter and placed in the console of my car, I knew it would reset the phone to ring.

There are many things I like about the phone. It definetely scores higher in most categories, but the one area that I really "need" is inferior to the BB.

I do like the android OS, but I don't really care for the Motorola equipment. The display is beautiful with very crisp images, but the body of the phone isn't the prettiest thing to look at. I thought I would like the slide-out keyboard, but the small flat keyboard is more fumbly for me than the touch keypad. There are certain ways that I pull the phone out of my holster that causes the screen to start to slide. While this is what it is designed to do...it gives the phone a bit of a flimsy feel. If you barely slide the keyboard out, you can twist the two sections just a bit.

Well I started out to give my 2 cents worth...but ended up with a buck fifty.

goldroid
 
pdjny said:
I switched from the BB Curve 2 days ago. I loved my BB, but it turns out I didn't really know what love was... Until I met my HTC Hero!

There is one thing that I miss the most from my BB. I have several pop3 email accounts (yahoo and hotmail). I have them all set up on the Hero and can live with the 10 minute delay, but I miss having one inbox that shows messages from all of my email accounts. On the hero I have to check them each individually. What a pain. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Hi. In case you haven't found out yet, the way Gmail works best on Android is to forward all your mail accounts to your Gmail account, then they come in instantly and are synced. There is also a way to have Gmail check your other accounts on a regular basis kind of like the old Windows way.
 
ari-free said:
I noticed that Blackberry's ad campaign is all about peace, love and all that. What happened to them?
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What happened, is that they started to realize that they could market their once corporate handsets and system to the general public, by patching up their OS and having their phones built cheaply in Mexico. Well, it is starting to backfire, because their system is not designed to be very user friendly for folks to set up. I'm an extremely advanced computer user, and it was quite frustrating to get Gmail IMAP to work half way decent. I can only imagine what your average joe would do trying to set up those phones. In addition, the once bullet proof reputation for BlackBerry and their network is fading. I returned 3 Tours due to the trackball going out and the signal being weak, and I was ready to return a 4th when the whole BIS data service went completely down twice in a week! That was it. I got a Droid instead of a Tour, and I am extremely satisfied and excited about what this thing can do.

I got sooooooo sick and tired of the constant hotsync problems between my BB and Outlook. The sync between Android and Google just works. Plain and simple. I don't have to sync again, or worry that I'm walking around with a device that I forgot to sync, and I'm scheduling appointments at the same time as another that was scheduled back at the office in Outlook (happened before to me).

I think BlackBerry is going to be in trouble before we know it. Their OS is really showing its age, and pretty soon word is going to be out that even serious business users can get a very cool Android phone that lets them be efficient during the day and play at night.
 
went from an LG Dare to a Storm to a Tour and now the Motorola Droid.

simply an amazing device.

i learn more every day and dont think ill be going back to BlackBerry.
 
Love the apps, hate the email clients.. Had a STORM, I reallyn need a GOOD method to sync contacts, calendar, tasks, notes etc between OUTLOOK and the driod. Also, when using POP3 I do NOT want the droid to delete messages previously downloaded just because they do not exist on the server anymore.
 
Switched from Storm 1 to the Motorola Droid and felt like I was going from cassette to CD. Not even close. Loved my Storm and was going to upgrade to a Storm 2. The rep at Verizon would not sell it to me as he said when the Droid comes out I would regret it.... he didn't lie. Unbelievable phone!
 
Coming from a Blackberry Curve:

I HATE how you cannot set the gmail app to give audible notification of every new email. The built-in gmail app only notifies you of the first unread email, then doesn't alert again until after you check your mailbox.

I've installed ENotify from the market, and this helps...but I'd rather not have a 3rd party app running full-time in the background. Plus, ENotify delays notifications by 1min or so (i know this sounds silly, but for my business, instant notifications are very helpful).

Also, I miss the "Phone Only" profile for sounds. I used to activate that every night on my curve...when I'm asleep, I'd like to receive calls, but txt and email can wait :).

These are my only complaints...everything else rocks!
 
Coming from an 8330 here, but I've had a pearl in the past and contemplated getting a Tour. My main gripe is the keyboard.

I've been using variants thus far-- the Android standard keyboard, the Better Keyboard alternate(s), Swype, and ShapeWriter. The physical keyboard is truly horrendous and falls even below the Voyager's in terms of usability. I loved the Blackberry's keyboard and nothing's come close. The iPhone's soft keyboard is really solid (though not my thing), and the lack of multitouch as well as key placement and other issues makes the Android keyboard inferior (not horrible, but not as great).

I do like ShapeWriter/Swype, but the only reason I use them is what leads me to my ultimate biggest gripe. My issue with everything, honestly, is that the soft keyboard doesn't haven't the same sort of "shorthand" or quicktext that the Blackberry does (for example, everytime I used to type "u" on my keyboard on my BB and hit space, it would type out the whole thing). I know the physical keyboard has this option, but the physical keyboard is kind of worthless to me.

I do miss BB Messenger, but other than those two things, the Droid is in (every way, for me) superior.
 
I'm planning on it as soon as a few more Android phones come onto Verizon.
Coming from a Storm I 9530, I'm hoping for a few changes.
Overall, I think the 9530 has been a pretty good phone for me, other than the Suretouch. I went though 5 in 8 months. One was an insurance replacement, so it doesn't count, but the other 3 had bad screen clickers. The one I have has been good as far as that goes, but I still have a few bones to pick with it.
Do I hate my Storm?? No...I just don't like it much, even though I tried.
I don't like the clunky browser......it's slow, even with Javascript disabled.
OS 5.0.328 helped the phone, but it still freezes, and still has memory leaks.
You would think RIMM would have figured things out after all these years.
E-mail is quick and easy, but otherwise is nothing to write home about.
I would much rather have my images with my emails, as well.............
Radio use is touch and go with my Storm, where my wife's LG is much better overall, and I do regular *228 updates, as well.
The phone does strange things on a regular basis. One of it's favorites is the speakerphone kicking in for 2-3 seconds, then back to handset.
It also resets quite a bit,too, and I do regular battery pulls every other night, and very few Apps. I have even gone through my apps, thinking an app may have been trouble, but nope. Verizon offered me the 9550 Storm 2 through a multi-fru, but I didn't feel like pushing my upgrade date ahead by 20 months, so I still have a 9530. The only advantage of going to a 9550 Storm 2 is that the screen will probably work better. Otherwise, it's the same old RIMM phone, and I'm not doing it anymore, considering I pay a premium price every month to have a smartphone.:rolleyes:
I am hoping one of the Android phones will be better for me.
Since I'm not a fan of Motorola at all (for many reasons), I am steering towards the Eris, which seems to be a better phone if you don't want a physical keyboard, and it gets 2.0 or better.
I think I'm gonna stick it out a bit longer though, and see what comes up in the next few months.
I have a feeling I am gonna find what I'm looking for.......a touchscreen smartphone that's fast, reliable, and works with minimal issues. That doesn't seem like much to ask;)
 
I just recently switched from my curve to the Eris. Really diggin the Eris. The only thing I really miss from the BB is (obviously) BBM. BBM was a really solid way to message. Everything about it was perfect and nothing coming form android really compares. Google talk is alright but still isn't quite as good as BBM. Oh, and facebook doesn't notify me like BB did. But, all the features, customizations, web browsing, and apps totally kill Blackberry.
 
I've had every Blackberry through my job and still have the Tour. I just got the Hero and the Moment for my wife and daughters for Christmas. My Tour is like the old Brick phone compared to either one. I actually think I like the Hero a little better even though I fear the touch keyboard. It actually works really well after you calibrate it for yourself. My daughters have been leaving their iPod Touch on the charging stands. Go figure.
 
i went from the Storm to the Tour. i had about 3 tours before i got one the worked fine. then yesterday it froze for the last time. i walked into bestbuy and switched it out.

so far i havent really noticed anything from the blackberry that i miss other then the email. i think they have got that perfect. but i have only had the eris for 2 days now. even after 2 days i like this phone more then any other phone ive ever owned
 
No, if the phone uses a SIM card, it is a GSM phone which is not compatible with Sprint (or Verizon) who use the CDMA protocol.Sprint has some really good deals, especially through BestBuy and Amazon.com on Blackberry phones. Just get a new contract and a new phone. Also, seriously consider switching to the HTC Hero Android phone at Sprint. The plan is the same price as a Blackberry data plan, but the phone can do so much more.
 
pablo said:
I just talked to my cousin who happens to own a G1, I just played with the phone a bit, it is pretty closed in terms of drilling down into the phone. There is no file manager, and you cannot attach/save/view pdf files that arrive with e-mail or that are stored in the storage card. I was pretty pissed when blackberry did not come with file viewer or pdf/excel/word viewer/editors. But this was also solved with the OS 4.6+. Now as a business user, I can easily go through the generic proposals, forms, etc that I keep in my miniSD and I can mail to my client even during the meeting, or if I just want to check out stock, I can skim through the excel records in my SD.

Unfortunately android attachment screen only shows pictures. :(

I guess I will stick to blackberry for now, wait for 9700, or look into the reviews and performance of HTC Touch Pro 2.
Click to expand...

When you say you use Outlook, do you mean you use a microsoft exchange server, or some other method that puts your mail in our outlook?

In any case, android supports both pop3 and microsoft exchange so you should be fine.

Regarding attachments, i think that depends on what email app you are receiving your pop3 / exchange mail into, as some handle attachments better than others - for instance I think Touchdown or k-9 mail might be able to handle attachments. You'd need to do a bit of googling to make sure!

Aside from docs 2 go, there is also quickoffice, so viewing (and maybe editing) shouldnt be an issue.

Google are taking enterprise consumers v seriously now, so you will start to see more and more enterprise friendly features being added too.
 
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