Name Some Reasons Why I Shouldnt Go Back To BlackBerry

[marc001523]

I recently bought the Droid X about a week ago and I feel like I'm not in love with this phone like I should be. The browser, youtube, and ability to quickly launch apps are the only things i really like about it.

I can barely get through the day with the battery. I even downloaded the power manager and that barely helped. I cannot receive my schools emails like I did on BB. The emails are not push notifications as well with Facebook which i have to automatically refresh to get updates.

Other than that I think its a solid phone and OS. I love being able to download any song for free and the ringtone creator, along with the app market. But i need a phone in which the battery can last longer than 8 hrs. U guys have any reasons why i should not return this phone and go back to blackberry

 

[grainysand]

You're doing it wrong if your battery life is that short. My N1 lasts, at a bare minimum, 12 hours under heavy use. 18 hours on average. While admittedly the Droid X has a much bigger screen and a processor that may require more power, it really should last more than eight hours.

Your facebook and push e-mail complaints are weird. Android does both completely fine as long as you allow background data to sync. Also:

1. Turn off GPS/Wifi/et al when you're not using them.
2. Turn down screen brightness. I don't know about the X's LCD screen, but my N1 is blinding if turned to full brightness. Like "oh god my eyes my eyes!" I've brightness set to lowest in any condition but bright, direct sunlight.
3. Go through a few recharge cycles for the phone's battery reading to calibrate properly.

 

[marc001523]

by email i mean:

since i could not set up an account with my schools email on my phone i synced it to my gmail account, which does not give me the email as soon as its sent i get it hours later.

and facebook :

i dont get notifications unless i manually go into the app and hit refresh

 

[IOWA]

by email i mean:

since i could not set up an account with my schools email on my phone i synced it to my gmail account, which does not give me the email as soon as its sent i get it hours later.

and facebook :

i dont get notifications unless i manually go into the app and hit refresh

Then you have it set up wrong. Poke around in the settings menu.

 

[droid_freak]

Went through 3 BB Tours in 5 months, thats WHY. Are you really not around a charger, wall plug, USB or vehicle for that long?

 

[takeshi]

But i need a phone in which the battery can last longer than 8 hrs. U guys have any reasons why i should not return this phone and go back to blackberry

You need to sort this out yourself. If the device isn't for you then it isn't for you. Doesn't matter what other people's reason are for staying with it.

Sounds to me like you just need to do some battery life troubleshooting. Any modern smartphone (does not include the BB with its antiquated OS IMO) is going to chew through the battery if you use it without much thought to your usage and how it affects battery life. My Droid easily makes it well beyond 8 hours.

by email i mean:

since i could not set up an account with my schools email on my phone i synced it to my gmail account, which does not give me the email as soon as its sent i get it hours later.

Contact your school for info on how to set up the account properly. Or Google for the info. I can't count the number of time's I've done the latter for other people

The emails are not push notifications as well with Facebook which i have to automatically refresh to get updates.

Well, nothing can turn a non-push account into push. Are you sure you have the email account set up properly if it's supposed to be push?

Turn off GPS/Wifi/et al when you're not using them.

Unless you have an app that's using GPS when you don't expect it there's no need to turn it off. GPS doesn't chew through your battery unless it's actively used (and you'll see the icon in the notification bar when it is).

All three (GPS/BT/WiFi) are left on on my Droid with little impact on battery.

Turn down screen brightness.

The screen is a typical battery hog.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

Marc, I agree with Takeshi. Don't let folks "convince" you; if you cannot convince yourself, or the phone does not work for you, you are well within your rights to get something that does.

Personally, I believe that you can customize Android devices to do much of (and significantly more than) the stuff you could do with your Blackberry. There is no way I would be migrating to Android if that were not the case.

For me, at least.

 

[Megs]

I don't normally use my school's email anymore (just for "business" purposes since @mohawkcollege looks better than @hotmail - though I've now swapped to @gmail so....) but I have K-9 set up to grab my emails. They put up a guide on how to do it for the BB and in order to send email I just use Yahoo's servers - wish I didn't have to but since the school is blocking that functionality there isn't much I can do. The account isn't a push one though - but I can poll it every 15 minutes if I want (not that its necessary because I never really get email through there).

Facebook will update every 15 minutes on my phone. Of course to save battery life I have it set to every 4 hours instead. I'm not so needy with Facebook (or twitter even) to need an update every 15 minutes.

Battery life issues....not sure what to say on that. I had them to begin with myself. Mostly my problem had been where my phone was Monday to Friday - in a locker, in a basement, with zero signal up the north end of the city (don't know why that last one but meh. For greater minds than mine to figure out). It even happened with my "dumbphone" so it wasn't an android issue. Now that I'm not working there anymore, I don't have an issue. Of course I'm not playing with my phone nearly as much anymore either....

 

[jree]

I see the blackberry as a master of one trade whom is passed their time and getting ready to retire. Android is a Jack of ALL trades whom is slowly becoming a master. Is your student email a live account? Mine is and I have it linked through my vibrant with setting set to check for new mail every 10 minutes. As far as the battery, my vibrant took two recharge cycles before it started to last me a whole day with very heavy use.

Takeshi is right. You need to decide for yourself whether not android is right for you. Most of us came from a blackberry. I know i did and i m never going back. Good luck to you