Switching BB to Android

[lanwanman]

I currently own a BB Tour and am interested in switching to an Android phone. I am on Verizon Wireless.

I would just like to know where I should start looking and researching. I'll begin by listing things that are important to me.

1. Notifications. I am an IT Manager and my phone also acts like a pager by sending me a text messages when servers are down. It's very important for me to be able to set up custom notifications sounds for SMS and E-mail. I'm really attached to the BB light notification, am I really going to miss this?

2. Exchange support, has the Exchange support been improved now? I've been reading that the Exchange support is not the best.

3. Remote access tools/apps (Remotely access computers/servers). I'm using a BB app named RDM + that I love, how are the Android remote apps?

4. Web Browsing.

5. Google maps, Google search.

6. GPS would be a plus, but not extremely important to me.

7. This may seem minor, but I like when a phone has a fast way to switch to vibrate mode and standby.

8. I also use my phone as an alarm clock. I like having a lot of options for setting up alarms. I'm thinking that this could be solved by a good app though.

9. Wifi option, this is important but I could deal without it.

10. Size. I would like the phone to fit in my pocket. IPhone size ideal.

I really don't use my phone to listen to mp3 or watch movies. Can anyone help point me in the right direction? I hope the migration from BB will make me never look back.

 

[Martimus]

Welcome to the Android Forums!

Android phones have many of the capabilities you indicate, both natively and through the use of third party apps. The whole premise behind Android is that it's open platform... don't like what the manufacturer provided, install something different.

For Exchange I'd recommend using Touchdown over the stock email client... much more full featured. As for remote access there are several RDP clients available through the Android market. Multiple web browsers are available as are alarm clocks. Google maps is typically supported in most every GPS enabled Android phone.

In terms of where to start, try the Android lounge. There you'll find comparisons made by other forum members...

 

[highjakker]

the X fits nicely in my pocket with a reverse case on it. i don't use the belt clip...i hate those things. you won't regret the switch- i didn't!