Coming over as a long time BB User

[pngwyn]

I have had this device for a little over 8 hours.

I adore it.

The UI is snappy. The keyboard is on par or exceeds every blackberry I have used to day. The hardware design is excellent, sleek and understated.

My complaints so far are:

- Lack of dedicated call and hangup button, these made for excellent short cut keys on the blackberry, double tapping call would bring up recent calls etc.

- Lots of missing shortcuts, but I need to tweak some of the dedicated shortcut buttons and I need to learn how to be efficient. Seems that voice commands could be more effectively used and or the search functions. It should be noted that all the keys on the keyboard can be assigned as a shortcut to any application.

- The organization of messages and emails seems to be quirky when compared to the unified inbox on the blackberry.

- Accessing notifications seems to be "out of the way."

- I haven't touched the moto blur stuff yet, I have no interest.

- The market needs refinement when compared to the Apple Apps Store.

- Alt and shift are swapped from where they are on the blackberry.

Things I love:

- The speed. Applications open and close quickly.

- Having a usable camera (that uploads to facebook and all others, very easily)

- Having a usable camcorder (that uploads to youtube easily).

- Ambient light sensor

- All the apps!

- Customizability, although I expected it to have more settings. (For example: I want to be able to remove some of the swipe pages).

- Dedicated period "." key. This is huge, who needed a dedicated $ sign key? Silly Blackberry.

- Call quality seems good, reception seems good, but I am at home with a cold so the jury is still out on this one.

So far there isn't enough that I miss about blackberry. I have been pining for an android for awhile and even tried the EVO on opening day, but the lack of physical keyboard and sprint's coverage in my neighborhood and battery life killed that device.

I am excited and very pleased with this device so far.

Being new to Android:

- What are the must have apps?

- What are the must do customizations?

- Are there any must have accessories?

- Any other tips or hints for a new android user?

Lastly, any ideas on when it will be rooted?

Feel free to ask me any questions about the device I would be happy to help anyway I can.

Best Wishes,
Pngwyn

 

[Simba501]

First thing I'd do is download a launcher from the market. ADW.Launcher is lovely, and a lot of people use LauncherPro....I'm not a fan of motoblur so, I think this would be a must for me.

As for other apps and customizations, they are plentiful and I wouldn't know where else to start. I find new things to do all the time and I've had my Captivate for over 2 weeks.

 

[lulugirl896]

Lastly, any ideas on when it will be rooted?

This works for the Pro.

 

[Taitia]

Pngwyn,
I am new to Droid as well, just got a Fascinate last week and am not in love with it. I've been a BB user for 5+ years (Palm before that) so I'm pretty retentive in my ways. I primarily use the device for work and sync with my exchange server to my Outlook (email, calendar, contacts...miss my tasks and notes).

Some questions I have for you are similar to what I posted on the "initial review" video:

1. Do I have the option to delete from just device or device and server? I like that BB had this option.
2. Can I add a calendar appointment or contact on the device and have it sync back to my Outlook?
3. Can I organize my contacts by other means than just first name?
4. Can I change the calendar background to be something less harsh than black.

I'm debating on taking back my Fascinate and soooo tempted to go back to BB. I like the apps on the Droid, but can't seem to make the phone compatible with my work life. I understand you can "download an app" but no sure why I would download things to make it work like BB.

Sorry...not a hater on Droid, just longtime BB user. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[kid6284]

Longtime BB user. Picked up a Pro a couple of days ago. I love it. i miss bbm but overall i think i made a good choice switching.

 

[flash24]

I switched as well from BB...I've had Blackberry since 2004. Glad I made the switch, Pro is an awesome device.

 

[AverageCanadian]

Pngwyn,
I am new to Droid as well, just got a Fascinate last week and am not in love with it. I've been a BB user for 5+ years (Palm before that) so I'm pretty retentive in my ways. I primarily use the device for work and sync with my exchange server to my Outlook (email, calendar, contacts...miss my tasks and notes).

Some questions I have for you are similar to what I posted on the "initial review" video:

1. Do I have the option to delete from just device or device and server? I like that BB had this option.
2. Can I add a calendar appointment or contact on the device and have it sync back to my Outlook?
3. Can I organize my contacts by other means than just first name?
4. Can I change the calendar background to be something less harsh than black.

I'm debating on taking back my Fascinate and soooo tempted to go back to BB. I like the apps on the Droid, but can't seem to make the phone compatible with my work life. I understand you can "download an app" but no sure why I would download things to make it work like BB.

Sorry...not a hater on Droid, just longtime BB user. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm a little baffled by the contact management system? Playing with the wife's Droid Pro and I can find no setting to sort contacts by last name.

I thought Android 2.2 included that feature. Must be the custom rom I'm running on my Nexus 1 that allows me to do it.

 

[dcorn]

Longtime BB user. Picked up a Pro a couple of days ago. I love it. i miss bbm but overall i think i made a good choice switching.

BBM was cool, but I'd have to say Android does it even better. Between Google Talk and the Go Chat app (facebook chat), I can talk to way more people than I could with BBM. Besides, lots of my friends that had BB's now have Android phones

 

[gcobb]

I've always been a fan of BB. I gave up the Torch in Sept. I tried the iPhone and for 3 weeks I didn't like it much. The BB is awesome, has more features for work, email and messaging than anything.

But I'm hooked on the Android. Since I installed Tasker and can automate things along with have customizable profiles I'm loving it. There is a small learning curve but almost any question someone can ask can also be answered here in the forums.

 

[lawrencep]

Howdy folks, i am a long time blackberry user and never have wanted to switch to an iphone or droid because of the lack of a qwerty keyboard, when i saw the droid pro i said 'here is my answer' the droid os rocks, the apps are so plentiful and the customization capable make it an easy sell. I use my phone heavily for work though and have read some reviews that complain about how fast emails come through and that there is diffculty syncing with ms outlook. Can anyone please comment on these two details please?

 

[gcobb]

Howdy folks, i am a long time blackberry user and never have wanted to switch to an iphone or droid because of the lack of a qwerty keyboard, when i saw the droid pro i said 'here is my answer' the droid os rocks, the apps are so plentiful and the customization capable make it an easy sell. I use my phone heavily for work though and have read some reviews that complain about how fast emails come through and that there is diffculty syncing with ms outlook. Can anyone please comment on these two details please?

I am not sure if my information is correct but I don't believe it can connect natively to Exchange Servers. I would search for Exchange in the box ^^^^ up there. I seem to remember someone saying they had a fix for making it work.

 

[bb_or_droid]

Howdy folks, i am a long time blackberry user and never have wanted to switch to an iphone or droid because of the lack of a qwerty keyboard, when i saw the droid pro i said 'here is my answer' the droid os rocks, the apps are so plentiful and the customization capable make it an easy sell. I use my phone heavily for work though and have read some reviews that complain about how fast emails come through and that there is diffculty syncing with ms outlook. Can anyone please comment on these two details please?

Only true way to mirror the functionality of the BES (encryption up and down, push email, calendar sync) is Good Enterprise Server. Check to see if your employer has deployed one.

 

[lawrencep]

We do not have an enterprise server at work i simply use a pop or imap email hosted by godaddy and have my gmail account as my personal email. Do you guys know if email comes thru on a droid as quickly as it does on a blackberry? this is the one issue i have before making the switch but it is a critical one for me at work.

 

[gcobb]

We do not have an enterprise server at work i simply use a pop or imap email hosted by godaddy and have my gmail account as my personal email. Do you guys know if email comes thru on a droid as quickly as it does on a blackberry? this is the one issue i have before making the switch but it is a critical one for me at work.

Make sure you turn on Background Sync if it isn't already. I have no problems with receiving any email. How fast you sync is more of a factor here than anything since you're using pop mail servers. As long as your server is up to speed I don't see any issues.

 

[StoneCutter]

I had a BB for years before switching over to the Droid a little over a year ago. I always disliked email on the Droid, but this new Droid Pro has me intrigued.

I no longer have access to a BES so all my email is POP (work through godaddy and personal through hotmail and gmail). What I want to know is if the Droid Pro will work any different with godaddy POP than the Droid?

Specifically... When I send an email from the Droid Pro, will it save a copy in the SENT folder on godaddy? Currently, with my Droid, if I send an email from the phone, I have no record of it on the server or my desktop Outlook. It only saves that outgoing email on my phone.

 

[mark lautenschlager]

Specifically... When I send an email from the Droid Pro, will it save a copy in the SENT folder on godaddy? Currently, with my Droid, if I send an email from the phone, I have no record of it on the server or my desktop Outlook. It only saves that outgoing email on my phone.

For POP3, I can't say. I run two IMAP email accounts and two Google accounts (one personal Gmail and one Google Apps for work). With my IMAP accounts using the built in mail client on the Droid Pro, outgoing messages are automatically stored in the Sent folder on my server. I didn't have to tell it to do that, it just did it.

When I return to my desktop PC and open Thunderbird, all my Droid Pro sent emails are in the folder. Hope that helps!