Anyone switched over from Blackberry?

[MR_2FNGRZ]

see what I mean? No longer ads targeted for corporate jocks, but now its all about frolicking in fields and crap..lol. Their ad campaign is all wrong. They are trying to go with the mass appeal for the average joe. But guess what? The average joe doesn't care about emails and corporate links. They want a fast, responsive, app loaded phone that gives them all the entertainment they want. RIM is trying to save their failing market, due to PTT features becoming the next "BlackBerry" wave. To me, BlackBerry doesn't fit that bill, unless you hang out with the GEICO gecko.

 

[rgar1]

I'm going from Storm1 to Eris. Should be here on Tuesday. Very excited about it. I'll post again when I've had some time with it to see if there are any regrets or not. Can't wait for it to get here.

 

[digitard]

I jumped ship from the Curve 8330 (have also owned an 8230, Storm and so forth) and couldn't be happier. I do miss my BBM, but only because a few friends use it constantly and getting them to load GChat will take some time, but other than that no complaints.

My battery life is just fine (turned off background data since I don't need anything to sync immediately, and I can check my gmail when I wish since I get notified via SMS if my critical account gets a new email) and so forth.

d.

 

[MR_2FNGRZ]

Why WOULDN'T you select the Eris? From what I have read, the only REAL advantage that the Droid has over the Eris is the processor (550 MHz) as well as a SLIGHTLY larger screen ( not to mention a larger price tag, like a $100 larger). And if you like physical keyboards, then you can tally that up too. The Eris is just as good a phone. Very good processor running at 528 MHz. fairly updated Android platform, and a VERY noticeable $100 price difference. The only real gripe, ( if you have one) is the fact that it runs on 1.5 and not 2.0. But is it THAT big of a deal? You know it's gonna be updated, so just relax for a while.

 

[digitard]

Why WOULDN'T you select the Eris? From what I have read, the only REAL advantage that the Droid has over the Eris is the processor (550 MHz) as well as a SLIGHTLY larger screen ( not to mention a larger price tag, like a $100 larger). And if you like physical keyboards, then you can tally that up too. The Eris is just as good a phone. Very good processor running at 528 MHz. fairly updated Android platform, and a VERY noticeable $100 price difference. The only real gripe, ( if you have one) is the fact that it runs on 1.5 and not 2.0. But is it THAT big of a deal? You know it's gonna be updated, so just relax for a while.

Note that the processor isn't just a "mhz" upgrade.

The HTC ERIS is running a Qualcomm 528mhz CPU
The Motorola DROID is running the ARM Cortex A8 CPU

This is like comparing a P4 against a Core 2 Duo. They may have similar clock speeds, but the actual performance is a WORLD apart.

Plus the Droid has a dedicated GPU (PowerVR) that the iPhone also has.

It's a much more powerful machine in both computing, and graphic capabilities. Essentially the Droid is running similar processing/graphics capabilities almost to the T with an iPhone. Minus the processor is clocked slightly slower (but rumor they're the same chip so maybe people will unlock it later).

Having said that. Both are nice. I prefer the Droid because it's going, in my opinion, to have a lot more available to it if the Verizon/CDMA push to Android thats being pushed out there is accepted due to it having much better gaming capabilities, faster processor and all that stuff.

 

[DroidRX]

I'm coming from a storm 1. You know, I always thought that the storm had a really nice display. Once I got the droid and played with it for a while, the storm 1 display doesn't look so good anymore. Now I can actually see the pixels. I couldn't be any happier with my switch.

 

[thetruth]

I came from the Strom to the Droid. And so far, I am amazed with the Android OS. There are two things that I miss from my BB. The ability to have the device turn on/off at the times a specify. And the ability to control the LED notification. Other than that, I am totally happy with my Droid.

 

[MonmouthDroid]

I switched from the 8330 Curve on sprint to the Droid on VZW and there is no way i would go back. Contacts AUTOMATICALLY sync to your gmail account. I thought it was a pain to sync contacts with my BB but its all automated and wireless on Android. I love it. The email is Much better. It doesn't chop images all up and make the email look crazy. It looks just like it would on a computer. And the browser blows the blackberry browser out of the water, its no comparison.
Compared to the Droid, the Curve barrley qualifies as a "smart" phone.

 

[MatUSCG]

I havn't made the switch yet, gonna pick up the droid in 2 weeks. I am gonna miss BB msgr. All my friends have bb msgr and I like doing having the ability to have a group people chating in the same room

 

[pablo]

Thank you very much for your answers. Someone mentioned BBM above, thanks for mentioning that, it is another great feature of BB that is missing on others, unless you are on walkie talkie.

They are trying to go with the mass appeal for the average joe. But guess what? The average joe doesn't care about emails and corporate links. They want a fast, responsive, app loaded phone that gives them all the entertainment they want. R

I am going to have to disagree with you on that one. Actually, average Joe does want something without bells and whistles. All he wants is a device where he can make phone calls and very easily and simply see his e-mails, fast and without interruptions, which is one of the reason why RIM did not make HTML e-mail a priority until 4.6. Remember there were no 3G up until few years ago. Those average joes you mentioned are actually high school kids, hip tech savvy 20's-30's crowd, technology followers, blog readers.. They are not so average, believe it or not. This is why when i think blackberry, I think simplicity and speed. No waiting to see if there are new e-mails, and no waiting for e-mail to take a few seconds to open, it is right there, no load times, no retrievals or hand-shakes.

This my take on the whole BlackBerry thing. It's all about comparison to form an opinion. I just recently had the Storm, and I went through 3 of them (yes 3) of them to get the HTC Eris/Desire.

What I liked most about my Storm, was of course the push email, (which is what RIM is mainly known for)screen size and ruggedness. I was able to get my emails on the fly and view them at a very nice resolution. However 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. Might as well hang it up with the BlackBerry. A majority of rims market now comprises of groupies, ppl who have NO clue why BlackBerry became popular. It's no longer corporate entities. Even with the 5.0 upgrade, it would not accept themes from 4.7, games were scarce and quite frankly SUCKED, app world was practically well dry, and it was a PAIN to convert videos. Not only that, everything you downloaded went STRAIGHT to the device memory, which was about 25 megs after adding core update 5. No option to install on memory card at all.

I have had windows mobile phones, all HTC with the exception of the Moto Q, which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. For the most part, they were solid, minus a few errors here and there. I will say that HTC has 90% of the time made the smart move on which OS's to use, and Android is no exception.

So far I like my Eris. Of course I can't find a lot of rich games, (yes, I love FREE things..lol) but that is expected with a new system. Given time, I'm quite confident that this OS will be right up there with WINMO, or surpass it.

I love the Sense UI, the vibration feed back, the app world, media, etc etc...no need to go on. And the fact that its open source?? C'mon, what else could you ask for?

My take, I should have NEVER left HTC for another phone, especially BB. But with Verizon jerking you on phone selection, sometimes you gotta settle for coal if you know eventually it will turn into a diamond. To dumb it down, so far

HTC+ANDROID= Satisfied.

This is a nice post with factual details on BB's operation. It sure is limited and outdated, but if they re-designed it, it would probably be something else completely, not under Blackberry name.. Maybe blueberry? . Palm went that way and screwed it, look at Pre. It could have been one heck of a device if they could make it a big more business friendly and serious device. Business users don't need fancy flashy screens or edges that look like a soft candy. Make it rugged, serious and classy, which is where android headed with Droid but still, I don't see it taking the RIM's throne as the priority business user. Remember RIM is not just a device, it is a whole network of devices with remote management and server side processes. That's where the difference comes.

I guess I will be sticking to 9700 for now, and watch for other devices. I actually wanted to get Touch Pro 2, but it's price and huge footprint kind of turned me on, and with Droid being the only powerful Android device with keyboard and nicer form in the market but with one of the most expensive carriers, I will be sticking with AT&T or moving to T-Mo with the debut of 9700.

PS: I am surprised at seeing so many 2-3 post members with November registration post in this topic with similar responses.

 

[MR_2FNGRZ]

I am going to have to disagree with you on that one. Actually, average Joe does want something without bells and whistles. All he wants is a device where he can make phone calls and very easily and simply see his e-mails, fast and without interruptions, which is one of the reason why RIM did not make HTML e-mail a priority until 4.6. Remember there were no 3G up until few years ago. Those average joes you mentioned are actually high school kids, hip tech savvy 20's-30's crowd, technology followers, blog readers.. They are not so average, believe it or not. This is why when i think blackberry, I think simplicity and speed. No waiting to see if there are new e-mails, and no waiting for e-mail to take a few seconds to open, it is right there, no load times, no retrievals or hand-shakes.

Pablo, much of what you say is true about the "average Joe". But lets be realistic. Much of the phones of today ARE made for ppl between the ages of 15-35. This isn't the generation of our parents (if you are around MY age, 31, then you would be Generation X...we kicked off all of this ). Why do we have so many phones geared toward social networking, texting, videos, music, and games? Because it's what the ppl want. To be able to do most of the things that the do on their pc's without being tied down to one. Hell, we can even use our phones as remote controls for our tv. So in todays tech savvy world, I would say that these are things the "average joe" wants.

The "other average Joe" is the person who could really care less about what the phone could do. As long as it makes and receives calls and texts, thats it. I wouldn't even call them average. Practical makes sounds better to me.

BlackBerry with simplicity? Yes. BlackBerry with speed? No. RIM is the MANUFACTURER of BlackBerry's. We should all know that. But why do you think their market is failing? It's because their developers are severely limited with what they can do with an aging platform. When I thought about BlackBerry, I thought about EMAILS and RELIABILITY, simply because it wasn't bogged down with all of the bloatware. However, that reliability got flushed REAL quick. The 4.6 update was ok, but what did it REALLY have to offer? HTML based email? Thanks, but no thanks. 5.0 was just as pathetic. It took them to release the Storm2 to put out an OS (really an upgrade) that should have been done to begin with. No excuse to me. I'm not bashing RIM, just pointing out what I know. I can speak from experience. Simple business transactions, go with RIM. Everything else....look elsewhere.

 

[DroidRX]

Was anyone else (storm 1 owners) really angry at the fact the RIM/Verizon released a software update 2 days before the storm 2 and it absolutely makes the phone 100% better? I can't believe I waited for a whole year and then finally my phone became functional. Ugh.

 

[Julri]

I was a BB user for almost 5 years. Started with the pearl then to the curve and then, after an unfortunate accident involving a rain puddle, I bought the Storm. Hated the Storm! I missed my curve so badly. The touch screen was very janky and wouldn't always respond to where I was touching the screen and I couldn't type as fast as I needed to. I was very excited to hear about the release of the the Storm2. Read about the new touch screen and added memory, I was very excited. Then I found out about the Droid. Did a lot of research on both phones. After playing with both phones for an hour or so, I made a very hard decision to switch to the Droid.

I Have now been using the Droid for 4 days. I will admit, the first day I went through crackberry withdrawls, I wanted my BBM!!! I was extremely disapointed in the battery life, after only a few hours my batt was nearly done. But the more I used my phone, got my email accounts synced up, installed some useful and fun apps, and learning that I can turn off certain things off to save power (wifi) I started falling in love all over again. Using the internet and browsing is so much faster. the 5.0 camera is amazing! The slide out keyboard and D pad (I think that's what that thing is called) is also a nice feature. Having a wifi connection is also a nice feature to have, as long as you remember to turn it off when you don't need it. And after I installed pandora radio, my jaw dropped as I was able to listen to Pandora and go on to my Facebook at the same time.

The things I miss about BB. BBM, exceptions for incoming calls, and the battery life was better on the BB.

But all in all I gotta say that I think I made the right decision. Turning my back on my BB was a very hard choice, if RIM had come out with a better touch version of BB (storm2) from the very begining, and if I had been absolutly satisfied with my current BB, I may not have made the switch. But since I was unhappy with my Storm, I do think that made the decision a little easier.

 

[pablo]

Pablo, much of what you say is true about the "average Joe". But lets be realistic. Much of the phones of today ARE made for ppl between the ages of 15-35. This isn't the generation of our parents (if you are around MY age, 31, then you would be Generation X...we kicked off all of this ). Why do we have so many phones geared toward social networking, texting, videos, music, and games? Because it's what the ppl want. To be able to do most of the things that the do on their pc's without being tied down to one. Hell, we can even use our phones as remote controls for our tv. So in todays tech savvy world, I would say that these are things the "average joe" wants.

The "other average Joe" is the person who could really care less about what the phone could do. As long as it makes and receives calls and texts, thats it. I wouldn't even call them average. Practical makes sounds better to me.

Right, but you are still referring to the average joes of this generation, late 70's to late 80's generation, us, 20-40 range probably. I am 29 btw. But I am not referring to us. How many CEO's of multi-million dollar companies do you think will buy a Droid? or how many do you think bought iPhone? Not many. Heck, even google's executive was caught with a blackberry. So, those are the average joes I was referring to. I am not saying they should not be using a Droid or Eris, but they just won't. How long will it take for the new devices to have the impression of reliability & simplicity that blackberries left on the mass crowd? Probably very long.

And after I installed pandora radio, my jaw dropped as I was able to listen to Pandora and go on to my Facebook at the same time.

Just for the record, there is no problem with running multiple applications on blackberry, so you can in fact listen to pandora or any other streaming radio while you go on your facebook or while you check your e-mails, or even while you are playing games, and you can also simply turn off wifi anytime you want. I am sure you know, but it sounded like blackberry could not do it. Just wanted to mention that for those who never used a blackberry.

 

[MikeN]

I have had many BB's over the past several years. Originally, I wanted and needed them for the email functionality for work especially. I was always a bit disappointed with not having all the features I wanted until they started coming out with the Pearl (which had a camera) and then eventually the Storm. I wanted the Storm to be all that I wanted it to be and for a while, I made myself believe it was. I wound up in a Pearl Flip with VZW for the past few months because the Storm just sucked. I really missed the large screen and media/web features but could not handle the slow processing/horrible touch screen/ and daily battery pulls. The Pearl flip ran pretty good but was a far cry from what I wanted. When I heard about the Droid I was excited but was still leaning towards the Storm 2 because I just didn't want to learn a new OS. I can honestly say now that the DROID IS AWESOME! Learning it has been cake and it runs like a freakin Nascar compared to any BB I have ever used. In addition, the media/web is way better with the screen and functionality. The touchscreen is the best I have ever used and the move to Droid was a great decision!

 

[uptwnhoney]

I must say I absoultely loved my blackberry and miss it!! I am only 3 days in on the Cliq and im still not sure how i feel. All of my friends and family have BB's!!!!! and when i say ALL i mean ALL. so now here i am missing those daily BB Messenger conversations . Aside from that i miss the fact that ALL of my emails found me instantly!!!! I use AOL and Yahoo NOT Gmail . So i had to set up a Gmail account. What do i do now AOL is my primary email account, but on my phone i had to make it Gmail. On my BB i didnt have to choose. Is there is a way that i can still reach out to my friends and fam besides texting? That would be great!! I need an application that allows me to have instant message capabilities where i dont have to ask my BB friends to convert to anything. its bad enough i will have to give out this new email address if i want to get email IMMEDIATELY.

i do love that i can watch videos and that kinds of stuff tho.
STILL UNDECIDED . i guess i need more time

and is there a way to save text messages and emails?? i could do that on my BB

 

[scrocker]

I am going from a BB Pearl to the Samsung Moment and noticed with GTalk you can't send photos or files like you can with the BB version of GTalk. Can a Droid user tell me if this is updated on Android 2? The BB I need to chat with can't receive MMS due to BES restriction and I'm left without an easy way to send a photo immediately since email can lag a little. BBM may be the one thing I miss about the BB. I have been reading about Handcent but it uses MMS so it won't really cure my issue. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[pwrdvtec1990]

I use to have the IDEN curve and the HTC Touch. The only things I miss from the BB is BBM and the Facebook app (the way it sent notifications to you through the app on everything

 

[vincentp]

I am looking to hear from those who switched from Blackberry to Android. What are your comments, what are the things you miss most or you are completely happy with no regrets.
I saw the e-mail client on Android, it is just like gmail, which is OK, but where does it store e-mails, Blackberry had a problem of not being able to store e-mails on external memory, therefore it took up space on device storage. But I loved its address book and the sync options.

I know everything else is superior to blackberry but the most important thing for me is the e-mail and connectivity/sync.

Otherwise I will wait for the newer WM phone that will be coming out on T-Mobile (HD2 I think) as I know WM has a very good e-mail client.

Thanks in advance!

I switched from a BB, but I was never a heavy e-mail user. I did a lot of texting, which works just fine on my Droid. Honestly, all texting is about the same these days, there's not much to improve. For heavy/corporate e-mail/messaging users, I'd say the BB still has the edge, but for everything else under the sun, Android is superior, IMO. Still, if you need a good e-mail client, there are several great third party apps that will probably fill your needs.

There were a lot of little things that I missed from my Blackberry, but after a few weeks of use, I found I could achieve much of the same with Android in different (many times easier) ways. I'm very happy with the switch and I would personally never go back.

 

[AndroidConservative]

I have used the BlackBerry Curve, Pearl, storm, most recently the Tour, and older models and now I use a MyTouch 3G (but plan to get the Nexus One if it is ever released). I was comfortable in my BlackBerry world for years. It handled all my needs gracefully, especially since I spend more time reading email, texting, reading blogs, and doing a lot of other things besides playing games and what not. I am really happy with my MyTouch, even though I do not think it the best of the android-equipped devices, but I still love it. It still handles all my needs, and being able to have multiple screens to place widgets for the blogs I read and the email I check is a vital park of my world. I am also a Handcent convert, as I was opposed to the app beforehand, but now I love it. All in all, I have no desire to return to BlackBerry, and I see Android simply making more and more improvements which is going to keep me around. I think Android is telling BlackBerry that it is time to step it up.

 

[brykins]

I am looking to hear from those who switched from Blackberry to Android. What are your comments, what are the things you miss most or you are completely happy with no regrets.

Currently have a Curve 8900 for my personal phone and a Magic for my work phone. Upgrade on personal phone coming in Feb and not yet decided on another Blackberry, an Android (probably Hero) or maybe even an iPhone.

What I love about the BB:

(a) The keyboard. Give me an Android phone in the body of the Palm Pre and I would be happy - best of both worlds. I don't want something with a great big sideways sliding keyboard, yet I do struggle with on screen keyboards and get frustrated at losing half my screen estate while typing.

(b) The instant email. Android (1.6 on the Magic) simply doesn't seem to be consistant with when it checks for email. I could live with a ten minute check (close enough to instant to be okay) but so very, very often, I have no new email notification for ages, then go to the mail app (not Gmail - have my own domain, want to use my own email) and check for new email and there are loads downloaded.

(c) Facebook and MSN - neither are really very well supported on the Android.

(d) Desktop sync. I'm not at all sure about Cloud sync.

What I don't miss about the BB:

(a) applications - BB app development (especially for the keyboard phones) seems to be just about non-existant. No good games at all, very little of anything else.

(b) a future - my guess is that BB will NOT breask into the consumer market in the way that Rim would want it to, or in a way that would encourage developers. I think consumer market is going to be between iPhone and Android (at least in regards to smartphones) and that's the main reason I am considering the move away from BB.

 

[stevro63]

Switched from Curve to MyTouch. Love it. Connects to exchange server and pop server for email. Also Gmail. it is different than the BB's but I fell in love with the touch screen in about 1 day and won't go back. The only thing I really miss is the wifi hotspot calling on the BB. Wifi is only for data on the droid.

 

[bbdec1]

I just switched from the Storm 1 and before that, I had a 8830 World Phone. I wore the 8830 out and actually went through two of them. The Storm was a massive improvement after I hacked the updates to a hybrid version.
As with anything new, there are things I miss from the old BB's but for the most part, the Droid is far superior. As I add apps that fit my need, it will improve. The good thing about open source is that there is so much to choose from to customize. That being said, what I miss:

Outlook sync for the NON-enterprise user. I loved being able to hook to the pc and sync my BB's contacts and calendar. I can handle the email with Droids push ability. But there does not seem to be any way--yet--to sync my contacts and calendar with Outlook without a lot of hoops importing it into Gmail. I miss my one click sync.

What I like is everything else. Sure, there are a few things I would like to be different but that will take time to find the app or adjust my tastes. One question, on pop mail why does the push keep sending emails I have already deleted from the inbox? I have it set to delete when I delete from inbox and still I keep getting the same emails over and over.

 

[mialucky]

can someone tell me if I get the droid if its possible for me to merge outlook to it? or i cant?

 

[njbianco]

i have both a blackberry(9630) and android(sprint moment) i still have certain things i prefer on my blackberry and certain things i prefer on my android. I prefer android for internet,games,movies, and all fun stuff like that but i prefer my blackberry for more of a phone as in talking and messaging(email & text). I love my android but i also love my blackberry i couldn't get rid of either of them