Blackberry vs Android

[iskortch]

I had a BB 9000 for a couple years. I upgraded to Samsung Galaxy S. The most challenging was adjusting to the virtual keyboard and quick battery drain. When the BB Torch came out, I exchanged. After having the Torch after Android I'm torn whether I should go back to the Galaxy S.

Here are MY cons on Android:
> virtual keyboard (I text and email a lot for work)
> quick battery drain

Here are MY cons for BB Torch OS 6:
> lag in touch-screen responsiveness
> new browser is still sad in comparison to Android
> minimal apps
> smaller screen
> lower screen resolution

It mainly comes down to the keyboard & battery life. Hands down, I can type and reply to emails and texts faster with BB. I can get 2 days out of the BB before a charge compared to 1 day with Galaxy S.

If the phone was for "fun" only, it would be Android. But since work is a big part, BB is still in the game.

Who can help me decide to keep the BB or exchange back to Galaxy S?

 

[Mostly Harmless]

Asking this on an Android forum and you can pretty much guess most of the responses. The specs of the Torch would have made a great phone 2 years ago, today it is already out of date. If I was a Blackberry user I would have been insulted that they released the Torch now. I have never owned a BB and I am sure there are plenty of people on this forum who have and hopefully will chime in. I would also post this same question on a forum like crackberry.com and see what they say. To say something about your two cons with the galaxy:

Keyboard-BB has always had the best keyboards, no questions about that. The virtual keyboard takes time to get use too.

Battery Life: Your Galaxy won't last two days, but you do have the option of changing the battery (just like the BB). I use to care about battery life and try everything to make my phone last long but then I realized I wasn't having as much fun with it as I should be. Now I don't care and plug it in at any chance possible and it this method works great for me.

Good luck, I hope you choose Android, I know a bunch of BB to android converts and all of them never looked back.

 

[gruss]

If work and email are a part of it, I'd still say BB. My android phone is personal phone and fun like you said, still carry storm for work and don't think android is quite there yet to do it all. Touch screen is aquired taste, I prefer them personally but Im not everyone.

 

[mesasone]

Can you get your employer to cover the expense of adding a second line? Personally, if I had to keep a Blackberry for work (or just generally have a phone for work), I'd prefer to keep it seperate from my personal phone. But that' just me.

That said, I'm also coming from a Bold 9000 and now own a Captivate. I haven't used the Torch, but I also thought the specs on that phone were really underwhelming - at least for a flagship product. I suspect that you may be a heavier user than I was, but I got nearly a week (4-5 days) out of my Bold - to hear that the Torch is only lasting 2 days is a bit disappointing as well.

I like my Captivate quite a lot, however if you need something with the functionality of a Blackberry for work, I'm not sure that Android is there yet.

 

[IOWA]

Umm, there are android handsets that blow BB keyboards out of the water.

 

[SocaLand]

I have the original BB Storm. I HATE it. The only value to me is it is a world phone. But the OS is an abomination. As some one posted on the Crackberry forum. BB OS 6 is like "here's our hottest new OS, welcome to 2007".

 

[substring]

I had a BB 9000 for a couple years. I upgraded to Samsung Galaxy S. The most challenging was adjusting to the virtual keyboard and quick battery drain. When the BB Torch came out, I exchanged. After having the Torch after Android I'm torn whether I should go back to the Galaxy S.

Here are MY cons on Android:
> virtual keyboard (I text and email a lot for work)
> quick battery drain

Here are MY cons for BB Torch OS 6:
> lag in touch-screen responsiveness
> new browser is still sad in comparison to Android
> minimal apps
> smaller screen
> lower screen resolution

It mainly comes down to the keyboard & battery life. Hands down, I can type and reply to emails and texts faster with BB. I can get 2 days out of the BB before a charge compared to 1 day with Galaxy S.

If the phone was for "fun" only, it would be Android. But since work is a big part, BB is still in the game.

Who can help me decide to keep the BB or exchange back to Galaxy S?

I have the BlackBerry Storm and I can tell you that hardware keyboard is NOT necessary. I know it is very difficult for the traditional BB users to adapt to on-screen keyboard, and that probably was the reason why they hated the Storm. I never have any performance problem or keyboard problem. And I use it for all my emails, Facebook and Twitter postings. In this day and age, software keyboard is so easy to use. There is really no reason whatsoever to insist a hardware keyboard.

In my humble opinion, that is the major mistake RIM has committed.... continue to cater the traditional BB users who cannot live without the physical keyboard and the trackball, and continue to ignore the market change. But sooner or later, these users will abandon RIM. So when the music stops, RIM will be left with no chair to sit.

Take our company for example, we have been issuing the BlackBerry to the employees for many years. Now, we have switched from BlackBerry to the iPhone since the 3GS can access Exchange emails. And nobody, I mean NOBODY, in our company has complained about the lack of physical keyboard on the company-issued iPhones. And by the way, we have 20,000 employees. Of course, not everyone gets a company phone, but the numbers are still in the thousands. And yet, there is no complaint about the on-screen keyboard. So the people who think a full touch screen phone cannot be a work phone is seriously wrong.

The future does not look very good to RIM. I predict that RIM will become another Palm....a great company that started a trend, but slow to respond to market change. And you all know what's happened to Palm at the end.

 

[PhoenixFx]

If you are so keen on having a hardware keyboard then there are few Android phones you might want to check out. But I think once you get used to the onscreen touch keyboard, you

 

[MrX8503]

Throw away your BB curve and get a Droid 2 or Samsung Epic 4G.

 

[BORIStheBLADE]

Your right about the batteries, but these phones can be used for a lot more which will aid in the short battery life. My old BB curve laster two days, but all I did was make calls and text. No internet at all.

I love BB, but they needed to evolve/change a long time ago. The Storm should have been put out right when the first Iphone came out. From what I have seen the Storm came out Nov 08 and the Iphone came out june 07. Thats about a year and a half later... It seems like BB has been dragging their feet in changing.


I have gone from a BB curve to a Palm pre and have a HTc incredible now. The touch screen isnt that big of a deal to me.

 

[MrX8503]

I understand the battery concerns, but I think its worth the extra horsepower on an Android phone.

Its the same thing with cars, people who drive Vettes accept that it gets worse MPG than a smart car.