Should I dump my BlackBerry 9650 for the Shift??

[tes5884]

Hi guys!
I'm seriously considering doind the deed, however I'm worried about the keyboard - as I really use it a lot.

Has anyone switched from BB to Shift? And how'd you find the keyboard?

Thanks guys

 

[lancer1991#AC]

Hi guys!
I'm seriously considering doind the deed, however I'm worried about the keyboard - as I really use it a lot.

Has anyone switched from BB to Shift? And how'd you find the keyboard?

Thanks guys

I switched from a BB. I thought I would use the keyboard a lot and I've found that I like the on screen keyboard just as well. Just put Swype on it yesterday and actually find it more forgiving than the stock keyboard if you are just picking the letters rather than doing a Swype texting.

 

[crump84]

Hi guys!
I'm seriously considering doind the deed, however I'm worried about the keyboard - as I really use it a lot.

Has anyone switched from BB to Shift? And how'd you find the keyboard?

Thanks guys

I have been a long time blackberry user and the keyboard was a big concern for me also. I've had my shift for about 2 weeks and I love it. I really thought I would be using the physicalkeyboard a lot more but the on screen one is great! It took me all of one day to get used to it., the physical one is great too. The shift has made me a believer in AndroId, I do still have my 8350 for work but I rarely use it.

 

[Kathy145]

I just switched from the Bold 9650 to the Shift on the 11th. I LOVE it! I am a big keyboard person as well. I have always had a physical keyboard. I too was very concerned, as I have tested out touch keyboards in the store before. It once took over 5 minutes to send a text. I DON'T have that problem with my shift. As indicated in the other posts, I too have fallen in love with the touch keyboard. I LOVE it (The landscape one more than the compact portrait). I find myself using it more than the actual keyboard.

The only thing I really miss now is the ability to word substitute. I had tons saved in my 9650. I used u=you, pic=pictures, etc. I have been looking for an app and haven't found I like yet.

I am VERY glad I made the jump. Best of luck with your decision!

 

[Fdb8231#AC]

Hi guys!
I'm seriously considering doind the deed, however I'm worried about the keyboard - as I really use it a lot.

Has anyone switched from BB to Shift? And how'd you find the keyboard?

Thanks guys

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

I was a bb user for years! They were great to me......untill I bought my wife an evo for christmas. All I will say is my bb is collecting dust now! I went and got an evo for myself. I personally suggest you go for the big boy (evo) not shift. With swype there is no need for a keyboard! I will never go back to bb untill they catch up majorly! The evo is the best device I've owned to date!

 

[boobie1292]

Coming from someone who owned the evo from the day it came out and now the shift I suggest the shift..its much faster then the evo to me and honestlyits just an amazing phone ill forget all about your bb

 

[akhi216]

Coming from someone who owned the evo from the day it came out and now the shift I suggest the shift..its much faster then the evo to me and honestlyits just an amazing phone ill forget all about your bb

^
|
I have the Shift now. I switched from BB. There are so many things that you can do on Android that you can't do on BB.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk

 

[mtbykr]

I'm a long time BB user, and I am considering the shift. I actually have held off to wait and see what BB may have coming down the pipe....however it looks as if it's only going to be a touch screen bold and new curve so I'm close to pulling the trigger on the shift. I am in sales and drive 40k a year, so most of my emails are done on my phone. How is the shift in this regard? The ability to navigate fast through missed calls, emails, ect... is important.

 

[jscher2000]

The ability to navigate fast through missed calls, emails, ect... is important.

Notifications collect on a pull-down list, or you can have them appear full screen when you unlock the device.

As for speed of switching around, I think you need to try it and see what you think. If you know someone with the Shift or another recent HTC phone, you could experiment.

To me the biggest adjustment (coming from a Treo) is having to switch between portrait for quickly seeing what's going on to landscape to use the real keyboard. Well, that and the change in touchscreen technology...

 

[mtbykr]

Notifications collect on a pull-down list, or you can have them appear full screen when you unlock the device.

As for speed of switching around, I think you need to try it and see what you think. If you know someone with the Shift or another recent HTC phone, you could experiment.

To me the biggest adjustment (coming from a Treo) is having to switch between portrait for quickly seeing what's going on to landscape to use the real keyboard. Well, that and the change in touchscreen technology...

I don't know anyone that does, and all the places around here just have the dummy models. I did find a Sprint Store that had one that I tried out for 2 minutes, but it's tough when it's new and there are no messages ect.... on it

 

[choke818]

this isn't even a question. the Evo Shift blows the BB out of the water

Touch Screen, Fast, Full internet, Flash Capable, Keyboard, Virtual Keyboard, HTC has a great UI, and doesn't have a long load time like BB bold.

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!

*RIDING MY SHIFT*

 

[tes5884]

WELL....
I got te shift and LOVING it...
rooted within 12 hours LOL

 

[mtbykr]

WELL....
I got te shift and LOVING it...
rooted within 12 hours LOL

any info on your switch is greatly appreciated.....curious as to how it feels coming from a Bold

 

[ekz13]

very good choice to go to, I bought the shift figuring I needed the keyboard, I honestly used it once maybe twice. If you give yourself enough time, the touch kb (I use swype) become second nature just like the bb was

 

[richardah]

I am in sales and drive 40k a year, so most of my emails are done on my phone. How is the shift in this regard? The ability to navigate fast through missed calls, emails, ect... is important.

I was in the same situation. I own my business and I answer 99% of my emails on the phone. I was trying to decide between the Bold 9650 and the Evo/Evo Shift. A few things that helped me make up my mind were that if you read what everybody says makes Android "better" than the Blackberry they had, they mention things like Flash, Facebook apps, and other stuff that would fit more into the "toy" category than the serious business category. Also, if you have your email setup with your company domain name, you'll be missing out on some features unless you try to find another email app. Forwarding your email to a gmail account won't look very professional so that wasn't an option. If you have to receive meeting invitations, you might want to make sure you will be able to handle it on the Shift. I couldn't find a definite answer but it seems like it can't. I get my emails on my phone within seconds after it reaches my inbox. I also heard that email apps like K-9 can be setup to "push" your email but think about it. How can the device that is receiving the email "push" anything? It has to have some kind of constant connection to the server in order to see the emails. Blackberries don't. Don't get me wrong. I do like Android phones. That's why I'm still here. I have until the end of the month before my 30 days are up and I would REALLY like to get an Evo Shift but I'm just afraid I won't be able to run my business with it. I look at a lot of the apps and they look kind of well, toyish, amateurish, hokey...I don't know how to explain it. Just not something that would run on a serious business phone. If you're into Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Music, youtube videos, etc., then yes, an Android phone or even an iPhone will blow away a Blackberry and no one can deny that. But not of those things are serious business tasks.

Since you're in sales, you're basically in business for yourself (I assume you work on commission). So, you have to make a decision what is more important to you. No one can beat an Android/iPhone on social media, multimedia, etc. because that's what they were made for. No one can beat a Blackberry for email and getting business tasks done because that's what they were made for. I don't know if you know this, but if you disable dialing from the home screen on a Blackberry, you will enable shortcut keys. So, from the home screen, if you want to get to your calendar, you just hit "L". If you want to see the Monthly view, you hit "M". If you wnat to see your tasks, you hit "T". For Notes, hit "D". Want to send a text or email, hit "C" for compose, select your contact and type away. What can be faster than that. There are many shortcuts on Blackberries that make things just a few clicks away and you can get stuff done fast.

I still want an Android phone so I totally understand. You just have to prioritize your needs. Having something that's "cool" won't make you money and may even cost you money. If you ALREADY use several Google services, then an Android may be best for you. Just prioritize and then research and see which phone is better at the things you NEED. The best solution of course would be to have a Blackberry for business and an Android for personal. But that's tough on the wallet.

I hope that helps.

Richard

 

[mtbykr]

I was in the same situation. I own my business and I answer 99% of my emails on the phone. I was trying to decide between the Bold 9650 and the Evo/Evo Shift. A few things that helped me make up my mind were that if you read what everybody says makes Android "better" than the Blackberry they had, they mention things like Flash, Facebook apps, and other stuff that would fit more into the "toy" category than the serious business category. Also, if you have your email setup with your company domain name, you'll be missing out on some features unless you try to find another email app. Forwarding your email to a gmail account won't look very professional so that wasn't an option. If you have to receive meeting invitations, you might want to make sure you will be able to handle it on the Shift. I couldn't find a definite answer but it seems like it can't. I get my emails on my phone within seconds after it reaches my inbox. I also heard that email apps like K-9 can be setup to "push" your email but think about it. How can the device that is receiving the email "push" anything? It has to have some kind of constant connection to the server in order to see the emails. Blackberries don't. Don't get me wrong. I do like Android phones. That's why I'm still here. I have until the end of the month before my 30 days are up and I would REALLY like to get an Evo Shift but I'm just afraid I won't be able to run my business with it. I look at a lot of the apps and they look kind of well, toyish, amateurish, hokey...I don't know how to explain it. Just not something that would run on a serious business phone. If you're into Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Music, youtube videos, etc., then yes, an Android phone or even an iPhone will blow away a Blackberry and no one can deny that. But not of those things are serious business tasks.

Since you're in sales, you're basically in business for yourself (I assume you work on commission). So, you have to make a decision what is more important to you. No one can beat an Android/iPhone on social media, multimedia, etc. because that's what they were made for. No one can beat a Blackberry for email and getting business tasks done because that's what they were made for. I don't know if you know this, but if you disable dialing from the home screen on a Blackberry, you will enable shortcut keys. So, from the home screen, if you want to get to your calendar, you just hit "L". If you want to see the Monthly view, you hit "M". If you wnat to see your tasks, you hit "T". For Notes, hit "D". Want to send a text or email, hit "C" for compose, select your contact and type away. What can be faster than that. There are many shortcuts on Blackberries that make things just a few clicks away and you can get stuff done fast.

I still want an Android phone so I totally understand. You just have to prioritize your needs. Having something that's "cool" won't make you money and may even cost you money. If you ALREADY use several Google services, then an Android may be best for you. Just prioritize and then research and see which phone is better at the things you NEED. The best solution of course would be to have a Blackberry for business and an Android for personal. But that's tough on the wallet.

I hope that helps.

Richard

My personal and business email are both Gmail accounts. In addition I need just one phone, two phones would drive me nuts.....decisions, decisions.

 

[richardah]

My personal and business email are both Gmail accounts. In addition I need just one phone, two phones would drive me nuts.....decisions, decisions.

Well, in that case, maybe an Android phone will work out fine for you. One advantage is that you can create emails and text messages with your voice. One thing I don't like and I would miss is that on an Android phone, your memopad notes won't sync. I use that quite a bit. One advantage of the Android is that it syncs with Google services so you don't need Outlook (I don't like outlook). I had a hard time deciding and I'm still trying to decide. I'm pretty sure I'm keeping my Blackberry because my emails are the most important and I know I won't have any problems there.

Another thing I liked about Blackberry was that applications seems to integrate better. If I'm viewing a contact, I can hit the menu key and then view their address in Google Maps, blackberry maps or Sprint Navigation without having to retype anything. Most applications integrate well with each other. Also, I didn't like the idea that you had to find a different calendar or email app just to find something that works better because now you have different applications that may or may not share data. I wasn't able to find an answer to this.

Well, considering you use GMail for your email, it makes your choices a little less complicated. You just have to see if the other apps work for you or if you would be comfortable having to go find other apps that fix what shouldn't have to be fixed. On the plus side, Pimlico (Pimlico Software home page) makes what seems to be a really nice datebook app. I had something similar on my old Palm. I'd probably get that if I had an Android phone but only if it integrated well with the default calendar otherwise I'd worry about future apps not being able to share data.

Just keep in mind that you have 30 days to change your mind. So, it may come down to trial and error.

Richard

 

[aristarchus]

If you think that using gmail looks unprofessional, you can certainly use Google Apps to create a domain for yourself. Still works rather well with android. The cost is pretty low compared to paying for any other professional email service.

 

[richardah]

If you think that using gmail looks unprofessional, you can certainly use Google Apps to create a domain for yourself. Still works rather well with android. The cost is pretty low compared to paying for any other professional email service.

Well, the only reason it would look unprofessional is that your email is you@gmail.com instead of you@yourcompany.com. Would Google Apps work with the GMail app on an Android or will you need to use the email app? If you need to use the email app, then you don't get any benefit from moving your email from an existing domain. Anyway, having to move your email from a current domain is kind of going overboard just for a phone. Good idea though if you don't already have a company email address.

 

[jscher2000]

Also, if you have your email setup with your company domain name, you'll be missing out on some features unless you try to find another email app. Forwarding your email to a gmail account won't look very professional so that wasn't an option. If you have to receive meeting invitations, you might want to make sure you will be able to handle it on the Shift. I couldn't find a definite answer but it seems like it can't. I get my emails on my phone within seconds after it reaches my inbox. I also heard that email apps like K-9 can be setup to "push" your email but think about it. How can the device that is receiving the email "push" anything? It has to have some kind of constant connection to the server in order to see the emails. Blackberries don't.

What kind of email server do you have? If it is Exchange, try TouchDown for Exchange (fully functional 30 day trial, then $20). I tested it against Motorola's Corporate Sync and against K-9 on a Droid X, K-9 was missing a few too many little features (this was in December).

Also, Exchange ActiveSync "push" email works by opening a connection to the server and listening for incoming traffic over an extended period of time, rather than polling the server at set intervals. I suspect Blackberry works that way as well. When I tested K-9, it did not have push for Exchange.

At the moment I'm still using HTC's email client. The things that annoy me the most are: cumbersome to change folders (e.g., to Draft and back to Inbox); absurd to have a huge long flat list of folders (rather than a hierarchy) when I want to move a message; and unable to read embedded Outlook messages (forwarded as an EML attachment).