Guidance prior to HTC One trigger pull...

[litig8or98]

I?m hoping that the forum members here can offer some guidance. My office, like many, has gone to BYOD, whereas we all previously had to carry Blackberries. I quite liked my Blackberry, despite its limitations, but it?s due to be replaced. About half of my office (of those that have upgraded) have gone with the new Blackberries, the other half going the iPhone route. Nobody has chosen Android. I?m thinking I might be the first.
Interestingly, it?s the forum members at Crackberry that have pushed me towards a different platform. They?re so defensive of Blackberry, without actually providing any good arguments to stick with Blackberry. At the end of the day, most are apologists, with no ability to appreciate their own hypocrisy (Android are toys, but then they complain when Netflix [arguably a ?toy app?] snubs them). Sort of a ?doth protest too much? sort of scenario that doesn?t leave me with warm and fuzzy feelings. Ironic that they are so defensive, but are the best reason to leave Blackberry.
I was leaning towards the Galaxy S4, as at the time, it was due for release. All the Rogers (my provider?not by choice) kiosks were pushing the HTC One, however, so I took another look, and read the reviews. Now that?s where I?m leaning. But before I pull the trigger, I have a few questions that I?m hoping could be answered here.
First, how well is email handled? I understand our office has moved from a BES to Active Sync, and I?m wondering what to expect in terms of how the UI is, and how seamless email syncing should be. My IT guy has an LG Optimus, and said that he had email syncing delays of an hour until he tweaked something, knocking the delay down to 15 minutes. But he thinks that might be device specific. My Blackberry provides notifications within seconds of my desktop.
Also, (and this is carrier specific, I guess), should I be concerned about the radio on the One versus the GS4 or Z10/Q10? The latter units have LTE at 2600 and 2100 (which, according to the Rogers website matches the Rogers network), whereas the One is at 700/AWS?which isn?t listed on the Rogers page. Is anyone here on Rogers (Canada) who can comment on LTE availability?
Since the phones come in through the IT department, I don?t have the regular luxury of trying it out for 30 days before making up my mind (I might be able to do this, but hate the thought of making my IT guy set up more than one phone for me). Any assistance, including any warnings or other considerations, is appreciated.

 

[davidtm]

I can't speak to the radios question. As for the email, you can get instantaneous push of email through Exchange. Do realize that there is the native email app, which is different from the available Gmail app. Coming from webOS, I find having separate (and different) email apps inelegant, but so be it.

 

[TimmyB]

David is correct; email is no problem, and I use the stock HTC email app, not the gmail app. It pulls together my Yahoo, GMail, and Exchange quite nicely, and does (indeed) push my Exchange mail instantly, or close enough! Have had absolutely no issues with that. (We use Office365 as our server, instead of Outlook, but I don't believe that should make any difference.) David is also wise, as he also came over from webOS, to the "dark side"!

Good luck with your decision.

 

[litig8or98]

Thanks for the responses. I should have noted that my work email...the important one to receive on my device (and the one that my IT guy would be setting up for me), would be through Outlook. I also have gmail, yahoo and an imap email account which I'd like to receive over the One, but timing on those is less important. At present, I receive those extra emails all through the unified inbox of my Playbook, though that's imperfect, as the Playbook doesn't play well with my imap (Telus) account. I have to input my password several times a week. When I was travelling in Hawaii recently, it was several times a day. It's remarkable that I didn't end up "testing the Playbook's durability", if you know what I mean.

 

[TimmyB]

Thanks for the responses. I should have noted that my work email...the important one to receive on my device (and the one that my IT guy would be setting up for me), would be through Outlook. I also have gmail, yahoo and an imap email account which I'd like to receive over the One, but timing on those is less important. At present, I receive those extra emails all through the unified inbox of my Playbook, though that's imperfect, as the Playbook doesn't play well with my imap (Telus) account. I have to input my password several times a week. When I was travelling in Hawaii recently, it was several times a day. It's remarkable that I didn't end up "testing the Playbook's durability", if you know what I mean.

If your IT guy is doing it, you can't lose. Make sure you tell your sales rep EXACTLY what your requirements are, so you can hear him say "Yeah, it can do that!" Then, if your IT guy says "No, it can't!", you can take it back with no questions and no "restock fee"!

 

[bigoldthor]

To the OP's CrackBerry point, I was a long time CrackBerry member and contributor. (My screen name was "LuvMyBB".) Posted for years, participated in many hundreds of discussions, helped out a lot, and generally...well, "loved my blackberry"!

I finally switched to Android in 2011, I guess just to try something different. Haven't looked back. Continued to use a BB for work up until about 3 months ago when I changed jobs and was given an iPhone 5. (As for the iPhone...meh. It's okay, and I'm not a hater. It's just boring to me - someone who loves to tinker. But I digress...)

There are apologists in every camp. IMHO, many (if not most) humans need to feel justified in our purchases and affiliations. We instinctively defend our preferences and tend to criticize the incongruous choices of others. BlackBerry users have always been some of the most passionately loyal people in the mobile kingdom, and I think now they are even more passionate because they feel the mobile world is, to some extent, passing them by. (Okay, amateur psychologist mode off.)

They're good people, and I still think highly of BlackBerry as a company and platform. I just much prefer Android now.

 

[litig8or98]

They're good people, and I still think highly of BlackBerry as a company and platform. I just much prefer Android now.

To be clear, I completely agree with this. There are some very good people there. I did not mean to sound as though I were maligning Blackberry or its users. I've simply found the forums less than reassuring, as it's clear that most there would sing the praises of a block of wood if it were Blackberry branded. Those that value open discussions are generally shouted down. But here again, it sounds as though I'm biased against, and that's not my intent.

Frankly, as a Canadian, I truly want Blackberry to succeed. I hope it does.