First, let me say that, I love this phone for it's web browsing, screen size and resolution, speaker system, navigation interface, reliability, and just all the polished technology available on it, but I am acutely frustrated in the process of getting acclimated after leaving Blackberry.
The plethora of apps available makes me nuts, especially since I'm just trying to find apps for basic functioning like email, messaging, easy contact management, -one- place to manage notifications, applications management that doesn't involve scrolling through every app to find the one I'm looking for, etc. When I select no vibration in settings, my phone vibrates anyway and in duplicate so, I have to go through each applicable app to find the two that are causing the double vibration notifications. That just isn't workable.
I love that there are a gazillion apps to choose from. I just don't enjoy trying to find the kind of simple apps I'm looking for amongst the hundreds of thousands of apps that don't do what I need them to do. Simple stuff. I download them, try them, realize their shortcomings and then delete them before moving on to the next. I mostly need productivity apps and so far, I'm not that impressed with what's out there. I'm hoping I just haven't found the combination of apps I need. There doesn't seem to be one email app that allows for "delete all" or, that shows a popup screen at the bottom with options to compose, refresh, etc., all the things that show up when you hit the apps/options button on the bottom of the phone. In addition, I don't understand the point of an email app that doesn't provide for the ability to copy/cut/paste?! Good grief. Isn't that a basic function of an email app? I thought it should be, anyway. I've spent way too much time exploring apps that don't do what I need them to do. I assumed the native apps would provide for this kind of basic functioning. Well, you know what they say about assuming.
I wanted to organize apps in folders on one of my screens, but the folders are not customizable with the native app so, they're all gray and I can barely see the name. That doesn't work for me and I can't find an app to deal with it and don't have another 20 hours to look for one.
The keyboard is probably the biggest sore spot for me. Coming from Blackberry with their amazing physical keyboard makes using the touch keyboard very, very, very, difficult. I don't have fat fingers but, if I even attempt to type as quickly as I did on my Blackberry, almost every word is misspelled. Having to stop to check the suggested words list kind of defeats the purpose of quick typing for me. I also hit the touch buttons on the bottom of the phone all the time when I'm in the middle of typing something. This phone doesn't give you much to hold onto, outside of the sides of the phone. So I hit the buttons all the time and that takes me back to the home screen, options or whatever, so I have to stop and go find my email draft over and over and over. Honestly, making those menu buttons into touchscreen buttons seems to me to be a bad idea. Back to the keyboard...If I make the keyboard larger, it doesn't matter because the keys are always too skinny in portrait. But, if I make it larger anyway, it covers up the typing field in portrait, so that doesn't work. The keyboard should resize in order to accommodate a text input field. In landscape, it covers up the input field, as well. Not being able to see what I'm typing doesn't work, so I move the screen a hair at the top so I can see at least one line of the text I'm typing. To avoid that, I made the keyboard smaller, so now I'm back to typos, though it is better in landscape. Every time I have to answer an email, I cringe at the idea. I tried voice input. That doesn't work. It's too slow. Just hate typing on this phone.
What I've noticed about the Atrix or perhaps any Android based phone, is that it takes multiple steps to accomplish what you can accomplish in one click on a Blackberry. I know I'm not used to the phone yet, so I'm still hanging in there, trying to give it the chance it deserves. It's a gorgeous and powerful phone for anyone who wants to watch movies, socially network, browse the web for fun, listen to music, or sms all day with their friends. Unfortunately for me, I don't do most of that. I email, compose docs, manage contacts, and listen to music off and on but, social networking -is- important for my business and Atrix beats Blackberry hands down on that one. I will never go back to Blackberry because their products are flawed, faulty and completely unreliable, so I'm thinking I may end up with another Android phone, but one that's bigger so I can at least type without frustration.
Thank you for listening. I don't mean to rant about my perceived shortcomings of the Atrix. I'm really just looking for suggestions to solve my issues with the phone because I'd love to keep it. It's pretty
The plethora of apps available makes me nuts, especially since I'm just trying to find apps for basic functioning like email, messaging, easy contact management, -one- place to manage notifications, applications management that doesn't involve scrolling through every app to find the one I'm looking for, etc. When I select no vibration in settings, my phone vibrates anyway and in duplicate so, I have to go through each applicable app to find the two that are causing the double vibration notifications. That just isn't workable.
I love that there are a gazillion apps to choose from. I just don't enjoy trying to find the kind of simple apps I'm looking for amongst the hundreds of thousands of apps that don't do what I need them to do. Simple stuff. I download them, try them, realize their shortcomings and then delete them before moving on to the next. I mostly need productivity apps and so far, I'm not that impressed with what's out there. I'm hoping I just haven't found the combination of apps I need. There doesn't seem to be one email app that allows for "delete all" or, that shows a popup screen at the bottom with options to compose, refresh, etc., all the things that show up when you hit the apps/options button on the bottom of the phone. In addition, I don't understand the point of an email app that doesn't provide for the ability to copy/cut/paste?! Good grief. Isn't that a basic function of an email app? I thought it should be, anyway. I've spent way too much time exploring apps that don't do what I need them to do. I assumed the native apps would provide for this kind of basic functioning. Well, you know what they say about assuming.
I wanted to organize apps in folders on one of my screens, but the folders are not customizable with the native app so, they're all gray and I can barely see the name. That doesn't work for me and I can't find an app to deal with it and don't have another 20 hours to look for one.
The keyboard is probably the biggest sore spot for me. Coming from Blackberry with their amazing physical keyboard makes using the touch keyboard very, very, very, difficult. I don't have fat fingers but, if I even attempt to type as quickly as I did on my Blackberry, almost every word is misspelled. Having to stop to check the suggested words list kind of defeats the purpose of quick typing for me. I also hit the touch buttons on the bottom of the phone all the time when I'm in the middle of typing something. This phone doesn't give you much to hold onto, outside of the sides of the phone. So I hit the buttons all the time and that takes me back to the home screen, options or whatever, so I have to stop and go find my email draft over and over and over. Honestly, making those menu buttons into touchscreen buttons seems to me to be a bad idea. Back to the keyboard...If I make the keyboard larger, it doesn't matter because the keys are always too skinny in portrait. But, if I make it larger anyway, it covers up the typing field in portrait, so that doesn't work. The keyboard should resize in order to accommodate a text input field. In landscape, it covers up the input field, as well. Not being able to see what I'm typing doesn't work, so I move the screen a hair at the top so I can see at least one line of the text I'm typing. To avoid that, I made the keyboard smaller, so now I'm back to typos, though it is better in landscape. Every time I have to answer an email, I cringe at the idea. I tried voice input. That doesn't work. It's too slow. Just hate typing on this phone.
What I've noticed about the Atrix or perhaps any Android based phone, is that it takes multiple steps to accomplish what you can accomplish in one click on a Blackberry. I know I'm not used to the phone yet, so I'm still hanging in there, trying to give it the chance it deserves. It's a gorgeous and powerful phone for anyone who wants to watch movies, socially network, browse the web for fun, listen to music, or sms all day with their friends. Unfortunately for me, I don't do most of that. I email, compose docs, manage contacts, and listen to music off and on but, social networking -is- important for my business and Atrix beats Blackberry hands down on that one. I will never go back to Blackberry because their products are flawed, faulty and completely unreliable, so I'm thinking I may end up with another Android phone, but one that's bigger so I can at least type without frustration.
Thank you for listening. I don't mean to rant about my perceived shortcomings of the Atrix. I'm really just looking for suggestions to solve my issues with the phone because I'd love to keep it. It's pretty
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